When Dana White and the Fertitta brothers bought the UFC for $2 million in 2001, they famously walked away with almost nothing but the brand name and an old, wooden Octagon. The original owners were completely broke and had sold off almost everything, leaving the new guys without one massive piece of digital real estate. They didn’t even own the official UFC.com domain name.
Tracking it down was easy, but securing it turned into a costly lesson on how ego can completely ruin a business negotiation. That classic blunder is putting the UFC CEO back in the spotlight this week.
Dana White Recalls His First Major Business Mistake
A resurfaced video clip from “The Pivot Podcast” detailing White’s “first big business mistake” has racked up nearly 2 million views on social media since Saturday, introducing a new wave of fight fans to a legendary phone call that ended up costing the promotion roughly ten times its original asking price.
“This guy owned User Friendly Computers, and this was my first big business mistake,” White said. “So I called him up, and we wanted to buy the .com from him. I don’t remember the number, but he wanted something like $20,000.”
Dana White says he refused to buy the UFC domain from User Friendly Computers for $20,000 and would end up paying nearly $200,000
“This guy owned User Friendly Computers, and this was my first big business mistake. So I called him up, and we wanted to buy the .com from him. I… pic.twitter.com/BYYC4cjsic
— dank (@cptdankkk) July 26, 2026
Instead of countering with a real offer, White, who recently slammed Fox Sports after the 2026 FIFA World Cup Final, lost his temper. He aggressively cursed the owner out over the phone and screamed at him for demanding $20,000 for a website name. The computer shop owner didn’t back down. He insulted White right back and hung up on the UFC boss.
The 56-year-old added, “We battled for years, but the UFC just starts to go [up]. We ended up paying some crazy number, like $150,000 or $200,000, for the thing eventually, when I should have taken it for $20,000 in the beginning.”
The UFC literally ended up paying roughly ten times the original asking price, all because the boss couldn’t control his temper during a simple phone call.
At that moment, the company was still struggling to survive. White eventually built up the regulatory rules, secured TV deals and handled the marketing to turn the brand into a global business.
ALSO READ: Dana White Reflects on One Superfight He Could Never Make Despite Massive Money Offer
By 2016, the Fertittas sold their stake for $4 billion. As the brand grew, the price of the matching domain name went up with it, turning White’s early rejection into a costly, years-long negotiation.
The Bigger Lesson on Digital Real Estate
White is far from the only executive to get caught flat-footed by a web address. History is full of massive tech giants that paid a heavy premium for failing to secure their exact-match domains early on.
For example, Elon Musk spent ten years and $11 million to buy the Tesla.com domain from a Silicon Valley engineer. Before making that purchase, the company had to use the clunkier Teslamotors.com address.
Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg had to shell out $200,000 to buy Facebook.com from an early user after launching the platform on TheFacebook.com.
Nissan Motor spent decades and millions of dollars in legal fees trying to sue a computer shop owner named Uzi Nissan for the rights to Nissan.com, a legal battle the car manufacturer ultimately lost.
The best part? White’s phone call did not slow the UFC down. The promotion is worth billions today, making his early mistake a sports business history rather than a dark mark on his legacy.
