Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg surprised many this month when he moved to add UFC founder Dana White to the company’s board of directors.
Given that his business experience was limited solely to managing MMA fighters and working as a fight promoter before building UFC into a sports and entertainment giant, White was an unlikely pick.
And as White explained in an appearance this week on the Pardon My Take podcast, it surprised him as well.
So what convinced him? According to White, he was sold on Zuckerberg’s pitch. The famous Facebook founder apparently believes Meta needs some chutzpa and White is the perfect man to bring it.
“He said, ‘You always seem to be on the right side of everything, and my company needs a backbone,'” White said of Zuckerberg.
As a member of the board, White weighs in on business matters facing Meta, the parent company that oversees Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and various artificial intelligence and virtual reality projects. White joined a board that includes venture capitalist Marc Andreessen and many other prominent tech entrepreneurs. White is the only sports or media figure.
From a business standpoint, it’s hard to deny White’s chops. He rescued UFC from its potential end by assembling a group to buy the company, then struck a series of media partnerships that built it into a reality television, live entertainment and sports television giant.
Of course, White has been a vocal supporter of incoming President Donald Trump since his first run in 2016. Recently, Zuckerberg reorganized Meta’s fact-checking team and announced Facebook would no longer deprioritize political content, citing a changing political culture that many received as a nod to Trump’s election victory last November. Zuckerberg will also host a reception following Trump’s inauguration next week.
With such a wide and varied board already, Meta can likely lean on White within his parameters of expertise while others lead the way within AI technology and more complicated issues.
It’s impossible to ignore that Zuckerberg was likely drawn to White as a result of taking up jiu-jitsu training in recent years and embracing MMA culture in Northern California.
Either way, it sounds like White was just as surprised as the rest of us when Zuckerberg pitched him on the idea last year.
About Brendon Kleen
Brendon is a Media Commentary staff writer at Awful Announcing. He has also covered basketball and sports business at Front Office Sports, SB Nation, Uproxx and more.