Dana White may be presented to the world as the best combat sports promoter in the business, but according to his own testimony in the latest UFC anti-trust lawsuit, he doesn’t really deal with a lot of that business any more.
White was called to testify in a Nevada court on Wednesday (Feb. 4th, 2026) over large swathes of missing text messages and other communications from his various phones. UFC executives have been required by law to maintain all their records for discovery, but plaintiffs for Johnson
v. Zuffa (dba UFC) and Cirkunovs v. Zuffa (dba UFC) alleged the UFC CEO and his Vice President of Athlete Compliance and Regulatory Tracy Long did not.
White testified for two and half hours, presenting himself as a simple man who would still be using a flip phone if the courts hadn’t forced him to start using smart phones. He doesn’t set up his own phones, he didn’t know why his Instagram messages were set to auto-delete, and he claimed one of the phones at the center of this spoliation hearing was probably stolen by a relative of Ari Emanuel they’d hired as a ‘runner.’
That relative also stole employee Christmas presents, a little league championship ring, and other items from around the office. “It’s the only thing that makes sense,” White said.
As for lawyer Tracy Long, she claimed she had tried to gather the missing text messages from Verizon, but was left on hold for over three hours. Lawyers for the plaintiffs spent all day trying to pin down various facts about who was doing what business on which device and which apps. The most interesting revelation: Dana White claiming under oath that he’s not involved with fighter negotiations any more.
It’s been clear to anyone paying attention that Dana White had taken a step back from the day-to-day headaches of running the UFC after it was purchased by Ari Emanuel in 2016. How big of a step back became clear during his testimony.
“You won’t find one manager on this planet who will tell you I’ve negotiated a deal in I don’t know how long,” White declared.
Those duties, he said, were handed over to Chief Business Officer Hunter Campbell and UFC matchmakers Mick Maynard and Sean Shelby.
According to White, when the $4.4 billion IMG-Endeavor purchase of UFC went through, he turned to Campbell and said, “Congrats, you get to do this.”
“I did this for over twenty years and I don’t want to do it any more,” White said of fighter negotiations. “Very shortly after ’17, I stopped.”
As for matchmaking?
“Since Hunter Campbell came in I don’t really do that anymore,” White said.
Of course, it’s worth noting the context of these claims: Dana White is testifying in a multi-billion dollar anti-trust case where he’s being accused of intentionally destroying evidence that would potentially prove he and his business partners colluded to artificially depress fighter wages.
During every other public appearance and interview he’s introduced as the most powerful man in mixed martial arts. Here in court he portrays himself as a Luddite pining for the simpler days of his old flip phone, a man who hasn’t gotten involved in any fighter negotiations for nearly a decade. It seems silly in that context for lawyers to get upset about his missing messages because he doesn’t discuss that kind of stuff any more!
While White may not be as hands on as he was in the past, there’s simply no way he and Long, who is the woman responsible for all the fighter contracts, weren’t sending important messages regarding key business elements involving fighters. Lawyers for the plaintiff managed to present several examples where Long was clearly in contact with fighters with no corresponding communication turned over.
While White and Long’s testimonies have wrapped, the spoliation hearing continues today (Feb. 5th 2026) as Judge Boulware — the same judge that presided over the previous $375 million anti-trust settlement won by fighters — continues to determine whether UFC is intentionally hiding evidence from the discovery process.
