Dana White’s Hearing Issues Come From Getting Jumped When He Was 21
Ever notice that Dana White at press conferences has issues hearing questions? It’s more at the post-event presser’s than the pre-event ones. He even says how sometimes he has a problem hearing out of one ear when he does not hear a question. Well, there’s a reason and a story behind that.
White told the story during his recent interview on The Jim Rome Podcast where he had also revealed that he tested positive for COVID-19. A lot was made of that news and how he was handling it, but Rome also asked him about the time he was savagely attacked when he was 21-years-old.
“I wasn’t savagely attacked,” White said laughing. “What happened was, there was an altercation because one of the guys outside the bar, hit my sister. So I went up to this guy everybody that was outside was with him. So, I ended up getting jumped by all these guys. I ended up later on in life getting Meniere’s disease, which is damage to the inner-ear and it is 100% from that night.”
In 2012 White had surgery to relieve some of the symptoms from the disease and in 2013 at the recommendation of Alex Rodriguez of the New York Yankees had a procedure called Orthokine done to help him live with his inner ear issues.
As for the attack, Dana White said it lasted about 20-minutes and when Rome asked if he could have died from it, White answered, “Yeah. Yeah, I could have died that night for sure.”
Everyone starts from somewhere and while White’s story of how he started the UFC is mostly known to fans that have watched the growth of the UFC and the sport, there’s always more to tell. He wasn’t always the business titan and combat sports giant everyone knows today, he was once kicking around in a bar looking for his calling like a lot of folks out there.
