Dana White calls decision to fund Thai girl’s life-saving surgery ‘one of greatest things I’ve ever done in my life’

UFC president Dana White is often criticized for the percentage of money the company takes as opposed to the percentage which goes into the pockets of the fighters.

But White unquestionably did a good thing with his money back in 2010, when he spent $50,000 of his own money to provide life-saving liver surgery for a little girl in Thailand.

More than seven years later, White got to meet with the girl who was the beneficiary of his good deed, Tuptim Jadnooleum.

White, who is currently vacationing in Thailand, told Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports he had the opportunity to meet with the girl during his trip, with an assist from former popular UFC competitor Mike Swick, who is now based in that country.

“I’m out here and Mike Swick set up the opportunity for us to meet,” White said. “And I met her, we hung out and a couple days ago and it was awesome. She’s beautiful and she’s the sweetest thing in the world and her family are nice, good people.”

White first became aware of the Ms. Jadnooleum’s situation when he came across an internet posting in which her father was trying to get his attention.

“I was on the internet one day,” White said. “There was this guy on the internet, rant, crazy plea, to save this little girl’s life, and really pointed me out. And a lot of people gave him some slack and the way he was talking to me “You should do this,” yadda yadda yadda, but, the guy talked to me the way I talk, and I understood what he was saying and I said you know what, this guy’s right.

“So basically the girl needed emergency liver surgery,” White continued. “And I can’t, if she didn’t get it in two weeks she was going to die, and it cost $50,000, and I said, ‘I have $50,000, and I should do that.’ I didn’t even hesitate, I sent the money, she had the surgery and she lived and I’ve been hearing stories about her and all these things from Thailand, people who had met her and seen her and come back to me and said I met her.”

White, Swick, and Jadnooluem sat together for an evening of Muay Thai fights in Phuket, Thailand. And White doesn’t plan on making it the last time he sees the girl and her family.

“So now I’m going to fly her and her family out to Vegas to go to a UFC event. I want to have a relationship with her, I don’t want that to be the last time I ever see her.

“It’s one of the greatest things I’ve ever done in my life. I’m so, I feel so lucky that I was able to do it, and it all came together. I got on the Internet, I read that thing, I pulled the trigger, and thank God I did it, it was one of the greatest things I did ever in life.”