Well guys, the situation is really about this:
Dana White is merely the figurehead of the UFC organization. He is the president who owns 'only' 10% of the company.
The real movers and shakers are the owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta. Lorenzo Fertitta is the main guy. He is a casino exec AND owner, AND an owner of a beer company named Gordon Biersch. He was also a comissioner with the biggest boxing commission around-- Nevada State. He is in Forbes 400.
He is one of the major players in the economy of Nevada.
Dana White was an aerobics instructor in LV who took up MMA management due to his personality and work ethic. He pursued these guys early on in the sport.
He knew Lorenzo as a kid, and when the Gracies were done promoting the UFC as just a crude recruitment tool for their own system and needed to sell it, Dana White told Lorenzo to buy it. He did.
Lorenzo is a business man, and not a public figure of an MMA organization. Lorenzo and Frank saw Dana White as the perfect pitch man for the then young organization which, at the time, was attempting to gain credibility-- the delightful John McCain was trying to have the UFC outlawed, and we all owe the phrase 'human wiener fighting' to Mr. McCain.
Anyway, at the time, Dana White was perfect for the sport. He is outspoken, has unbendable views on the sport, and attracted the idiot 14-21 year old tuff guys who purchase the shirts. They needed Dana White to set them apart from boxing promoters and the current status quo.
They wanted a younger guy who better reflected the younger generation they wanted to attract to the emerging sport--- no stuffy baseball commisioners!
Now, the time has come for them to slowly transition Dana White from the Presidency into a less public focused area and have a new face of the UFC.