When former UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta first approached Dana White in 2016 to tell him they were selling the company to WME-IMG for $4 billion, the UFC president admits to having gone to a dark place after dealing with the weight of the news. 

"When it happened, it f----- me up big time," White recently told Megan Olivi during an interview on the UFC Fight Pass series "The Exchange." 

"I never thought I would react that way and I would feel that way. You don't know until it happens to you, and I literally went up into a room in Palace Station [Hotel in Las Vegas] for two days -- didn't sleep, didn't eat -- and Lorenzo had to come get me out of there eventually."

White admitted he never believed his best friends, the Fertitta brothers, would actually sell, calling it "the perfect working relationship you could have" since Zuffa first purchased the company in 2001.  

"We have been through this before and people have made offers," White said.

But as White continued to struggle with their decision, the turning point, he said, came when Lorenzo Fertitta sat him down and looked him in the eye.

"He said, 'Dude, I'm done. I'm done. Be happy for me,'" White said. "And then I got it."

Nine months after the deal was announced, White was very candid about looking back on how the process went down, including a reveal about a higher bidder that was shot down. 

"Let me be honest with you, when we were doing this deal, there were two groups that came in for more money than [current UFC co-owner] Ari [Emanuel]," White said. "There was one for $5 billion."

White said the Fertittas' decision to decline the bid is one of the major reasons he respects them. He went on to say that by selling to Emanuel and Patrick Whitesell of WME-IMG, the brothers made sure the company was going to a group that could add value and had the vision to take it to the next level. 

"It's funny because as f----- up as I was when this thing happened, I couldn't be in a better place now," White said. "It's so weird and hard to talk about because I'm not that person. I'm just not that person. So now we are back on track. Me and Ari could not be in a better place. I could not be a bigger believer in what we are going to do over the next five years and what these guys bring to the table.

"Ari is one of these guys, he's got huge balls, he is very smart and he has laid out a really great plan for the sport. The vision that Ari has for it right now, I am on board and I love it." 

According to White, it's starting to feel like the old days again in terms of the negativity and doubt from critics that fuel his passion. "That's the s--- that motivates me," he said. He also claimed he was never in it for the money from the start, which is why he remains so hungry to succeed and has no plans to step aside.

"I couldn't do that. I'm in man. I love this. I'm not going anywhere," White said. "Everybody keeps asking me, 'You signed a five-year deal.' I signed a five-year deal because you have to sign a deal. I would have signed a 55-year deal.

"At the end of the day, it's not like, 'Oh, you have a five-year deal, you have to work for five years.' Nobody can make you work. If I said, 'F--- it, I'm done, I'm not doing this anymore,' I can get up and walk out of here right now. Nobody can make you work. So no matter what you signed, you're either here because you want to be here, or you're not.