Dana White has heard it all before.

The UFC president is in for the long haul after signing a five-year contract with new owners WME-IMG, and the last thing White wants is critics doubting the growth potential of his lifelong work.

Particularly wearisome for White are detractors who doubt the UFC will be able to recover if stars like Conor McGregor and Ronda Rousey move on to careers in other fields of entertainment, or if Brock Lesnar and Jon Jones are banned from competing for a prolonged period of time.

Again, White has been here before.

"Do you know how many times I've heard, 'Oh my God, the Chuck Liddell era is over, Chuck Liddell is retiring, what's the UFC going to do? They don’t have stars anymore,'" White told Ernie Clark of the Bangor Daily News. "Or, 'Oh my God, the (Georges St-Pierre) era is over, what are they going to do without GSP?' Or, 'Oh my God, the Anderson Silva era is over, what are they going to do without Anderson Silva?'

"They say the UFC has peaked - and we just sold it for $4 billion. I can't read this stuff or listen to these morons who talk about it. They know nothing about the business and they don't understand how it works. We do."

White and the Fertitta brothers famously purchased the UFC for $2 million back in January 2001, an investment that was by no means a sure thing - MMA was a fringe sport at the time.

Fifteen years later, the promotion sold for $4 billion. White is happy to celebrate he and the Fertittas' role in that growth, but also expressed excitement for the media savvy that WME-IMG brings.

"Go back and look 15 years ago, when I used to say wait until you see where we take the UFC in the next 10 years," White said. "Now wait until you see where me and my new partners take the UFC in the next five years. It's gonna blow everybody's minds."

- With h/t to FOX Sports