PHOTO | Dana White visits little girl whose liver transplant he paid for

UFC President Dana White certainly catches his fair share of criticism. Whether it’s for his profanity-laced diatribes, his ruthless approach to business, or the way he treats his fighter, it seems he’s always under fire for something.

Somewhere underneath White’s prickly exterior, however, is a heart of gold, and every now and then, that heart reveals itself. Perhaps the best example of this occured in 2010, when White opened his wallet and paid for the emergency liver-transplant of a seven-month-old baby girl in Thailand.

This girl, whose name is Tuptim, was the daughter of Kru Nai, a long-time instructor at Tiger Muay Thai, a legendary facility in the veritable paradise of Phuket, Thailand. When news surfaced that Kru Nai’s daughter had been diagnosed with a liver condition called bilary obstruction – a death sentence if she didn’t receive a transplant – the MMA community mobilized, and called for donations of all shapes and sizes. After browsing The Underground MMA forum, White answered these calls, and paid for the girl’s surgery in full.

“I was reading the Underground and saw [the calls for donations] and clicked on it and I don’t know, I just did. She needs it fast, so I did it,”  White told Yahoo Sports back in 2010.

Today, some eight years after White essentially saved this girls life, he paid her visit. The UFC President crossed paths with her in Phuket, and posed for a photo that will pluck at your heart strings. See it below.

Dana White is in Phuket. He stopped by to visit the girl whose operation he paid for a few years ago pic.twitter.com/rnomscB8Uu

— James Goyder (@JamesGoyder) January 3, 2018

With the passage of time, it’s been easy to forget this incredible act of generosity from Dana White. Once again, however, we offer the UFC president major props for saving this young girl’s life.

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 1/3/2018.