CEOInterviews.AIDana White Reveals ALL on UFC White House Fight!

K

Kyle0:00

All right, guys. Welcome back to another podcast. White House fight is around the corner. I'm going to the White House fight and I'm going to be firing on Prize Picks. Nuclear. Nuclear. I'm going to be putting together a massive lineup for Prize Picks for this and then I'm also going to probably, you know, fire on every single fight. Follow me on the Prize Picks app, Kyle, and you guys can see what I'm actually picking when I do it. Let's fire big for the White House fight. I'm so fired up for this. That's what I love about Prize Picks now is, you know, I've always loved doing the lineups. Now you can choose teams. It's literally everything all in one app. As of May, you can even put the team picks into your lineup, which is crazy. So, you can add a team pick for MLB, NBA, or WNBA to one of your lineups. Prize Picks is available in so many different states including California, Texas, Florida. If you guys have never tried out the Prize Picks app, we got you guys on Code Neelk. Download the app and use that for your first time and then just put in $5 and you get $50 for free. So take advantage of Code Neelk. We got NHL playoffs, NBA Finals, World Cups around the corner, White House fight in two weeks. We're going nuclear, boys. I'm trying to win big. Download the Prize Picks app. Use code Neelk. Let's get into the podcast. What's up, boys?

S

Steiny1:24

Yeah.

K

Kyle1:25

George.

G

George1:25

What up? What up?

K

Kyle1:27

Let's go, boys. Boys are oiled up or what?

S

Steiny1:30

Fuck, uh, Steiny wearing a TPT Bucky today to get some coin back.

K

Kyle1:36

100%.

S

Steiny1:37

I'm dual stacking upper deckies for this one.

K

Kyle1:41

Senator freezer tarps. That's jokes. What are you guys going to ask about Strickland?

S

Steiny1:47

I got two questions for him. I'm asking him how the fuck he's going to top this one. And I'm going to be like, "Buddy, maybe the fucking Egyptian pyramids next." And then I'm going to ask him what he thinks about me throwing 30k on Sugar Sean knockout. And then I'm going to shut my mouth cuz I don't want to fuck anything up. I don't know fuck.

K

Kyle2:10

Yo, Cheddy, you know what's the best treadmill fuck I just learned? Watching uh Modern Warfare campaign clips. I've been doing that, dude. It gets me fired up just literally watching the story mode. I've never played the game in my life. You know what it is? The video games are so good now. It looks like I'm watching a war movie. It's sick.

C

Cheddy2:34

It is like that, dude.

K

Kyle2:36

Do you rip story mode on COD every time?

C

Cheddy2:39

I give it a go and then I think I did an MW2, but I think that's it.

K

Kyle2:43

Yeah, the OG one for sure. I remember Halo campaigns were fucking goat. Hate. COD story mode's kind of like whatever, right?

C

Cheddy2:50

Yeah. It's like you're just killing bots, dude.

K

Kyle2:54

It's like so hard to die and fuck too. Like you're like it's pretty easy, right? Yeah. Like you're never...

C

Cheddy3:00

Speak for yourself.

K

Kyle3:01

It's not like getting shot in multiplayer. Like you can eat so many shots in story mode.

C

Cheddy3:06

You can eat like lit up by...

K

Kyle3:09

You can eat like a zillion bullets.

C

Cheddy3:11

Dude, I'm playing Vanguard right now and I can't, I'm like getting mad throwing my controller. I can't beat the campaign. It's like and I'm on...

K

Kyle3:18

Vanguard? Wait, what is that game?

C

Cheddy3:20

I think it's Call of Duty Vanguard or something.

K

Kyle3:23

Oh, COD Vanguard. Okay.

C

Cheddy3:25

It's like some World War II thing. Or like you're in Vietnam, but that game is sick.

K

Kyle3:31

Yeah, it's a good game.

C

Cheddy3:32

I'm way too good at Call of Duty multiplayer. That's my fuck.

K

Kyle3:37

I don't think I've ever played multiplayer.

C

Cheddy3:39

Fucking sliding around and fuck, dude. If I streamed me playing campaign, I'm so bad. I'm like throwing grenades and it's killing me and fuck. Like I don't know what I'm doing.

K

Kyle3:52

Cooking them too long.

C

Cheddy3:54

Yo, Kyle, did I ever tell you this story? Remember this when I bought this in China?

K

Kyle4:01

Okay. At where did you buy that at the Great Wall?

C

Cheddy4:03

Yeah, the Mao statue.

K

Kyle4:04

Yeah. Yeah.

C

Cheddy4:05

So, I was kind of seeing this girl who's Chinese and she comes over to my house and she's like, "What? Why do you have a Mao statue?" Oh my god. I don't even know who it is. And I'm like, "Oh, I heard he's like a bad guy. My bad." Like, she's like...

K

Kyle4:18

"No, he's the best." Like, she thought it was sick that I like rep Mao.

C

Cheddy4:25

Cuz isn't he like a badass? He's like a bad guy, right?

K

Kyle4:28

I mean, who knows? It's probably like how people love Trump or hate Trump, too. I don't know.

C

Cheddy4:32

That's what I'm saying. I think he was pretty heavy.

K

Kyle4:34

Caused a giant famine.

C

Cheddy4:36

I know. I know that. I know the Trump haters. The Trump haters would see a Santa Cruz line. The Trump haters would think that he killed a lot of people, but actually greatest country on earth, but it's a whole other story.

K

Kyle4:48

He caused the giant famine.

C

Cheddy4:51

Yeah, that's a brutal thing to be recognized for.

K

Kyle4:54

Just starve people.

C

Cheddy4:55

Communism doesn't work despite what a lot of the people in the United States are campaigning for.

K

Kyle5:01

I don't even know what that word means to be honest.

C

Cheddy5:03

China's lit. That's all I know.

K

Kyle5:05

Spurs and seven, huh, Jud?

J

Jud5:07

I had 50k on the Spurs last night. The only bet I took on this was that the series was going to go seven games. So if it goes seven games, I'm cashing a little money. Like I knew they weren't going to go up three nothing.

K

Kyle5:18

Yeah, I let I listen to all the fucking idiots deleted my bet and fuck.

J

Jud5:24

God damn, dude.

K

Kyle5:26

I think Hurricane's tonight. When 4G's hot, he might be hot.

J

Jud5:31

I don't strike too often.

K

Kyle5:33

Like last night I was just like, "Yo, Spurs, 100% 50k." What's up, Dana?

D

Dana White5:41

What's up, boys? How are you? What's up, Dana? How are we doing? Good.

K

Kyle5:44

I'm good, man. How you doing?

D

Dana White5:46

Good. You in DC already?

K

Kyle5:48

Oh, yeah. I've been gone for like 15 days. I'm England, DC. I go to New York tomorrow and then back here to DC and then yeah. I'm all over the place.

That's crazy. I mean, I've been watching the UFC for so long, too. And I feel like a lot of people haven't seen all the stuff you guys have gone through to build the UFC to what it is, you know? I think a lot of people started watching post-COVID, but they didn't see the state-by-state battles where the sport wasn't even legalized in some states.

D

Dana White6:17

No, it was illegal. Not legalized. Illegal in different states. Story when something is illegal and you have to turn it around and make it legal. Yeah. It's no, it's been listen, this is probably one of the craziest stories in all of sports, but yeah, we've been through some fuck.

K

Kyle6:37

Is this like a moment for you where you kind of sit back and...

D

Dana White6:40

No, not even right.

K

Kyle6:42

No. So, what we're doing now is I mean, the setup over I just went and walked it again last night, went through all the elements and had a whole production meeting last night. I mean, we're basically on the lawn of the White House building an arena, which is almost impossible to do. And then beyond that, on the Ellipse, what we built on the Ellipse is even crazier. My head of production, Craig Borsari, and my team are just so badass, man. The stuff that we pulled off. I thought the Sphere was going to be the craziest thing we had ever done, but this tops it by a million times what the Sphere was.

Is this going to rank as the biggest sporting event of all time?

D

Dana White7:29

I certainly hope so. It's definitely the most historic for sure. And again, something that will never be done. I said when we went into the Sphere, I said after we do this, a lot of people are going to roll in after us and try to do it. Nobody tried to do it. Nobody has tried to pull off the Sphere since we did it. And yeah, nobody's definitely going to do this again.

K

Kyle7:57

Yeah. So, how are you going to top the White House then? Uh maybe like outside at the Egyptian trying to top anything. It just these things just sort of happen. Like Brady hit me up and Brady said, "Hey, you want to go to YouTube with me this weekend?" Uh, so we went to the Sphere, went to YouTube while I was watching the show. I was like, "This is fucking badass. I want to do this." So we did it and then, you know, we were at a fight one night and the president leans over and goes, "We should do a fight at the White House." And I was like, "Yes, yes, we should. Let's do it." So what I like is brand new arenas when new arenas pop up and they have a lot of new technology and people can get a great experience for one of our fights. This just happened to happen. It's the 250th birthday of America. So it just happened. I'm never trying to do fights in funky places. Not really my thing. I don't even like stadiums, you know, cuz I feel like they're too big and you don't get the same experience that you get in a great arena.

What do you think's been like I mean obviously you're just in problem solving mode. Like what's been the number one fuck you've had to figure out, do you think to make this happen?

D

Dana White9:20

To be honest with you, this has been pretty smooth so far. And it's been pretty smooth. Now we're just looking down the barrel of weather. You know, is the weather going to be okay? There's all kinds of stories being written about the weather. Everybody's trying to predict the weather this Sunday, but it's looking good. We're using the military, the military weather service is the best on the planet. And we're looking good. We're looking good so far. Again, knock on wood here. Yeah. Knock on wood.

K

Kyle10:00

Are there any legs to this? Susan Douglas, the civil activist. She's trying to file an injunction to stop the event. Is that just kind of background noise or is that something that you guys actively have to look into?

D

Dana White10:13

I was actually surprised it took the loonies that long. I knew loonies were going to pop up somewhere at some point in time. They were a little late to the game, but I was expecting them.

K

Kyle10:25

Yeah, there's a lot of crazy controversy with a lot of people about this event.

D

Dana White10:30

The first time we ever did a fight in London, we did it at the Royal Albert Hall and they tried to shut us down then too back in 2002. Sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off, but...

K

Kyle10:42

No, I was just saying, you know, like you have Iman Zahabi who's a Muslim fighter, you know, and you have like a multicultural experience when you're watching the UFC. You're watching kids from the football have come up and now they're living out their dreams, yet people really want to hate on this event. As far as some of the rumors that are going around that are riling people up, if we could just clarify some of them. The number one thing going on on Twitter right now is they're saying Sean Strickland is banned from the event. What are the details with that? What's going on there?

D

Dana White11:15

The dumbest fucking shit that you know, every day I wake up and I see dumb shit on Twitter. And you're absolutely right. No, he's not fucking banned. Listen, Sean Strickland is he's just not invited. Not banned. We just didn't invite him. We have 800 fucking fighters under contract that aren't going to the event. Not because they're banned, because there's no room. And not to mention the fact if you look at all the shit that Sean Strickland said leading up to the White House event, he's basically saying he didn't want to be there, he wouldn't want to be there, he wouldn't want to fight there. And he's just sort of I mean, this is what Sean Strickland does. Not to mention the fact that if this fight was in fucking Tucson, Arizona in an arena, Sean Strickland is the type of guy you keep away from other human beings. It's not like Sean's the guy that you want fucking roaming around. We invite him to Power Slap fights. He gets in fights with people while he's there. He walks up to people, Machine Gun Kelly, and just starts calling them names and yeah.

K

Kyle12:25

You know what I mean? Yeah, Sean Strickland is the fucking victim. That's hilarious. No, Sean Strickland has not been banned by us or the White House.

D

Dana White12:40

That is a funny way to put it. He's not a guy you bring around other people, let alone the fucking White House. And he made it very clear leading up to the event that it was something that he did not want to be a part of. Now all of a sudden he's this victim who's been banned. Nobody's banned.

K

Kyle12:58

Yeah. I think the controversy is like he's the only American champ right now and so people want to see him there. Then the other controversy was another rumor that people were saying it tied in with it. People are like, "Oh, Netanyahu is going to be ringside." So can you dispel that rumor?

D

Dana White13:15

Let's go. I highly fucking doubt that Netanyahu is going to be at the event. You know, but this is all the goofy shit that comes out leading up to anything. I mean, it's just all fucking bullshit. But I love it. I love all this kind of stuff. This is what comes with an event of this, right?

K

Kyle13:35

That's exactly right. You're going to have fucking haters when you're doing something this earth-shattering.

D

Dana White13:39

Also, if you're not invited to something, just saying that you're banned is a cooler way to do it. You know, I mean, like technically Steiny, you're banned from this event. You know what I mean? Like we're all anyone who's not going is banned.

K

Kyle13:53

Yeah. Definitely not banned. No, nobody has been banned. We have 800 fighters under contract. We have a bunch of guys that are coming out and girls that are going to be a part of the Ellipse, the fan experience over there. Sean Strickland is not the guy that you bring to that event. You know, we have 44 events a year. Sean Strickland at 44 of our fucking events every year. No, none of the fighters are the 800 fighters that we have under contract. There's a group of guys and girls that do go and 700 and something that don't. Goofy shit that leads up to an event.

A lot of people on the left have framed this as this is being paid for by taxpayers. That and this is something that's pretty clear if you just Google it, but they're still having this narrative that somehow Trump is paying for this. So, that's another thing that you might...

D

Dana White14:50

Not only are the taxpayers not paying for this thing, we're paying for everything. We're there's a big number on this one. And here's the other thing. So, hey Elliot, in my room there's a Washington DC magazine. I think it's on the floor by my bed. Go grab that. So, it's the 250th birthday of America. You know how many fucking events are going on in Washington DC? And to celebrate 250, there's this Washington DC magazine I was looking at a couple nights ago that's in the hotel room here and it's literally filled with all the events that are happening, from concerts to all this other shit. So, because Trump likes the UFC and the UFC is one of the events here, you know, it's the event that the people that don't like Trump want to attack.

K

Kyle15:47

It's Trump's B. Flag Day. Trump's birthday was we were supposed to do it the 4th of July, but he ended up he's got to be in like three fucking states on the 4th of July. Plus, it's my favorite holiday. So, I'm glad we don't. Look at this. Is a Washington magazine here. The full cover is America's 250. Big events, new exhibits, grand openings, local gems, this that, all the ways to celebrate 250 in Washington DC. And this thing is literally full of concerts and everything that's going on in Washington DC for America's 250th birthday. Nobody's fucking bitching about that. All right.

Yeah. I mean, Teddy Roosevelt did some boxing fights right at the UFC, right at the White House, and nobody really...

D

Dana White16:34

Story about it. In the show. Yeah. Teddy Roosevelt used to spar. He'd bring in fighters and he used to spar with them at the White House. He used to spar, wrestle and grapple back in his day.

K

Kyle16:51

Whoa. I didn't know that. That's...

D

Dana White16:53

Yeah, he was a badass.

K

Kyle16:55

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You do a pretty big party for July 4th, right? I think I heard that. You like throw for your employees, your friends.

D

Dana White18:09

I got a place up in Maine and I go up there and I put on like a 30 minute fireworks show and people from all the towns around me all come over and park their cars around my property and watch the show and yeah.

K

Kyle18:28

I'll be in Bar Harbor, Maine by that area by the way.

D

Dana White18:32

You're 40 minutes from me. 40 minutes away. Yeah.

K

Kyle18:35

Yeah. I live up in North Conway, New Hampshire, so not too far. You probably go ham on fireworks. What do you spend on fireworks?

D

Dana White18:42

30 minutes long. Most fireworks shows are like a 10-minute fireworks show is a long fireworks show. Mine's 30 minutes. My show is better than the town that does them.

K

Kyle18:54

Oh, yeah. I grew up in a small town. It was about 45 seconds. Our like our normal.

D

Dana White19:01

It was a couple black cats. It was like yeah. It wasn't too great. So Dana, how long do you see yourself doing this kind of grind? I know you've been able to, it's not the same grind as it was when you were like battling John McCain and this type of thing. UFC is way more mainstream now, so it's a bit more fluid, but do you see yourself doing this into your 80s or like what do you want to do?

We continue as we continue to grow, we continue to, you know, we're not a fight promotion anymore. I mean, we're so much bigger than that. And what we're doing, I just did a boxing match in England, my first fight on Sky Sports over there, and it was fucking unbelievable. I mean, the English fans are different, man. They're just so different. And any sporting event, you can go to a fucking ping pong match in England and the fans will make it the most exciting thing you've ever seen. And they're singing and chanting. You know, when people talk to me about, "Oh, your competitors, your competitors," my competitors are the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, and the NHL. Those are my competitors. All these other guys, we are not the fucking same. Okay? We are not in the same fucking league. Not even close. So when I want you guys to wrap your fucking head around this now, the most powerful in the world, you're talking about soccer. Soccer is massive in the United States. The NFL is the monster in this country. And when you talk about competing and competition, when they were sitting around their headquarters and it came out, they said, "What? The UFC just got an $8 billion television deal? There was $8 billion sitting over at Paramount. How did we not get that money? We'll put games on Tuesday. We want that money." And those are the guys then, the NHL, Major League Baseball, all these other guys that saw that deal get done. They all want that. So over the next six years, me and my team have to fucking deliver on a lot of different fronts for Paramount. So that when we're looking down the barrel of our deal ending, these are the guys that I'm going to be competing with. All these other fucking guys, I'll go do a press conference and I got my press going, "Oh, Oscar de la Hoya said what? Fuck Oscar de la Hoya. Eddie Hearn said this. All these other guys, Jake Paul said this." We are not the same. Those guys are not my competition. They're all going to beat each other up and blow all their money and do whatever they're going to do. Those guys are not my competition. So, the question you ask me is how much longer am I going to do? I have so much that's going on right now that I want to do, in however long it takes. But the new thing that I'm really focused on is boxing and building that up over the next couple of years. And got a lot of big announcements over the next month. So, I'm still having fun. I love this shit. I've been on the road for 15 fucking days and I'm not going home till Monday. And then I go out on the road again right after that. This is going to be... It's crazy because if you look at what we've accomplished, like Kyle said when we started the podcast, this is probably the busiest year of my career this year with all the shit that we got going on. So, I still love it. I still got the energy to do it. And so, who knows? I might be 80 still doing this shit. Who knows?

K

Kyle23:10

Is it hard to imagine not doing it? Like once you find a love for doing this, like you wake up one day and you're like, how am I not going to...

D

Dana White23:19

I'm still in that mode where I love the stress, love solving problems. I love building. I like to build. And you know, if you look at what we've already accomplished within the next couple of years, any way that you could possibly kick somebody's ass, we're going to be involved in and be the biggest and the best. So, I still have a lot of goals as far as what we're doing with TKO as a group. And I love the team that we've built. I mean, my UFC team is second to none. I talk about my employees all the time. They're a bunch of fucking animals, killers. And then now the team that I've built with Nick Khan on the boxing side is exactly the same. And I'm having a blast with these guys right now. I like killers, man. And I got a bunch of fucking killers working for me.

K

Kyle24:16

That's what I was going to ask about the Zufa boxing, cuz I seen you talk about it in the press conferences, and you're like, "Judge us by what we do at the end of the year." Are you guys looking to completely take over boxing like this?

D

Dana White24:28

We're five months in. Five months we've been doing this. Look at the guys we've signed. Look at the fights that we're putting on. And then, you know, I keep saying that cuz I know what's coming down the pike right now. So, I keep saying January 1, 2027, judge us for what we did in 2026 as we look back and see what we did in one year in the sport, guys. These other fucking guys that have been in the business forever. They're all on DAZN. Do you even know what DAZN is? Do any of you guys know what? Nobody's tried to download the app. It's nobody's watching DAZN. And all these guys who hated each other six months ago are now all crammed on the same shitty little platform. And meanwhile we're in over 94 countries around the world on television. So when you fight for Zufa boxing, obviously when you're a fighter you want to make as much money as you possibly can, but what's just as important or more important is how many people around the world see you accomplish these great things and see what you do. And that's what you get with us. So yeah.

K

Kyle25:45

Could Zufa boxing be an avenue to do those cross promotional events that the fighters always talk about how they want to do and stuff like that? Is that something that we can see with that?

D

Dana White25:55

You know, let's take one of the greatest boxers ever and let him box an MMA guy who can't box. I don't like it. There's always going to be a market for that type of shit. Like that's what Jake Paul does. Jake Paul does, you know, it's just not my thing.

K

Kyle26:15

Gimmicky shit.

D

Dana White26:17

Yeah. He does what I consider goofy shit. And there's always going to be a market for that. People are always going to want to see that, you know? It's a one and done and it's just that's just not what I do. Not what I do. I want to see who the best is.

K

Kyle26:33

I was just going to say, are there any plans to build out more UFC PIs? Because I think that's one of the best things you guys have ever done. I went to the UFC PI, really beautiful place, and it becomes like a melting pot of martial arts during the UFC BJJ events. You got all the guys like Mason Fowler, the Tacket Brothers in there, and they're sparring with Morab. Are there any other plans to build out more PIs?

D

Dana White26:55

Well, we got Mexico and we got China. And the China one is badass. And we got I was just in I just did a fight in Bournemouth, England, and one of the guys said, "Hey, you guys are, you know, you got a Sky deal now over here. You guys are in the boxing. You sign all the guys. Don't you think that a PI in England would make sense?" And yes, it absolutely does.

K

Kyle27:19

You guys got to do one in Canada, too. K wants to go work out.

D

Dana White27:23

Well, the Canada one is close to the US. You know, Canada's it's easy to get to the one in Vegas, but I think the next one that makes sense would be the UK.

K

Kyle27:34

Where does this put Taporia among the greats if he's able to pull off another...

D

Dana White27:38

Yeah, I mean this guy's on a run right now that, you know, he's obviously the, you know, you got him and Islam pound-for-pound best fighters in the world. And then, you know, those two could possibly fight. So yeah, he's looking down the barrel of greatness. No doubt about it. And I believe that if Pereira wins a third title in three different weight classes, he's the GOAT.

K

Kyle28:09

If Tapora wins this fight, you think we could potentially see a Islam fight?

D

Dana White28:13

Anything's possible.

K

Kyle28:16

That'd be fucking crazy. Yeah, the Tapori fight's going to be insane. Especially because all the shit they've been talking on social media lately. It just builds it more for the fans when there's some real heat there. That was like with the Strickland Hamzot fight. I know they made up at the end, but they had heat with each other and that brought a lot of eyes to that fight. So, do you like when fighters kind of go at it or do you just sort of stay out of it and let it sort of...

D

Dana White28:40

Natural? You know, you have guys that can't stand each other and it gets to crazy levels or you have guys who totally respect each other and there's a lot of respect leading up to the fight. The boxing match that we just did with the Canadian Rziki and Chris Bill Smith, total respect leading up to the fight and the fight was a war. I mean, like a Rocky movie type fight. If you saw that in a movie, you'd be like, "This is such shit. These guys could never take this kind of punishment." It was one of those kind of fights. So, you don't need a bunch of talk to make a great fight, but when it happens and it's organic, it's definitely fun.

K

Kyle29:26

Yeah. So true. Sometimes it's the ones that you're like, "No one's really talking about it ends up being like legendary." You know, when you have two badasses heading in to fight each other and that is the case with Gachi and Ilia. I mean, both guys have explosive knockout power. Highlight reel knockouts and you know, it's like one of those fights. Whoever catches that chin first on Sunday night is going to win that fight.

You think people are underestimating Gachi? I mean, he's fought literally the best guys in the world. Khabib, are people underestimating him a little bit?

D

Dana White30:02

You know, because Ilia looks so good and whatever. But the truth of the matter is both guys have unbelievable knockout power. So, whoever catches that chin first could win this fight.

K

Kyle30:15

Yeah, Gachi is big, too.

I'm hammering Gachi. Let's go knock out Gachi for America.

S

Steiny30:20

Freezer, you're picking Sean as well. Freezer.

K

Kyle30:23

Yeah, I was going to ask you that, Dana. As a degenerate gambler, I'm thinking about throwing 30k on a Sugar knockout. What do you think about that happening?

D

Dana White30:32

Well, again, any of these guys that have true knockout power and are knockout artists, anything is possible. I mean, the thing with Gachi is people like, "Ah, Gachi's at the end of his career and Gachi's old." Gachi still knocks people the fuck out. I mean, to count him out and think that he couldn't hit Ilia and catch him on the chin is crazy. It's the fun in having two guys that are both knockout artists face each other. And obviously Sugar Sean Ali has devastating knockout power, too.

K

Kyle31:07

Is there any truth to this? Arman betting a million dollars on a fight?

D

Dana White31:10

No. From what I heard is that Arman didn't. It was one of his buddies that bet. One of his buddies bet a million dollars on Gachi, right?

K

Kyle31:21

Really?

D

Dana White31:22

Yeah. He's got rich friends.

K

Kyle31:24

I mean, that's a big payout if it wins.

Two-leg parlay. O'Malley knockout. Gachi knockout boys. Lock it in. You hear...

D

Dana White31:32

What's crazy is a lot of these betting apps, they don't let you bet a million dollars. I mean, they... I remember when Jake Paul fought Anthony Joshua, I wanted to bet $10 million on Anthony Joshua. I mean, I would have bet everything that I owned in life on that fight. Then, you know what happened? Then the Tom Aspinall fight happened when he got poked in the eye and I was like, "Holy fuck, you know what? What if Jake Paul does some goofy shit to try not to..." And what happened during the fight? Jake Paul literally kept diving at his legs the whole time, trying to avoid the fight. And I was sitting there going, "Holy fuck, if I would have bet on this fight, I'd have been sitting here freaking out that he's going to blow his ACL out because Jake Paul keeps diving at his legs." And you just never know what's going to happen when you sports bet, man. Sports betting is so crazy.

K

Kyle32:51

Are you still anti-sports betting? Cuz the last time we talked, you were no sports betting.

D

Dana White32:56

Only blackjack. But no, have you been dabbling a little bit in sports betting now?

K

Kyle33:00

Uh, Super Bowl, I'll throw some fun money on the Super Bowl and shit like that.

D

Dana White33:06

You know, they say, "Oh, betting on the game makes it a lot more fun." You're a lunatic if you think that betting on the game is fun. Yeah, it's true.

K

Kyle33:17

Freezer, what do you have to say to that?

F

Freezer33:20

I mean, I don't know, boys. You got to toss a few bucks here and there on Puka Nacua over yards. I know how Dana does that under the table.

K

Kyle33:29

I feel like you bet on stuff that you're not interested in to make it interesting. That's why I don't really bet on UFC stuff cuz it actually ruins it for me. Then I'm like biased watching it and I don't like watching it.

D

Dana White33:44

No, betting on UFC is awesome. Yeah, you can bet with your friends on the UFC and you can make a case like in the Derrick Lewis Josh Hoket fight. You can make an easy case for either athlete in there.

K

Kyle33:55

It's like you don't know what's going to happen.

D

Dana White33:58

The craziest sport to bet on is Power Slap.

K

Kyle34:00

That's I have no idea what's going to happen in that. Yeah.

D

Dana White34:03

If you've never bet and then gone to Power Slap live...

K

Kyle34:07

Done that. That would be fun.

D

Dana White34:08

You got to do that.

K

Kyle34:09

New sport to bet on is the NBA, right? So you'll bet on the NBA and you'll be like, "Hey, I'm up 30 points. We got this." You go take a piss, you come back and it's you're down two. Like what the fuck? How did that happen? They go on these runs, man. Yeah, the NBA is the worst to bet on. The scores just go like this.

What's the status of your blackjack with Michael Rubin? The high stakes. Is that anywhere near...

D

Dana White34:41

Rubin was just like, "Fuck, if you do something like this, I'll jump in with you. I'll do it." But yeah, I'm working on a big gaming deal. But yeah, we're already at the level where they'll let me bet, the MGM will let me bet a million hand.

K

Kyle34:58

Damn.

And your plan for that, do you go three hands like you usually do or just one hand?

D

Dana White35:02

Yeah, you could go one or you could go three. Yeah. Not a million a hand, but three would total a million bucks. Yeah. But I'm working on a big gaming deal. I told you I've been telling you about this for a couple years. It's been a tough thing to negotiate and figure out how it all works out, but we are right there.

K

Kyle35:29

It's what we like to hear as degenerates. Dana, if you need an intern, let me know.

I feel like Dana, you were naturally created to be in the fight business. You've created such great shit. If you weren't in boxing or UFC, what do you think you would be doing with your expertise?

D

Dana White35:52

I'd still be training like I was before, you know, I did all this shit. I made a decision when I was 19 years old that I wanted to be in the fight business for the rest of my life. And at the time, I didn't know exactly what that meant or where it would lead, but that's what I'd still be doing cuz I love doing that, too. I just love being in the fight business. Yeah.

K

Kyle36:14

Do you ever sit back and reflect a little bit? You know, like you've created this verb in the UFC like I went down to Entra where Michael Morales trains and he's a really good dude. He has these orphans from an orphanage nearby that go and train there and they all say they want to be in the UFC. They want to be a UFC fighter. Like it's a verb that's been created. Do you ever sit back as an entrepreneur and reflect?

D

Dana White36:35

I never reflect. I'm not a reflector. I talk about this a lot and especially leading up to this White House fight. Unfortunately, I'm always in this mode like what's next? What's next? What's next? I mean, we've already got, if you look at the UFC, we've already got our fights made to mid September, right? Or the end of September, early October. And then I'm looking at all the stuff that we're going to do this year now in boxing. And you mentioned it earlier. I'm looking at all the stuff we're doing in jiu-jitsu. Power Slap. I don't know if you saw what I posted yesterday about Power Slap. This beast. Hold on. Let me pull this up for you guys so I'm accurate here. All right, listen to this. This thing. God damn it. Power Slap's record-breaking month. 2 billion views and 2 million new followers in the month of May alone. 2 billion views and 2 million more followers just in the month of May alone. Our biggest month that we've ever had. That thing is a beast. We just launched jiu-jitsu, which has been successful, and now we're starting these tournaments where young people and everybody can come participate in the tournaments. You guys know where I'm at in boxing. We've been talking about that since we started the interview here. And then the UFC, we're about to be on the White House lawn for America's 250. And the list goes on and on. So, I'm always thinking about what's next instead of, you know, let me just go walk around and take this all in and think about how great the... You know what I mean? I don't ever do that ever. So.

K

Kyle38:35

And attendance at this event. So, Trump's going to be there. You have a bunch of other obviously like celebrities that are going to be there. Is there anybody that surprises you? Number one, that's going to be there. And then also just to clarify for people cuz there's like a rumor going on online. What I want to clarify is you are having a lot of troops out there and a lot of people in our military. You got them free access.

D

Dana White38:56

Yeah. So what's crazy is today's Tuesday. The event is Sunday. Today is the day that I'm actually sitting down. My girl who runs all the logistics, her name is Amber. She's a animal. We're going over all the tickets today and who's coming and all that stuff. I haven't even done that yet. So, that's all going down today. I think the president handed in his list yesterday. So, I'm going over all that yesterday. But, yeah, majority of the 4,300 people that will be there will be US military from every single branch of the military.

K

Kyle39:36

Yeah, cuz that was a thing. People are like, "Oh, a lot of the military should be there." And then people are like, "He is. It's happening." So, I think that's...

D

Dana White39:44

Every branch will be represented at the fight on Sunday.

K

Kyle39:48

Was that also a talk with the whole Michael Chandler waiting on McGregor thing? Was that like what made you guys make that decision?

D

Dana White39:57

Like everyone waiting on Chandler? Chandler waiting on getting McGregor?

K

Kyle40:02

Yeah, I didn't want him to wait. I told him, you know, don't wait for anybody, man. You have, I've seen it over the last 25 years, guys waiting for guys, and you have a small window of opportunity to compete in the sport. Don't wait for anybody. And Chandler did wait too long in my opinion. But now he's getting his White House card. I mean, Chandler is the most American. He's one of the top Americans out there. And Chandler by KO is a sneaky bet. I think a lot of people look past him. The dude has insane power. Obviously, Ruffy's extremely technical. It's going to be a tough one for him, but don't sleep on Chandler.

Yeah, he's got a challenge ahead of him for sure. That guy's nasty, but the...

D

Dana White40:49

He does. Chandler throws bombs, bro. He just throws bombs.

K

Kyle40:52

He's like Gachi, though. He just puts on a war. He puts on a good fight, you know? It's entertaining.

D

Dana White40:57

Put on a show. It's going to be sick.

K

Kyle40:58

100%.

Ali's due for a knee knockout, boys. It's a fun card. It's a fun card.

I'm nuking it.

I was going to bring up Josh Hokit. The like, do you find it corny personally or do you find it like, hey, this is...

D

Dana White41:12

My thing at all? Not even remotely close to being my thing. You know what is my thing? The last performance he put on. That's my thing.

K

Kyle41:22

Yeah.

I bet Dana is just worried when he sees Hokit. And Hokit was in roller skates getting towed by a bird scooter. He probably watches that and he's like, "Don't get injured." I was watching that like, "Bro, you're in roller skates in Albuquerque."

D

Dana White41:36

Athlete, but he is an entertainer for sure. And he has the hands and wrestling to back it up, you know? That's what I think people sleep on.

K

Kyle41:45

Yeah. If his fight was bad, crazy fight, people would hate him. But like when he put on that fight, it's like do whatever you want. I am not a fan of all the goofy shit that he's doing. Star Wars or WWE. I don't know what it is, but not my thing. But that last fight he put on, that is my thing. That's why I made that fight that night.

And the way that he fought, him and Derrick Lewis should be unbelievable.

D

Dana White42:19

That's gonna be a good one.

K

Kyle42:20

Yeah. And then we can see Gable at International Fight Week. What do you think about Gable Stevenson? Do you think that's kind of the next evolution of a heavyweight fighter or are you guys going to build him up a bit?

D

Dana White42:32

I'm glad you asked me that cuz I just saw an interview with Pat Militic. I don't know if you guys know who Pat Militic is, but he was like one of the early guys, you know, had a big team when we first bought the company and all this shit. And he was talking about Gable Stevenson and some other guys. He's like, "I see what they're doing here. They're trying to take these guys from the cradle to the grave. It's like they're trying to snatch up all these young guys before they..." I'm like, "Matt Militic, what the fuck are you talking about?" Every time I see this guy now, he's saying weird shit. First of all, Robbie Lawler was 5-0 when we brought him into the UFC in the early days, and he was from Pat Militic's camp. Robbie Lawler went on to be a multiple-time world champion in different organizations, including the UFC, and fought for a long time. He just retired not long ago. BJ Penn came into the UFC with no professional fights. I mean, it was the weirdest interview I've ever seen. It's like the new UFC now. They're trying to bring these guys in early and all this shit. No. Guys that we've seen that we think have potential. Aaron Pico, we were trying to get him early on in his career. Absolutely nothing has changed in the way that we sign guys from the early days to now. And yeah, he's one of those guys that we think has potential to possibly be great like a Robbie Lawler. Yeah, Gable's like a potentially like a prodigy just with his wrestling pedigree.

K

Kyle44:12

How do you guys go find talent? Like do you send scouts out to organizations like Lux and like or do you use your Contender Series? Like what do you...

D

Dana White44:22

Sean and Mick are our matchmakers and yeah, they do go to these fights. When we first bought the UFC, all the fights were happening in Hawaii and Southern California. And I actually used to fly every weekend and go watch these fights live. But now, streaming didn't exist then. And if we didn't go see the fights live, we had to have VHS tapes of them, and we'd have to watch the VHS tapes. Obviously, when you think about our business, not just scouting fights, but promoting fights and everything else, technology has been great for us. Streaming and the internet and social media has been incredible for our business. But yeah, Sean and Mick have their finger on the pulse with everything that's going on out there and all the up-and-coming guys. And obviously, the Contender Series, which starts again in August, is massive for us. I mean, it's the best show on TV in that few weeks that it's on every year. And for those of you that don't know what it is, we take two of the best fighters in the world in these weight classes that are not signed by the UFC. And obviously, I don't do any homework on them whatsoever. I don't read anything. I don't want any bias. And I don't give a fuck what you've done. You've obviously done some great things. That's why you're there fighting that night. But it's like, show me who you are right here, right now. And then I decide that night who we sign and who we don't.

K

Kyle46:00

Would you, what percentage breakdown would you say is like talent and record compared to like...

D

Dana White46:05

It's all about fighting. It's like the Hokit thing. We're talking about that whole whatever that is. I don't like it. I don't care about it. It actually turns me off. It sends me the other way. Then I sit there and watch him fight that night and then I'm like, "Okay, I'm in now. Now I'm in." So, it's all about the two people that have stood out in my entire career fighting since I was 19 years old. I went to dinner. I was in Ireland and I sent out a tweet. "Hey, who wants to come drink with me at Temple Bar?" The place was packed. All these Irish people there drinking with me. And all anybody talked about was you have to sign Conor McGregor. You have to sign Conor McGregor. And I'd never heard of Conor McGregor. And for some reason leaving the bar that night, I was drunk. Maybe that's why. But I thought he was a heavyweight. So then I come back to the United States and I tell Sean Shelby. All anybody talks about is this kid Conor McGregor and Sean's like, "Yeah, we're in talks with him right now." I said, "Oh, perfect. All right." So then we signed Conor. Conor flies out to Vegas. I went to dinner with him. I got in my car and I called Lorenzo Fertitta. I said, "Lorenzo, I don't know if this guy can fight, but if he can even throw a punch, this guy's going to be the biggest superstar ever." And then Ronda Rousey came up to me at an event and said, "Hey, can I get 10 minutes with you? I'd like to talk to you." We went back in the back room. We started talking and in my head, I said, "Holy fuck, I think I'm going to do this. And if I do, she's the one to do it with." And I ended up signing her and the rest is history. I called Lorenzo again after that meeting and said, "I think I'm going to do this women's thing." He's like, "No shit." And I'm like, "Yeah, this Ronda Rousey is special." So those are the only two that have ever stood out to me like their personality before I really knew how good they could fight. You know, I knew Ronda was good and that she was a judo, whatever. But her personality really, I said, "Holy fuck, this woman's special." Those are the only two out of like...

K

Kyle48:40

Those are pretty good calls. Both of them are yeah.

D

Dana White48:44

And if the personality is there, then it's just that's just...

K

Kyle48:47

It's interesting. It's cool, man.

D

Dana White48:48

Grand slam home run.

K

Kyle48:50

I was watching old clips of the McGregor Mayweather world tour press conferences. That shit was with you on stage as well.

D

Dana White48:58

We were just talking about it like three days ago.

K

Kyle49:00

Yeah.

D

Dana White49:01

Without a doubt. The greatest time in my career was that world tour. It was incredible, man. And what's funny is in the negotiations with the Mayweather side, you know, cuz we all had to pitch in, pay for all this shit, right? So everything was a negotiation. And so we build out this world tour thing and I put Toronto on the list and they called, they're like, "We're not going to Toronto. Who gives a fuck about Toronto?" I said, "Guys, you don't know. Trust me, you don't understand cuz these boxing guys don't get Canada. They don't do shit in Canada." I said, "I battled with these guys, you know, cuz they have to pay 50% of the bill to go there, there's planes and all this other shit." And I battled hard. We went to Toronto and Toronto was awesome. It was one of the best stops in my opinion, but I'm biased. I love Canada and Canadians. So.

K

Kyle50:11

I saw Canada's now gonna get the fights on Paramount Plus next year now, too.

D

Dana White50:15

Yeah. And after that Rziki fight, I want to bring him, I want to do a fight up in Canada with him, too. Yeah. So, I battled hard for Toronto on that Mayweather McGregor tour. And it was great. And it was so fun. What was great was, I mean, every city we went to, you would think if you did a press conference the day before in LA, well, the next day in New York was going to be pretty much the same. No, every day was different. Every stop was different. And what was cool, too, my favorite was, you know, Espinosa, the guy who ran Showtime at the time. By the time we got to England, Conor didn't know him, right? But by the time we got to England, Conor had figured this guy out cuz Conor's so smart. He's like, "This guy's a weasel." And literally when that played out, I still laugh my ass off when I see that clip. "You shut the fuck up and sit down. What are you going to do?"

K

Kyle51:23

Where is the weasel now?

D

Dana White51:24

I think he's just floating around out there. Yeah, Conor figured that guy out quick. It was beautiful.

K

Kyle51:31

How do you think Conor's going to come back in his fight versus Holloway?

D

Dana White51:34

You know, you don't know. That's part of the fun of it. You know, here's what I can say. I've never seen a situation where coming back from such a long layoff is a good thing. Layoffs in this business are, you know, you got to stay active. You got to keep busy. But again, you're talking about a guy like Conor who has that knockout power. And Max Holloway is one of the greatest to ever do it.

K

Kyle52:03

You guys have anything planned for that? Like extra press conferences?

D

Dana White52:06

We're so focused on Sunday right now. And then as soon as Sunday's over, Monday we'll be on the grind for International Fight Week. We can give you a bunch of information on that. It's a big summer and big year for the UFC.

K

Kyle52:21

And there's a small chance that it could get moved because of rain.

D

Dana White52:24

So, what would happen is rain day. I've heard that. I don't know if that's...

K

Kyle52:27

Rain ain't going to stop us. Lightning is what will stop us if there's lightning. Yeah. So, you know, I mean, you guys have played sports your whole life. So, you know, as soon as lightning happens, everybody, you got to get out of there. But lightning only happens for a certain period of time. And we'll know ahead of time, during, and whatever how long the lightning's going to last. And we would just delay the fight. We wouldn't cancel it and do it another night.

Let's get a little rain going. I would...

D

Dana White52:56

Your parlay gets fucked, Freezer, because of lightning.

K

Kyle52:59

Not going Sunday. No matter what snow, we're going.

D

Dana White53:04

Fuck you.

K

Kyle53:05

Fuck yeah.

We know you got a busy week. We appreciate you taking the time, Dana. We're pumped. UFC White House this Sunday.

D

Dana White53:13

Let's go. Pumped up.

K

Kyle53:14

Thanks for coming on, man.

D

Dana White53:15

Congrats on your success, boys. Keep rolling.

K

Kyle53:18

Later, boys. We'll see you soon.

Cash, Dana.

D

Dana White53:22

Okay.

K

Kyle53:22

Peace.

Dana White Reveals ALL on UFC White House Fight!

About Dana White