well I’m joined Now by Dana White Dane I’ve got to say that when my three sons who are all mad UFC fans when they heard
I was interviewing you I don’t think I’ve ever heard them either more excited about a guest or prouder of their father
so for that alone thank you well thank you and tell them thanks for
the support I took them all to the big uh McGregor Mayweather fight down in Vegas which presumably lined your
pockets in the process um and it wasn’t probably a perfect example of what
you’re about really it was an incredible theater it involved two supreme Champion
Fighters albeit in different disciplines and I found it a riveting thing to watch albeit it ended how I suspected it was
always going to end but that to me in a nutshell was you all over Vegas high
drama High theater specialist pugilists at their very best and a kind of unique encounter
yeah what we try to do is try to give the best experience that we can for fans either live or on television it’s it’s
uh it’s the thing that I focus on the most when you come to a live UFC event or an event that we’re putting on
most people don’t walk out and say yeah I don’t ever want to see one of these again no I mean my sons as I say they got me into it and I then I quickly
became gripped I loved it um in fact I sat next to khabib at an Arsenal match recently and we had a long
chat and he obviously he was unbeaten in an absolute Titan of the sport but he was fascinating about it all and about
you may come to a bit of that later um but I was I’ve certainly become a great convert to it as a sporting
spectacle I think there’s very little stuff like it the thing that is intriguing about you to me is where you
came from to get to where you’ve got to when you look back at your journey you know you were born in 1969 to a 19 year
old high school dropout mum uh you had a 21 year old alcoholic father who left
the home I think when you were seven or eight years old uh you you worked your way through some pretty tough early
years had no Silver Spoon no great privilege and yet here you are now
sitting here talking to me to miss Jim and you’ve got a multi-billion dollar business that’s made you both be rich
very successful but I’d imagine also for you yourself that Journey must be incredibly satisfying
yeah it’s it’s been uh it’s been amazing actually you know as I as I look back
on my life and and you know where I started and where I am today it’s it’s it’s been amazing but I I love it so
much that you know I’m 54 I just turned 54 years old and in July and uh you know
I feel like I haven’t I haven’t even scratched the surface of of what’s left to do in in this business and in this
sport but it’s it’s definitely been an incredible journey you’re a road paver a
bouncer a hotel Bellman and an apprentice boxing train have you done a few things in your in your time when you
were doing those things did you have a big dream yeah well I think I think when you’re
young those are all the type of jobs you have to you have to do number one to find out what hard work really is and
number two to find out what it is you don’t want to do in life so I was very lucky that I had all those experiences
and by the age of 19 I figured out didn’t want to do any of that and I knew exactly what I wanted to do I wanted to
be in the fight business which at the time you know uh was 1988 or 1989
sounded like the dumbest idea ever but um when you love
something and you’re very passionate about it you know and you know exactly what it is you want to do you just get
up every day and start grinding until until it happens you come from an Irish Catholic
background as I do and you also you would talk by nuns when you’re younger as I was I had spiritual guidance from
nuns how did that impact you I don’t know the you know uh
you know went to Catholic school and and uh you know had to go to church and all
that stuff growing up I was an altar boy when I was younger uh I don’t know how that I don’t know if
that uh affected me in in a positive way toward religion but uh you know I’m not a very
religious person these days I would say I it’s weird because there’s some things that I don’t believe in much but I
believe in karma for some reason uh I never really was Guided by religion in
any way shape or form as I got into my 20s what do you think happens to you when you die
I think that it’s it’s it’s it’s it it’s over there is I think that we think
we’re more important than we really are because some people have to believe that to get through life I’m not one of those
people that has to believe that um listen maybe there is maybe there isn’t I’d say the the real answer for me
is I don’t know but I don’t let that guide me and I don’t let it uh you know
just be a good person you you can figure out being a good person without having to uh believe in anything in my opinion
when you look again at your trajectory to where you’ve got to you know there’s a it was a wonderful report that you
have a hundred thousand dollars a year that you spend on sneakers a is that true and B did you ever think you get to
a place where you could spend a hundred thousand dollars a year on sneakers uh no I I actually never really thought
about that ever uh and I didn’t even realize it until we did that uh complex story and we started talking about uh
how much money I had spent on sneakers over the last year but yeah no not anything I ever thought of and didn’t
think about it until it till it came up in that interview your relationship with your parents obviously complicated
difficult um I know you don’t particularly like talking about that I don’t want to pry into into that other than to just ask
whether it had a material effect on you as a person do you think a lot of the drive
that you have comes from those difficulties and those difficult relationships
you’re right I don’t like talking about it but it’s a great question and and I would say yes absolutely my relationship
with my parents has has definitely uh you know made me who I am today in many different
ways not just you know in life and in business but as a father too so I
wouldn’t change my upbringing not one thing about it I wouldn’t change any of it so
um yeah great question and I agree with you has it made you a better
father yourself do you think a better parent 100 but my parents taught me a lot about
what I didn’t want to be as a parent and uh yeah
and I don’t really talk about I don’t think I’ve ever talked about this but my parents both died recently so
um that yeah so that’s that’s uh
yeah I don’t like talking about it but yeah my parents died recently and and uh
how did that make you feel given how difficult things have been
um holy this is where we’re going with this interview I I I I
don’t you know I’m good with it I’m good with
everything you know I I focus a lot on my kids and and uh my relationship with them and I’ve sort of put my
relationship with my parents behind me did you feel sad when you knew they died
or did you feel it was the end of it no I well I did I didn’t wish any ill will on
either one of my parents but you know no I I didn’t when they passed away I I had uh
I had almost no no feelings about it to be honest with you you didn’t go to the funeral funerals Oswald
yeah you listen I took care of my I took care of my father and and uh moved him
up to Maine and and you know put him to rest with his family
up there and then my mother I I had nothing to do with any of hers her family handled uh you know her when she
passed away I mean it’s obviously it’s an extraordinarily sad part of your life and obviously I didn’t know that your
parents had both died recently and I thank you for sharing that a very private information I appreciate it but
I am curious as to you acknowledge the drive that you have a lot of that may
have come from this quite rough time you had but do you do you feel a great loss
that you didn’t have the love of your parents that many other people take for granted
you sound like my wife uh me too
no no I did not feel that way and uh but
there’s no doubt about it I I I cannot deny the fact that the way that I am built in the way the drive and all the
things that I have uh definitely come from the relationship that I had with my parents there’s no there’s no doubt
about it um but no I have no remorse I don’t feel bad about the way that I grew up I I
mean it when I say that I wouldn’t change one thing about the way that I was brought up because I truly believe
uh had I not had them for parents had I not had the upbringing that I that I did have that I wouldn’t be who I am today
what are the things uh Dana what are the things that you that it taught you not
to do as a parent and what are the things that it taught you to do as a parent
yeah I think that uh you know the the two Do’s is I I’m I’m here for my kids
you know I’ve been married for almost 30 years you go through you know a lot of things in a marriage I mean I
just went through some stuff last New Year’s Eve uh you know these things happen what you don’t do is you don’t
leave you don’t quit you don’t give up and and you stay you know you don’t stay
together just for your children but you stay I made a commitment 22 years ago I had my first son and
there’s a commitment there to everybody that’s involved and uh you know I I’ve
I’ve stayed in there I’m always there for my kids anything that they ever need
um and you know my father taught me
you know what it feels like to not have a father there at the house what it’s like to not have that that person around
all the time when you need them and I would never do that to my kids
you said a great quote you talked about my legacy to me is when I dropped dead
and my kids are at my funeral I want my three kids to get up and say he’s an awesome dad
is that ultimately in the end the real litmus test of success for you I’ve seen
other people say you know actually if in the end you’re the kids when they get old enough to make that a decision for
themselves if they still want to be around you and they still love you and they still care about you and they would
speak at your funeral in positive way about you that in the end that’s the ultimate litmus test of success far more
than any Financial benefits or gains or fights or whatever it may be
well said I couldn’t have said that better myself you’re absolutely right you know everybody everybody’s always asking about Legacy your legacy what you
did for a living isn’t your legacy your legacy is your children and and their children and and you know how they feel
about you how they feel about listen we all make mistakes and we all fail in
life and many different things my opinion is the one thing that you can’t fail
is being a parent it’s it’s it’s the ultimate failure it’s the it’s it’s what
showed that you you really weren’t focused on the right things in your life if that’s what you failed at
when you reference the the incident on New Year’s Eve and obviously it went viral everyone saw the video footage and
so on you were very contrite after that um but what’s the hardest thing of that
actually having to talk it over with your kids hundred percent I mean everybody was
acting like there needs to be some big apology to the world um no the apology was to my kids for for
me and my wife uh nobody wants to see their dumb drunk parents slapping each other on TMZ you know what I mean
our oldest son didn’t talk to us for like four days and um
you know and and the other kids had to deal with some stuff too it’s embarrassing and uh the only apology
that needed to be made was to our children and and the only uh relationships that needed to be handled
immediately was between us and our kids and and we did it we handled it and and
we got through it as a family what was it like for you having seen so many fighters get into scrapes and having to
deal with the Fallout of that what was it like for you to suddenly be on the receiving end yourself of that kind of
attention yeah yeah it’s definitely not fun uh but
it’s it’s something that you know as a man you have to stand up and you
have to deal with it and and uh handle your business take your lumps and and deal with whatever whatever
comes with it and uh but but like I said the most important part of it is to
handle it as a family first as long as you get your family straight I could give a what everybody else
thinks did you worry in during that whole episode that you may lose
everything that you’d fought so hard to build nah uh the people that are around me
again when you’re talking about something like this that happens and
you’re talking about the what everybody else the whole world is looking at you and saying the people who know me know
me and and the people that the circle that I keep I’ve had for you know 40
years so um you know the people that that I cared the most about I I knew it was going to
be whatever everybody else I I could care less what everybody else thinks I want to go back to the the start of
UFC um because you had a couple of investor friends they bought the franchise off
you for two million dollars you’d come to Vegas but how you got to Vegas it’s fascinating because you would basically
chased out of town by the mafia by Mr Bolger who was of course a very famous
Mafia mobster um tell me about that
yeah it wasn’t him it was some of his his guys that worked under him but uh yeah I mean I was in Boston
and uh you know the the early 90s and and and that stuff was real back then I
mean if you watch any of the movies or any of the documentaries that came out about it I lived in South Boston Massachusetts and and that stuff was
very real and at the time you know they had felt that I owed them some money
that I felt I didn’t know and uh you know I was either gonna pay it or I or I wasn’t going to pay it but right when I
left and came back to Vegas it was like the summer of 95 and then right after
that is when all the stuff started to unravel uh for him and you know he
basically went on the run after that and now I mean you I was in we had a fight in Boston a couple weeks ago I mean it’s
not even the same city it’s it’s completely different and South Boston is is not the same place it was in the 80s
and early 90s at that moment when they when you know Whitey bulger’s people say
you know we want 25 000 I think it was by tomorrow at one o’clock and you know
that if you don’t give them that money that’s probably the last call you’re getting from it might be the last call
you ever have what does that feel like yeah I don’t know if that would have
actually and it wasn’t 25 it was 20 25 000 was 2500 which might as well have been 25 000 to me back then but
um yeah you know when I go back there now and look at it at that place and at
that time it you know you realize what a scary place that really was at at that
point in time but I didn’t really feel that way when I was in my early 20s you
know um yeah I don’t know how that would have played out but I can tell you this I got
the call I hung up the phone picked it back up and called Delta and got a one-way ticket back to Vegas and what’s
funny is everything in life is about timing you know it was the time for me to come back
to Vegas for all of this stuff to align and to happen so earlier you and I were
just talking about religion and what you believe and what you don’t it’s it’s just crazy the way that things work out
and how things are kind of meant to be and what will put you on these different paths in life
it’s fascinating you’ve turned a business that you managed to find two guys two investor friends to spend two
million dollars buying the UFC franchise off you but it was a very basic franchise at the time one octagon and a
few bits and pieces around it today that business is worth 12 billion dollars
It’s Made You incredibly rich in the process obviously but my simple question
is how how did you do this yeah so it’s a great question yeah when
we originally bought the company for two million dollars we had a few contracts
when I say a few maybe eight to Fifteen contracts and an old wooden octagon and
those three letters UFC that was it the former owner had basically stripped all the rights and sold everything off to
try to keep the thing alive um but what we did was we came in we
started to acquire some of these rights back uh from from other companies that that had bought them we uh we started to
build you know the the trademark back and and the brand and we had a vision for this thing we we
were big fight fans and uh we believed that if this was done the right way this
could be the biggest sport in the world uh you know I always had this philosophy about fighting that it doesn’t matter
what color you are what country you come from or what language you speak we’re all human beings fighting’s in our DNA
we get it and we like it it doesn’t have to be explained to anybody and when you have the right fight and the right place
at the right time like you were just talking about earlier with Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather everybody
wants to watch it everywhere all over the world yeah now we’re getting to a place with streaming where that’s
actually starting to become possible where we can put on a fight out here in America and the whole world can watch it
on the same at the same time on the same network so the ceiling on this thing is
what eight billion people are in the world as you continue to grow the sport this thing can actually become the
biggest sport in the world and we saw that from day one the question was is the timing right and thank God it was
well there were two politicians who had interesting takes on what you were doing in 1996 Senator John McCain it was a
huge boxing fan but he railed against the UFC on the floor of the U.S Senate he called it human cockfighting and he sent letters
to the governor of every state asking them to ban it and then Donald Trump came along right
when the whole business may have been up for grabs it may not have flown it may just
have sunk and Donald Trump turned up and stayed late at one of your events and he
carried on supporting you uh and you stayed friends ever since and I’ve been friends on and off I had to say with
with Trump over the years we’ve had good times and bad but I’ve seen the good in him one of those good traits is
tremendous loyalty how important well first of all tell me about John McCain
how did you feel when he called it basically cockfighting yeah that happened before we bought the
company so that was one of the uphill battles that we had obviously Senator John McCain
did everything for the right reasons he he wanted this thing to be regulated by the athletic commission rules in place
and and referees and judges and proper medical testing and all that stuff we agreed with Senator John McCain when we
bought the company and we ran toward regulation and we wanted to get this thing regulated by all the athletic
commissions uh not only in the country but throughout the world and then uh yeah Donald Trump
when we bought the company you know venues didn’t want this there were no venues that wanted this thing now we
break every venue record all over the world and and venues everywhere want us to come but in the beginning nobody did
but Donald Trump saw this thing early saw that he thought it could be successful when you think about it the
Trump brand was here the UFC brand was here and he brought us in cut us a great
deal showed up to the first fight stayed to the last fight for both of the uh the
events that we put on in his casino and everything that ever happened to me throughout the rest of my career Donald
Trump was the first guy to either pick up the phone and call and say congratulations or write a note and send
something um you know he was always that guy then Donald Trump and his son got in and
actually started to compete with the UFC so with with another company and you
would always have these you know these media people trying to put me against Trump and say oh and my whole thing was
I will never say anything bad about this guy he was extremely good to me not only in the early days but throughout the
rest of my career and you know that that’s all that stuff is what started the incredible relationship that I have
with Donald Trump I mean you know I’ve seen the good side of trump and I’ve seen the but we’ve all seen some of the
bad side of him um you’ve remained for reasons you’ve explained extremely loyal to him hard is
that sometimes to do that publicly it’s it’s not hard as all because I you know
how I judge people is how my relationship is with them you know I could I can have a friend that 15 other
people don’t like for whatever reason I judge them off their relationship with me and I can tell you from personal
experience Donald Trump has never been anything but loyal and incredible and an amazing friend to me do you think he can
become president again I I do I mean people thought he couldn’t
become president the first time and he did I absolutely think he could do it again listen the forces are fighting against him
they’re trying to do everything they can to make sure that this guy uh does not uh even have a chance to be elected
again but yes I mean a majority of the country wants this guy to be the next president of the United States how often
do you talk to him I talked to him several times a month I
just talked to him last week no we we he and I are very close we’re very good friends I consider him a very good
friend of mine and we we talk a lot what do you talk about
fights he’s a fight fan he’s a fight freak he loves fights um you know mostly what we talk about is
is fights he’s a fight fan and uh you know we talk about other things family and stuff like that too but mostly we
talk about fights well I got to know him on Celebrity Apprentice which I ended up winning knocking out Lennox Lewis by the
way on my way to Victory which remains one of the all-time great uh pugilist
achievements but one of the early contestants who I knocked out much earlier was Tito Ortiz who turned out to
be one of the first big name Fighters that you had yeah him and Chuck Liddell
were were two of the big stars for us when we first bought the company how important was it to have people like
that who could energize the sport for you with Showman that’s what this business is all about
basically you know uh it’s about you know early on in the early days you know
when people doubted this business doubted this sport um they would talk about oh what are you
going to do when this guy retires what are you going to do it’s I’ve been hearing that stuff for you know 15 years
you know when we first started the company but one of the things that that I have been
really good at is finding new Talent building them into stars and and you
know I mean look at what Conor McGregor was just saying it earlier too look what he did for Europe and other parts of the
world you know when you find these guys we’ve got a star that breaks in Brazil you got to Star the breaks in Canada you
know the UK Australia right now is is on fire for us um that’s basically what this business
is all about is Star Building and it’s extremely lucrative like I’ve said several times this made you very
rich is money important to you I know deal making is important but it’s the actual money is that a big motivator for
you um it never has been it’s never been a a
a huge motivator for me if money was the big motivation for me I probably would
have retired in 2016. um but no it’s not taking the sport to
to to the level that we’re taking it to there’s still a lot of work to do here at the UFC to get to where I Envision
this being from day one and um yeah no it’s it’s when you when you do
what you love to do I like breaking records that’s what I like to do I like doing things that people say can’t be
done and when you do those things money is just what happens but do you know how
much you’re worth not not not no not
to the penny I have I have an idea but no no I don’t I don’t really focus on that I mean if you were to fall over
tomorrow God forbid and something terrible happened to you I mean what you know here lies Dana White he was worth
boom what would that figure look like yeah if I drop dead tomorrow I think my
family is going to do okay they’re going to be all right they’re gonna they’re gonna make it Forbes Forbes said half a
billion are they grossly underestimating your fortune let me tell you this when you go online
and you type in what somebody’s net worth is every single one of them are
unless unless it’s like so you you handed in your information to Forbes
and and Forbes that a whole audit of what you’re worth all everything you see online
about people’s net worth what I really like about you Dana and your story is that it’s it’s a story of resilience of
determination of getting yourself back on your feet when you’ve been knocked down all the kind of Rocky Balboa things
that he says in that Infamous speech or famous speech to his son who’s being a spoiled brat and he finally has it out
with him in the street I’ve seen you say that you think America and probably The Wider World actually has gone soft and I
agree I think it has gone soft I think we’ve become a a world where virtue signaling is more important than reality
uh where facts no longer matter you can all pretend to be whatever you want and
everyone has to go along with it um where everyone’s offended by absolutely everything um have we got to this place and what’s
what’s the way out of this kind of woke hell that we’re having to endure
yeah no that’s absolutely how I feel and you know I can’t speak for the rest of the world because I didn’t grow up in
any of these other places but I can definitely speak on America America has become so soft it’s it’s actually
you know it’s a problem and I tell kids all the time if you even
have this much Savage in you everything out there right now is for the taking
there was a there was a point in time in the United States where you would look at at different businesses and say God
it’s almost impossible to break into this business because it’s been so established and even the companies all
these companies that are so soft right now everything out there is for the
taking if you have even this much Savage in you if you are willing to go out there and grind and work hard you know
you got these people that don’t want to go to work they want to stay home and and work from home and all and and
believe me I’ve seen this when I’ve spoke before I see it pop up in the comments all these people saying you’re
wrong no things can be done from home no it can’t you have to be in the building with like-minded people you know how
much stuff that I have on my agenda every day um that needs to be done but other
things that pop up in the office and you get a bunch of of smart hard-working people in a room together and you go on
a completely different you know you you have to have people in the
office working every day and these people that don’t want to stay home man stay home and and do your thing good
luck to you I wish you all the luck in the world there’s going to be a small group of hungry Savages out there that
are going to run every one of you over and you can sit home and you can cry and complain about how you didn’t get yours
and it’s because this person had this opportunity that you didn’t have it’s all crybaby stuff that’s going
on in the whole world like you said but more so in the United States like I’ve never seen before I read a great profile
of You by the financial times and the the rights are clearly gun in with the kind of idea that maybe you were going
to be some kind of egotistical monster whatever but he found the complete opposite and he told some really
interesting stories one of which was as you were coming out of the pandemic in the middle of the pandemic how you got
all your team together 300 people I think and you said there’s absolutely no way I’m going to start cutting you off
you know firing a lot of people to save money we’re going to get through this together and apparently the reaction
from your staff was extraordinary um how important was that moment for you
to prove yourself as a boss in the tough times as well as the good
yeah uh it’s so true it’s like you know the the UFC has been this rocket ship of
success um since 2005 right and nobody does
anything by themselves you build a great team around yourself you know you know smart talented hard-working people who
sacrifice every day uh they didn’t see their kids football game or they didn’t go to this play because they’re out
working hard to build the sport and build the company right now you’re gonna tell me covet comes covet never really
made sense to me uh you know from the beginning the first day when everything started to shut down and it was getting
weird I got all my employees together and I said listen I don’t know what’s going on I I can’t
explain I don’t have the answers for you but if any of you are scared or feel like you’re you know your life is in
danger or somebody at home might be in danger you guys can go home and do whatever you have to do my team is a
bunch of of solid uh you know they couldn’t be any more solid and I tell
these people how much I love them all the time so what you’re going to tell me is the first time that we ever face adversity
right we’re facing real adversity here I’m gonna start laying these people off in the scariest time in the history of
the world good luck to you you know we we gotta save the bottom line over here
I will never pick money over people so I I was willing to give up my salary
my bonus whatever it was going to take to make sure that everybody was comfortable that we could take care of
the employees and then I started trying to find a way to go through covet don’t this is America
we we’ve been doing this since the day this country started is solving problems
you have to figure out here’s the problem how’s there a solution now in Abu Dhabi
these guys were way ahead of the curve they were testing they were doing all this stuff well if they can test we can
test we can figure this out so that was always my thought process going through
it there was no way I was going to let go of my employees during the scariest time of our lifetime we’re going to
stick together and we’re going to fight through this together or we were all going to sink together
that’s how it was going to go you talked about Abu Dhabi there in the Middle East um and you’re a big fan of a lot of what
goes on in the Middle East particularly in sport and other things they’re obviously getting more and more dominant now in sports like golf with the Saudi
live League you now have the Saudi Football League led by Cristiano Ronaldo but loads of top stars going out there
I’m a good friend to Cristiano and I’ve been following this journey with him quite a Fascination it’s taken a lot of
blow back from people who say we shouldn’t be allowing the Saudis or
other Middle Eastern countries who have a bad human rights records to be doing this to sport what’s your view
yeah my relationship has been with uh with Abu Dhabi in the UAE for years now
and uh if you look at what that royal family has done with that country over
the last 50 years it’s incredible um and they were the first ones really to do it they started getting involved
in sports and and saw the whole Sports thing coming I mean UFC has been in business with them
for like 15 years um and to be honest with you when the
hit the fan during covid these guys were way ahead of the curve way ahead of you
know what was going on and and how to test and how to create a true bubble and
and that was why I ended up doing what I did uh with Abu Dhabi when this stuff
happened and I think you’re going to see more of that they obviously they have the money you know Saudi UAE uh Qatar
the list goes on and on they have the money and and they see where this is all going when you look at live television
now they’re streaming and you can dump a whole season on Netflix and you can consume whole season the only thing that
is really destination television that you have to watch live is live sports
right and do you have any do you have do you have any moral qualms about the
human rights records of some of these countries or do you think it should be just kept out of sport that actually I
mean I have a view that almost every country if you put a real forensic Gaze on them about reasons for not to let
them have sport on moral grounds you’d end up having to play everything in Iceland or Switzerland
yeah yeah I don’t know that that’s a tough one I mean that that’s a that’s a
whole different subject and a whole different conversation um you know we we do business with UAE
these guys have always been great Stand Up Guys I’m sure you can find some
issues with whatever you can find some issues with with lots of different companies that that that uh do business
in the United States and everywhere in the world when it comes to Human Rights and what you think is right and what you
think is wrong um I I and very comfortable sitting here today
telling you that uh my relationship with the royal family of UAE has been amazing
they’ve never been anything but great to us and our people um you know
I respect them and I consider them friends too there’s been a little speculation about a massive potential
fight in the Octagon between Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg you’ve been quite excited about this uh
do you think it’s going to happen do you think you will be the guy to put it on and how much money could it generate
well we were talking about that earlier on I think that has uh Fallen apart I
think I think that uh you know had it happened and had we moved forward and done it it was it would have done a
billion dollars in Revenue um and uh that I don’t know I mean if I knew the
answer to that I’d be Vince McMahon but uh you know who wins and who loses I don’t determine they do but uh I tell
you this it would have been huge it would have been the biggest fight in the history of the world and no fight would
have uh you’d have had to have Trump versus Putin to to uh to beat that record well actually I interviewed Chris
Christie one of the Republican candidates to be president and he offered to get in the octagon with Trump that would be a battle of the
heavyweights that is true yeah that is true listen a lot of guys say I want to you know throw
me in the octagon and then when it comes down to actually doing it very few people in the world will actually do it
I think that’s completely right I mean I think UFC fight scene of all the forms
of fighting that exist I think it’s the most skilled and it’s the most courageous because what they do to each
other and that octagon can often be quite terrifying yeah no it takes a certain type of
person that’s why there’s very few people in the world that actually make it into the UFC and get to that level
um you have to be a very special unique different human being in the way that
you’re built made up no you know not just forget about talent and and and the determination and the grit that it takes
to go out and train every day to become you know a mixed martial arts fighter but to get to this level of the UFC
very very few people can do it and we’re going to see Conor McGregor back in a
high profile fight he is back in the gym he’s training and
uh yeah I I expect to see Connor fighting next year does it matter that he’s lost
a few big fights recently does that impact on his ability to put bums on
seat sell tickets well here’s what happens Pearson I I you know this I’m sure you’ve seen this with
colleagues and friends and and people that you know um once a certain level of money
is attained you know to to to be the person that you
were coming up to be that hungry and and work that hard and be that dedicated to
the sport or or whatever craft it is you do money changes everything and Conor
McGregor has made that kind of money um and it’s not a knock it’s just just a
fact I mean when we sold the company in 2016 it you know this was sort of like a
a Microsoft of fighting you know there were a lot of people that made a lot of money and a lot of people left and they
went and they went and retired or moved on to uh you know you have to have a
certain type of drive to make that kind of money and that you’ve seen guys in this sport
when they make that kind of money you know they’ll fight a lot less like Connor has or they go on
losing streaks because it’s just you are not that same person once you get that
kind of money you lose the edge the hunger yeah yeah the the hunger and
the drive is not the same you know everything Conor McGregor’s a perfect
example everything that Conor McGregor ever dreamed of and stuff he couldn’t possibly dream of in his life
he has right now you know um and and it’s and it’s tough to be on
a yacht all summer and then say I got to get back in the gym and and start grinding
again and again it’s not a knock it’s just it’s it’s the way it’s the way life is especially in the fight business
especially in the fight business social media has been a massive thing for you and you actually gave one person some
great advice because Dwayne Johnson The Rock did not want to go on to social media you persuaded it single-handedly
he said you’re mad you should be on social media he’s now the most followed American man on Instagram so I think the
words he’s looking for are thank you Dana yeah the rock didn’t want to be on
social media and I said you’re crazy I said do you know how big you’ll be on social media and I kind of explained it
uh to him from a business perspective on why he should do it and I actually set him up
with my social media team and they they got him started and got them going and I mean the guy is an absolute Juggernaut
now on social media so yeah it’s social media I mean you’ve got kids I’ve got
kids social media has a lot of good stuff about it there’s no question has some bad stuff it can be pretty
toxic a lot of kids suffer from anxiety from the stuff that exists on social media what do you think on the balance
sheet is it a Force for good or not yeah I think there’s a lot of negative
things in this world that if you if you focus on that type of stuff and if you’re not Tough Enough and if you’re
not hard enough for it let me tell you what if you if if your feelings get hurt easily you should stay as far away from
social media as possible okay exactly agree but social media is one of the greatest
marketing tools of all time right and what you have to understand is you have
to embrace the negativity too the negative you can’t just have you’re never going to be in a scenario anywhere
in life where everything is positive oh everybody loves me and everybody’s saying great things about all the things
that I do it just it’s impossible so to if if that is even your mindset you’re
way too soft for probably a lot of things but to say that social media is bad it’s it’s the same thing that that
they said about us when we were younger that television was horrible for you my God if you watch television and this and
that and everything listen there’s a lot of bad things out there in the world if you are soft and if you are a total wimp
you know forget about it everything’s gonna bother you everything’s gonna hurt your feelings and everything’s going to
give you anxiety what do you what do you say yourself up in a closet somewhere and hide from the whole world you know
one day though it’s so refreshing to hear this because so few public figures will actually say this stuff and more
because they get terrified the won’t Brigade is going to cancel them for saying things which are so obviously
true and I just it’s refreshing whenever I hear you speak I think this guy just says what he thinks and by the way I
agree with most of what you say yeah so social media is the greatest
marketing tool in the world if you own a business or you’re you’re aspiring to do something uh you know and and get your
your image your product your whatever it is out there you’re insane not to be on social media but don’t go on social
media and thinking that it’s gonna here’s the other thing that you have to understand too about the negativity on
social media if you’re out there looking to promote something you have to embrace the negativity because the negative
people are so loony they’re so bad nuts that these people will stay on
there all day fighting with everybody to make it and it kicks you up into the algorithm and actually makes your post
act more popular you know you this this is what a lot of these big corporations don’t understand like these big
corporations want to we want to get into social media and everything else well you better get ready for some negativity
but most of them can’t handle negativity so that so they they try to stay away from it we live in a hard world people
are mean and people say mean things and people do mean things that’s how that’s been that way since the beginning of
time and it’s never going to change so either toughen up or go hide somewhere
just get out of the way we’re in a very strange place at the moment in sport where biological males are beginning to
dominate biological females in women’s sport because they identify as women what do you think of that
I think you know exactly what I think of that I think that you know let me put it
to you this way I have a daughter okay and and uh you know I I don’t ever want to see a
day where somebody who is a biological male is competing against my daughter so
yeah no I I think it’s uh it’s another it’s another nutty you know insane thing
that’s happening in the world today you know that we’re all trying to deal with and uh yeah I’m just glad there’s no
some my daughter’s a cheerleader so she’s not playing any competitive sports but uh you know it hasn’t happened in
the chair in the cheer world yet I mean if your daughter wanted to be a fighter what would you feel about that
because you put on some very very big fights involving women I gotta be honest I I never feel that comfortable watching
women smacking Seven Bells out of each other I know it’s hugely popular I know they love doing it I know that some of
them become Superstars I make tons of money but as the father of an 11 year old girl myself I would never want to
see her do it how do you feel about if your daughter wanted to I famously got hammered uh like 10 years
ago saying women would never fight in the UFC and then I met Ronda Rousey and uh because she changed my whole
she looked dangerous from about five rows away did you talk to her I just said hello
but she was I mean she had an intimidating Aura and I thought yeah I mean she’s someone that clearly Revels
in that sport Revels in fighting yeah and why should I be a secretary he can think that women shouldn’t be able to do
what men do yeah no you’re absolutely right and and I was I had the same thing but you have
to understand the context at the time I was trying to get people to accept men
fighting in a cage women fighting in a cage I was like oh my God this will be next to Impossible but if you look at
what we did almost everything was impossible in building this business to what we built it to today but what I did
learn is that these were I never expected these women to be as Technical
and and as badass as they have been and the answer to that question is yes if my
daughter wanted to fight I would absolutely let her fight I wouldn’t stop my daughter from doing anything or
competing in anything that you wanted to do I would actually be very supportive and and help in any way that I possibly
could who is the greatest fighter of any kind that you’ve ever seen of any time
in any sport anytime any sport it’s so hard to put your thumb on it
because I think well let me let me make it an easy question I’ll make an easy question if you could choose one person
in history say modern history last hundred years to fight literally for your life who would
it be oh God you know I’m a big Ali fan he was
so iconic and he changed so many things uh in the world in culture and and uh
you know as far as racism and so many different things go Ali was such a massive figure in life you know not just
boxing um was he the greatest ever out of one of the greatest humans ever that’s a fact
but that’s not the question as far as you did lose three times I know
you got me on this one I mean Jon Jones who’s in the UFC still has never been
beat this guy has beat everybody and when you talk about real fighting you know when you talk about who the baddest
man on the planet is when you talk about that the real definition of what that means you throw
two guys in a room and who comes out yeah okay that’s the baddest man on the
planet and it’s it and and it is hard to not say that Jon Jones is that guy right
now I tell you who I would say I would take Tyson before he went into prison
Mike Tyson I thought I for those 100 but for those three who doesn’t know the ground game Tyson can’t grapple type
there’s no Tyson’s hanging over here his quote is on the wall over here nobody loves Mike Tyson more than I do believe
me but when you talk about putting two guys in a room who comes out Jon Jones has the tools to beat everybody
I want to come back and just uh finally talk to you about your health because you’ve had some pretty big Health scares
and a guy called Gary Brecker who’s going to join you has pretty much I think you would say helps save your life
and we’re going to talk about how that’s happened and why it had to happen so we’ve been joined Now by Gary breckett I
think the easiest thing Dana explain to to the audience who Gary is and why is so important to you
yeah so Gary Brecker is a human biologist and and I met him uh through through a long time friend of mine and
basically when you go see a doctor about your General Health they want to put you on pills and at the time that I met him
I was on three different medications and you know basically when you look at these different meds each one of them
have you know 10 side effects and I was dealing with three different
doctors at the time and they they couldn’t tell me any they couldn’t fix what was wrong with my legs they
couldn’t fix they couldn’t really keep my blood pressure under control they couldn’t keep my cholesterol under control my triglycerides were off the
charts I mean I got your show isn’t long enough for me to walk you through the laundry list of things that were wrong
with me so I ended up finding out that he was a mortality expert so
he could tell you when you were going to die and he would be right within a month or so I became obsessed with this so
that was all I cared about I didn’t want all the I didn’t believe I used to call this hippie this is all hippie
I don’t believe in it and you know I meet the guy he does my blood work and
he lives in Miami I live in Vegas so he keeps calling me saying you know I want to come out and walk through your blood work I said I don’t care about walking
through my blood work when am I going to die so he finally talks me into coming out and he starts going through my blood
work and he starts telling me everything that’s wrong with me with no medical history whatsoever on me so this is kind
of blowing me away then he told me what was wrong with my parents and he was right so basically he ended up getting
me and he says to me uh give me 10 weeks I promise I’ll change your life so I
said all right I’ll commit 10 weeks to this thing and to say that this guy has changed my life is the understatement of
of of the century I mean I as I got to the 10-week point I started to feel like
I was in my 30s again and now I’ve been with him a year and a half and I’m not kidding you I feel like I’m in my 20s my
level of productivity at work my cognitive my physical I mean just
everything this guy is a genius and I tell everybody you know you know we you
start to get the stuff we were talking about social media this guy’s a scam artist he’s scamming you this and that numbers don’t lie this guy has taken my
blood work from absolutely horrible to the best it’s ever been in my life even my doctors agree with it and and uh he’s
he’s brilliant if this guy called me and told me to squirt hot sauce on my eyes I’d do it well before I come to Gary
just quickly how long did he say you had to live if he hadn’t changed things he yeah he gave me 10.4 years and what’s
what’s crazy about that is he gave me 10 points he said if you stay on this trajectory that you’re on you’re going
to live another 10.4 years and me and my wife both disagree with him I actually
think I wouldn’t have made it 10.4 years if I hadn’t met him that’s how different I feel compared to where I was and you
know when you think of these things the other big problem for me was sleep apnea and snoring it was horrible I couldn’t
sleep through the night and you go see a doctor and what do they tell you to do yeah put this mask on with this machine
and you know what I mean I don’t snore and I don’t have sleep apnea anymore he’s cured everything that was wrong
with me let me bring in Gary so Gary I mean that’s one of the great marketing pictures I’ve heard in in a very short
it absolutely is right in a short nutshell what have you done today to
make him so enthusiastic and to in his eyes prolong his life
I mean so Dana had a common precursor for cardiovascular disease called metabolic syndrome it’s actually the
leading cause of cardiovascular disease which is the leading cause of death worldwide and it’s a combination of of
five things abdominal obesity low healthy cholesterol low HDL cholesterol
elevated insulin and blood sugar elevated cholesterol and hypertension
and to have any two of those five is considered to have meta you know you’re
considered to have metabolic syndrome something you should get addressed it’s why I think everybody should get data on their bodies he had five of five
um he had triglycerides through the roof he had abdominal obesity he had low healthy levels of cholesterol he was
hyperinsulinemic meaning his insulin was very high and he was um pre-diabetic and
so as much of a disaster as that sounds like you know all of those things meet at a common Hub of lifestyle and diet
and supplementation and you know a lot of people talk about the expense that you have have to go through to fix that
it wasn’t that it was expensive it would have been expensive if he had not fixed it but over the course of just 10 weeks
you know we lowered his triglycerides back into the normal range and we’re talking about triglyceride levels that were eight times the normal level
um back into the normal range he started exercising again he went on a keto reset diet the majority of what Dana did was
really what Dana did himself I mean there are people listening to this show right now that because they don’t have
abdominal obesity think that they can escape metabolic syndrome and that’s patently false everybody that’s listening to this show right now you
should go to your doctor and get that data ask your doctor about metabolic syndrome and if they don’t know what
metabolic syndrome is get a new doctor um just quickly Gary what were the key
things that Dana changed in terms of diet which made a big difference so we
did three thing big things with Dana we did hormone balance we did nutrient deficiencies and we did glycemic control
it controls blood sugar so he went on a strict um keto reset diet which is a very
strict I call it a prescription keto diet meaning you have to eat exactly what is on this plan morning noon and
night um for 10 weeks or this situation could get a whole lot worse so we went on a
strict heat of diet he had a strict um exercise and workout routine we also started to use modalities that you can
access for free in nature but he actually bought equipment he bought a pemf mat he bought an oxygen it’s called
hypermax where he breathes oxygen for 10 to 12 minutes a day while he mildly exercises and he bought a red light bed
and before everybody jumps on me for saying that you have to buy all this expensive equipment you can get the same effect by taking your shoes off and
grounding on the surface of the Earth learning to do breath work and exposing your skin to sunlight so he did
magnetism oxygen and light with a pmf matte oxygen and a red light bed and he
went on a strict 10-week keto reset diet it’s fascinating I’ve got a I’ve got to
unfortunately wrap it up but it’s fascinating I don’t know whether to see you or not Gary because when I don’t want to hear is you look at me and go
appears unfortunately uh you’re leaving us next Tuesday
I can fix that and you know we’ll push it out a couple of thousand Tuesdays it’s been brilliant uh honestly I’ve
I’ve had such a fascinating time uh going over your life your extraordinary career your amazing achievement with UFC
my son’s I started with isn’t going to end it they’re all massive UFC fans they’re all very excited about this
interview the first question they’re going to ask is Dad how did you do did Dana think you’re any good that’s all
they’ll care about so what’s the verdict incredible great interview it was a
pleasure and uh tell your boys thank you I really appreciate the support I see what they really want to hear Dana
is can they have tickets to you next fight as well yeah they’re invited to any
fights they ever want to come to anywhere in the world you just let me know and uh I got them well it’s very kind you’re gonna wish you’d never said
those words but they will be jumping off the sofa listening to that uh Dana White you’re a phenomenon uh the Ft piece I
referenced earlier the financial times they summed up your great talent like this they said he can transfer his
immense excitement to others with almost no loss of energy it’s the greatest thing to watch in the world
uh to him he’s not manipulating you he’s just an enthusiast
you’re one of life’s enthusiasts which given where you came from and the hardship you overcame and the lack of
love from your parents is a pretty amazing achievement so I congratulate you
thank you I appreciate it how would you like to be remembered you could write your own Tombstone what would you say
that I said it many times we talked about it here today the only thing I care about is that my kids remember me
and uh what they think when I’m gone all this other stuff means nothing to me it’s uh I I’m very fortunate that I get
to do what I love to do every day and I still am very passionate about it um but at the end of the day it’s it’s
all about how I how I was as a father and what my kids think I couldn’t agree more Dana White what a
pleasure thank you very much indeed likewise thank you
