April 21, 2021 • 37 mins
On this episode of The Colin Cowherd Podcast, Colin opens by defending the rogue 12-team super club soccer league that is drawing outrage from FIFA (1:00). His guest this week is UFC President Dana White, who discusses sponsors coming around during the pandemic (4:00), why he supports Jake Paul cashing in as a boxer (9:00), if Conor McGregor still has a place in UFC (10:00), why he doesn't want to expand to outdoor arenas (12:00), the difference in running the sport now compared to the beginning of his tenure (15:00), if the sport needs more domestic stars (21:00), how he continues to find new talent (23:00), his reaction to the recent pre-fight weigh-in altercation (25:00), his complicated relationship with the media (27:00), what to watch for at UFC 261 in Jacksonville (31:00), which fighter could be the sport's next big star (29:00), and who he considers the most dominant UFC fighter ever (33:00).
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. The Colin Cowherd Podcast brought to you by
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(00:31):
Everybody wants to be bold, daring trailblazer. But being a
trailblazer isn't just blazing the trail. It's actually having the
balls to set the fire, let it burn, and then
walk down the trail you just blazed. The other day,
the heads of all the big European soccer teams blazed
a pretty impressive trail. Then that blaze became a bonfire,
and twenty four hours later they pulled the fire alarm,
(00:54):
broke the glass and ran for the nearest fire escape.
In case you need to catch up on this story
or the other day, like literally the other day, all
the top European soccer clubs like Arsenal, Real, Madrid, Chelsea
basically told the top soccer leagues to go u way
for themselves because they were going off to start their
own super league. Then came the obvious blowback. Tons of
(01:18):
protests from angry European soccer fans. Well, I'll just say
soccer fans, since soccer fans in Europe are usually angry anyway,
the fans protested and suddenly the teams got scared. The
chairman of man You resigned, the president of Uventus resigned,
and now the Super League is neither super or a league. Figures,
(01:40):
everybody wants to be bold, few have the cajones to
deal with the blowback. A few years ago, ESPN signed
the edgy bar Stool Sports and put them on the air.
One episode later, they pulled the stool right out from
under them. Recently, Spotify signed the edgy podcaster Joe Rogan,
(02:00):
then oh so quietly removed more than forty of his
episodes that were just too edgy. Those Vanilla executives love
blazing the trail right up until they get burned. That's
not being bold. In fact, it's the opposite. Listen, I've
had blowback. It's part of my career. But when I
go to a therapist, I don't talk about the audience
(02:21):
that hates me. It's mostly about my weird childhood, and frankly,
half of my audience hates me. Some days I hate
half my audience. I think it's beautiful we can at
least share that common ground these days, if you can't
stand the heat, not only get out of the kitchen,
still eat your Twitter. So to all those bold and daring,
(02:41):
trail blazing leaders of the European soccer world, I commend
you for that solid twenty seven hours of boldness. You showed.
Well done. Next time, who knows, maybe it can last
a whole week. And with that I lead to somebody
who knows a thing or two about handling blowback, somebody
who is frankly a master at it. He's proven time
(03:01):
and time again, especially over the course of the last
year and how he's handled the pandemic. My friend UFC
Commissioner Dana White. All Right, I've known Dana White for
a long time, don't really need to introduce him, but
I've been saying the last week anybody in life that
does something first gets the most blowback. And I thought
(03:22):
the commissioner that did the best job in the country
was not Adam Silver Roger Goodell, it was Dana White.
Because it's really easy to follow somebody else who takes
the headwind, and it was easier for everybody else, And Dana,
who started this business with about two million bucks in
two thousand and one sold it for over four billion.
(03:43):
You think bitcoin is making people money. Dana did very
well for himself. It is interesting, Dana, because listen, you
got corporations. I mean, you're not just a maverick doing
it yourself. You got your big beer sponsors. And so
when you went for it and fight I did, was
there any part of you that thought, shit, I'm gonna
get some corporate blowback here from some of my sponsors. Yeah,
(04:07):
first of all, thank you. At second of all, yes,
we definitely thought we would. But our sponsors were pretty cool.
Actually they let me. Let me put it to you
this way. So when we went our sponsors stood by
us and it stuck with us, and we're very cool.
Then sponsorship went through the roof once we pulled it
(04:31):
off safely. Um, we killed it. We killed it in
twenty twenty was sponsorship, and it led over into twenty
twenty one and we have we broke the all time
record for the company for for global sponsorship. You know,
it's interesting because when ESPN and you made the deal,
(04:55):
I I know you know, we know every you know
everybody at Fox. I know everybody at Fox ESPN. I
worked there for a decade and I said, I said
to one of the executives there, I said, I don't
worry about UFC. It's whether you guys have the cajonez.
Because Dana White is not Adam Silver. He's not gonna
do with the you know, sometimes he's gonna say stuff
(05:15):
and you gotta deal with it. The responsibility's not on him.
It's on you because it's gonna make you a lot
of money. And when you go into a big deal.
Was there a moment Dana were you thought, Okay, holy
you know it's Disney. Okay, it's a different baby. You
know Fox we do the Simpsons, they do Beauty and
the Beast. It's a little different brand. Did you for
(05:35):
five minutes worry got it? I got a tiptoe a
little bit here. I did worry about them, and I
have to be brutally honest. As usual, they have been
incredibly supportive. Man. I have to say, we had that
one that you know, I was going to go on
that Indian reservation in California originally, you know, because I
(05:57):
was trying to find a way to get around all this. Uh,
you know, everything was closing down the day after day
after day after day, and I get it. The governor
of California and other people. They called ESPN, they called
Disney and they said, listen, you gotta shut this down.
(06:19):
Happening here and whatever. And I can't get into details,
but ESPN came to us, asked us to stand down,
but reciprocated. They were very very good and how they
handled it, and they've been very supportive and the relationship
(06:39):
has been awesome. And you know, I love my time
over at Fox. Eric's I just saw Eric Shanks the
other day. I love Shanks. We look, we all here
at UFC love all the people from Fox and the
relationships that we had with them. But I can tell
you this. You know, when you're an organization like me
that started where we started, you think about being on
(07:01):
ESPN someday and you think that it will be big
for your business and you think it'll be, uh, you know,
a big moment and change the dynamic of everything, but
you don't really realize until you get there what it's
really like to be with ESPN. Well, the scale's much bigger.
We're a much smaller company now. We do live, Sports, Live, Politics,
(07:23):
Live news. ESPN's much bigger, Disney's much bigger. So from
your vantage point, I totally got it in my takeaway.
And I remember I talked to Shanks and others about this.
I'm like, I'm still going to talk to UFC. I
buy their cards. So and he's like, of course, like
we're not We're not territorial. Both have a great relationship
with Fox Fox. Let me tell you what. There is
no ESPN without Fox. That's a fact. Yeah, they helped
(07:48):
build UFC. You know, it's interesting. So I took my
wife's not a sports fan, but I took her to
Mayweather and McGregor and it was the most fun. It
was better than any concert we've gone to. And it's interesting,
Dana and I'm and listen, I'm I'm kind of a traditionalist,
but I grew up with their devils. I grew up,
(08:10):
you know, I grew up with that shit evil Knevil.
And I remember when Ali fought a Japanese wrestler. And
I watched Jake Paul this weekend, and I know it's sticky,
but I'm sitting to myself thinking, if it's interesting, you
have to have these conversations McGregor and Mayweather was fascinating
and I'm thinking to myself, you know, we can all
(08:31):
make fun of Jake Paul, but shit, he's three and
oh he's totally into it. I mean, he's not going
to be a heavyweight champ, but there's something there. I mean,
how do you view a celebrity boxer who is authentic
and is into it and he cares. How do you
view it? Let me tell you what. Boxing has just
continues to decline like this, and this whole Jake Paul
(08:55):
thing is the right guy at the right time. And
you know, this kid's doing what he needs to do
and he's gonna get paid. He's getting paid. Um, you know,
he keeps, you know, doing what he's doing. He's got
these these kids, you know, believing, you know, they're believing
that this guy is the guy. And part of being
(09:19):
a showman and and making money and and doing these
things and being an entertainer is all part of what
this kid is doing. And he's doing it. So good
for him. You know, when you go back on the
fighters you've had, um, some of them, McGregor are really dynamic.
They just totally Muhammad Ali embraced showmanship. Joe Frazier, didn't
(09:41):
you know that Ken Norton maybe didn't. George Foreman, the
second George Foreman did, the first one didn't. When you
get him McGregor and he I think he you know,
he he's gonna fight again, and he's still a very
good watch. All buy it. He's a good one watch.
But where is Dana White? Where are you on the Okay? Now,
(10:06):
it's not good for my business? Or is it strictly
pay per view buys? No, it's well, there's there's there's
two different things. Well you can we're talking about the
Jake Paul kid. You know, ideal in the best, fighting
the best. There's no gimmicks over here, there's no you
know that that whole thing is a great gimmick at
(10:26):
the right time, in the right place. So Connor McGregor,
you know, is still fighting the best in the world.
He's still fighting the best guys in the world. And
until he gets to a point where you know, he
gets so many losses that he can't continue to compete.
I mean, it's time gets us all, age gets us
all it will get you know, it got the Chuck
(10:48):
Lidell's it got the Ronda Rousies and the list goes
on and on of people that we've had. Um. But
but Connor McGregor in his day and his age and
his time was undisputably one of the one of the best.
Is there such thing as bad press? I will watch McGregor.
I think John Jones in my in my opinion, when
(11:11):
John is focused, he is your most dynamic fighter ever.
I'm not saying he's the best. That's probably habib But
in terms of my eyes your screen watching a fighter focused.
He's had some bad press. McGregor's had it. But Dana,
is there such a thing in your business or do
you find that Listen? Do you ever have to weigh
(11:33):
it ain't great for my brand, but it's good for
pay per view? Or is there a bad press? Well,
there's there's different things. You know. Obviously John Jones and
Connor McGregor's and the guys like this, you know, they're
fighters at the end of the day. And I think
that people, um, you know, look at fighters different than
than they look at you know, public figures or or
(11:56):
you know, guys who run companies and maybe even other
athletes too. I think they get a little more Leeway people. Yeah,
you're right. So you know, I don't think when you're
a fight. I think when you're a fighter, you know,
the crazier the better. When it comes to the fans,
the fans, you know, I love the crazy people. Um,
you know. Uh so, So I don't know if it
(12:19):
negatively impacts our business, does do you? There's Madison Square
guard I mean forever and ever. It took a while
to get into New York. You've had Fight Island, you
had Vegas. I still think Vegas feels bigger to me.
But there are cities Dallas, Miami, London which feel feel
to me like big cities. Dana, tell me how it
(12:43):
works for your business. If a city came to you,
if Jerry Jones came to you and said, hey, I
want to buy a year, I want to buy four
fight cards, tell me how that works. How do you
end up where you end up? Well, normally, what we
do is we travel this thing around to plays that
we haven't been in a while. Obviously, since this pandemic,
(13:03):
we haven't been anywhere in a while. So we went
on sale in Jacksonville. We sold Jacksonville is this Saturday.
We sold out under five minutes we put Houston on
sale right behind it sold out, and under five minutes
we put Vegas on sale with Connor McGregor and Dustin Pourier.
Twenty thousand, eight hundred tickets sold out in seconds. So
(13:27):
three events, fifty thousand tickets, twenty million dollars in revenue,
and under five minutes. Okay, So why not go to them?
Why not go two hundred thousand stee stadiums? Why not? Yeah?
I probably should have, but you know, only only places
(13:48):
that are playing ball the way that I want to
play ball right now are Florida, Texas and Vegas will
open up again. That one's gonna be July tenth. So
you know, as things start to open up and there's
weren't any places where I could really go, and I
won't do an outdoor arena. Tell me why because the
(14:12):
weather is too unpredictable and having fights outside if it rains,
if it's too windy, you know, there's certain things that
can happen that will affect the outcome of the fight,
and I don't like that. You know those hot takes
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See FanDuel dot com for terms and conditions. Dana, I know,
(15:41):
I mean, I know I've told you. I don't I
think I've told you this story. I remember the first
time I watched MMA, it was in the condor. It
was a sports bar in San Francisco, and it was
pretty rough. And you came in and you know, you're
a maverick, but you clean some stuff up, you no
question about it. You saw the revenue with advertisers if
you clean some of the stuff up. But it still
(16:01):
has to be brutal. This this can't look like anything else,
nor does it. So you start the business and you
had a lot to fight through commissions in New York
and States. Is it harder to do that or is
it harder now to stay at your standards that you demand.
It would seem everybody would think, oh, it's easy for
(16:23):
Danta now he's got the damn thing rolling. But your
standards have changed now everybody expects a certain level of excellence.
Is that Compare the two, which is actually harder? Yeah? No,
I think that our philosophy in buying this thing is,
you know this, many people want to see a real sport.
This many people want to see a freak show. So
(16:44):
you could you could, you know, build a better business,
build the sport by being a real sport and following
you know, like you said, the gold standards and it's
what we try to do. You know, every time that
we put on an event, I want to put on
the best live product that I can for you on television.
Listen if I get you, well, it's in the real
(17:06):
world when everything was normal for me to get you
to stay home on a Saturday night. You know, there's
just so many other things that you can do. The
new movie that just came out. You got to take
your wife out to dinner. It's a beautiful night out.
You want to go out anyway or whatever. There's just
so many different things that we compete with. I have
to put on a product that makes you want to
stay home on Saturday and watch it. But more importantly,
(17:29):
when it's over, you turn the TV off and you say,
I'm so glad I stay at home and watch this.
You know that what I have to deliver every Saturday.
Then for the people who fly in from out of town,
I have to put on an incredible live experience for
them inside the arena. So those are the things that
I focus on every Saturday. Who in your inner circle
(17:53):
you get sick tomorrow and you got four days and
the event Saturday and you can't get out of bed.
Who is your right hand man that you trust implicitly. Well,
there's different there's different people in different places, as a
guy named Craig more Sorry, who runs all the production
who I would talk to you know multiple times, a
night hunter Campbell, who is my lawyer but also my
(18:18):
right hand man in making all the fights and making
sure that everything is done the right way the night
of the fight legally and everything else. And our chief
operating officer Laurence Epstein. You know, I have a good
cruise around me that I'm in great communication with all
(18:39):
the time. Plus all the other guys that run the
show know what I'm looking for, know what I'm not
looking for. It's almost on. I don't want to say
it's on autopilot, but it's damn close. Most great people
I've ever met are good listeners, and you have such
a strong voice. Are there ever times one of your
(18:59):
advisers says, Dana, this is just it's not gonna work
and you and you say shit, You turn the telescope
around and go, wow, I missed on that. Yeah, So
I mean I listen. I listen. I hired these people
that are around me for a reason. I trust them,
I respect them, and I listen to Lenae, who's sitting
(19:20):
right here, my head of pr I asked her stuff
all the time. I ask her advice. I asked her questions.
She works here because she's the best of the business,
and and you know, I take her advice all the time.
I'm not. I need somebody to sometimes I go fucking
who you know what I mean? And I need somebody
(19:41):
to fucking reel me back in and say, yeah, no, Dana,
don't do that. That's not a good idea. Have you noticed,
because when you're a young business and I really still
consider you, I mean, you've arrived, you're not going anywhere,
you're ascending, But in the history of American sports, you're
still young. When have you noticed that these other leagues
(20:06):
have ever stolen things from you? Production graphics? Like you
ever watched these leagues and things? Well, you, son of
a blank, you stole that from us, And I love it.
I mean, it's it's the old I don't ever say
son of a bitch, but I go, oh, look, they
got that from us all the time. Me and Lorenzo
used to do that all the time. Um, but it's
(20:26):
awesome because guess what a lot of what I do
I got from them? I mean, I grew up watching
these sports, whether it was the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA,
bass or boxing. Um, you know, I saw all these
things that I like, I saw things that I didn't like.
Took from here, it took from there, and uh yeah,
(20:48):
it's just it's it's the ultimate uh compliment when you
see that stuff happening, Dana. The great thing about being
an international sport is the quality of your sport is
just deep. There's just more good fighters now, there is
that balance. Part of the NFL's success is it's a
(21:11):
strictly domestic product. Hockey's international, basketball is increasingly international. You
currently have a lot of international champions, not as many domestic.
This is a two part question. Number one, why do
certain cultures Russia, why do they produce so many good fighters?
(21:32):
And are you ever concerned that you don't have enough
you know, domestic champs. Yeah, it's it's it's funny because
as the sport was growing, there were obviously a lot
of American champions, a lot of Brazilian champions. And as
it's grown internationally, you know, it's part of what's what's
(21:52):
helped this thing grow. When you get somebody, for instance,
like Connor McGregor. When you get a guy looks like you,
talks like you would from where you come from, and
he's seen as the baddest motherfucker in the world, everybody
in that country gets behind him, you know. So he
really helped Europe explode. We got three Africans right now,
(22:14):
right it's exploding in Africa. We're working on doing an event.
We're probably gonna do an event in twenty twenty two
in Africa, which has always been a dream of mine.
So that's huge. And one of the things about fighting
that's fascinating is as Americans, like if an Italian. We
got a kid named a Tory who's Italian. If he
(22:37):
wins and becomes a world champion, like he's in the
top five right now, if he becomes a world champion,
believe in Italy is gonna blow up. Everybody in Italy
will be talking about UFC and watch the UFC. But
in America, we don't care as much where these guys
are from. We just care who's the best, and we
just want to see the best compete. The guy could
(22:58):
be British, the guy could be a Eric, and the
guy could be Polish, Italian, Puerto Rican. We don't care.
We just want to see the best fight the best.
I may have asked you this before, so you have
you must have a fairly big scouting department, Dana, Like,
if somebody's listening to me, obviously you're looking at tape constantly.
(23:22):
But what's your minor league system? Where do you find
guys in at what age? Yeah? So I have My
scouting system is two guys. I have two guys too, Yeah,
two matchmakers who have their finger on the pulse of
what's going on out there. They know who all the
up and coming guys are, and and if they see
(23:46):
somebody that's really special that they think is whatever, they'll
get me involved early. Otherwise I will see these people
the night of the fight, and I decide who I
like and who I think could be next, and then
we start working internally to build these kids into stars. Okay,
(24:06):
what are you looking for? First of all, Well, it's
a lot better when we have crowds, because you can
see the way the crowd reacts to a guy or
girl when they come out, when they fight, when they
do their interview, how they fight. There's just so many
different things that go into seeing if if somebody has
(24:27):
that quality to be a superstar. So this weekend, Jeremy
Stevens in that fight with her clothes. He got canceled
because there was an injury in the stairedown and by
the way, the stare down part of your cars are
kind of interesting. But I'm watching that and I'm thinking, Oh,
(24:48):
Dana is not going to put up with that nonsense.
I mean, that got so where do you stand on that?
Are you gonna make changes? So my daughter, it's funny
you saying this. My daughter was competing in the ESPN
cheerleading competition in Orlando, Florida, so that's where I was
when that happened. As soon as I saw it on Instagram,
(25:13):
I called Sean, who was our matchmaker and he was
the one standard in between them, and I said, what
the fuck were you doing? Did you not see him
coming in? You know, one hundred miles an hour, you
should have been in between that. I called Sean as
soon as that thing was over and it cost us
(25:35):
to fight. Well, it's interesting because I actually like it.
I think it's really smart. By the way, that's something
you may have taken from boxing, because I watched that
for thirty years from boxing. I love that. Is it
the first time Jeremy Stevens is a savage. He's a savage.
He's not just coming out and having a boring, you know,
(25:56):
low energy stardown. You should be ready for Jeremy Stevens
anyone is there. When you make all these matchups up,
I always think like, do you have to weigh things? Like, Okay,
I love this kid, but I don't like his style
and I'm not going to crush his confidence now because
(26:18):
you know, being undefeated doesn't really matter. I mean, if
a guy, I mean McGregor still draws in it maybe
helps to some point. But do you if you ever,
how do you do when you have a young fighter,
he's got a unique style and you love him, but
you have to weigh this with I know he's better
than that guy, but he could lose to that guy.
It's a bad matchup for him. Yeah, So we we
(26:43):
don't ever worry about things like that. If we have guys,
we bring in the best of the best. Everybody here
is the best, and the best guys that are available
are who we have here are girls. So we don't
worry about that. We don't worry about oh, if we
line him up with this guy, this will happen. The
(27:03):
fans think. So if you look at all the fan sites,
they're like, oh, Tina doesn't want him to lose to
this guy and things like that. We literally never do that.
I put my conspiracy had on for that. Ye, you've
been combative with the media, but I always wonder do
you really need at this point, Dana? Do you need
the media? That's a great question. And I'm very combative
(27:28):
with the media because they're full of shit and every
time I read something, and you know, it makes me crazy,
So I don't read anything afore. I try to stay
away from it. But yeah, I wouldn't say that we
don't need the media. I think that there are a
lot of people out there that have, you know, a
(27:51):
fan base on a following and have their own opinions
or perspectives on things that that people want to want
to see in here. So yeah, yeah, I think we
do need the media. I think the problem is today,
here's the problem with today determining who's media and who's not.
(28:12):
Anybody who can create a fucking website now considers themselves media,
you know what I mean? Or if they have an Instagram.
You know, now they can become media and just most
of these people are full of shit and and have
no place writing or talking about anything. But there are
some real good media people out there still. Well, I
(28:32):
have to talk about a bunch of sports. So I've
always said the NFL currently in my world is a
big deal. And then you know, and I always say,
I talk about six things. NFL, little college football, baseball playoffs,
NBA playoffs, Tiger Woods wins a major and UFC. You know,
that's kind of it, like a big fight. And but
(28:53):
but I can't be an expert on it because shit, Dana,
I'm a mile wide and an inch deep. That's my world.
I got watch, I gotta I'm married. I can't sit
and watch TV all day. But I do buy the
UFC cards, and so it is interesting. My perspective is
I follow my audience, and when they're onto a guy,
then I'm onto a guy. Right. So, if I said
(29:15):
to you, tell me who is going to be a
fighter in the next six months, the Colin Coward, keep
your eye on, because he has a chance. He's two
or three fights away from popping, I would say, off
the top of my head, right now, is the guy
that I was talking about earlier, Vatorian names Marvin Vittori
(29:39):
Italian kid. He's tough, durable, likes to bang, but can
wrestle too. He's interesting and if this kid takes off,
I love when we get a guy that can get
a whole country behind him or a whole group of people.
So when you think about it, when's the last time
the attack Allians had at a real Italian from Italy
(30:05):
who was a world champion that they could get behind,
and you know, was Rocky Marciano Italian. Yeah, I mean
that's it. Marciano. Um, you know, I can't think of
anybody else after Marciano that was that big, that was
(30:26):
that huge, And Marciano was the heavyweight champion of the world. Yeah,
one of the greatest of all times. So yeah, so
Marta Vittori. So in Jacksonville this weekend, you worry on
a macro level about the whole card, But is there
something in the Jacksonville card You're like, Okay, this is interesting,
(30:47):
that this could be something, This could be a bigger storyline. No,
it's not that that, it's that it's shocking or this
could be a better storyline. Waylee Jang our our first
ever Chinese world champion being female, is taking a Rosanoma Judas,
who is absolutely, positively one of the best fighters in
(31:07):
the world. And I'm so excited for this matchup. I
just I'm curious to see how it's gonna play out.
Whale Jang is a fucking force of nature. She's a beast,
kicks hard, punch is hard, and trains like an absolute savage.
Rosenama Judas is very slick and smooth, and I just
(31:29):
I'm so excited for this fight. I can't wait to
see how this thing plays out. Dana, If there's a discipline,
if you were to build the perfect fighter, what is
the discipline, whether it's wrestling, boxing, what is the discipline
that is hardest to beat in all your years of
running this wrestling? If you have a very strong wrestling base.
(31:54):
That's why early on a lot of wrestlers were very
dominant in the sport, and even today, guys who have
phenomenal wrestling and then add on all the other things
are very tough to beat. If I said to you
box things a certain percent, wrestling a certain percent, what
is John Jones to you? John Jones was a great wrestler.
(32:15):
He's a first of all, he's a freak athlete, phenomenal athlete,
comes from a family of phenomenal athletes, but has has
really good wrestling, and you know that. Then he added
spinning elbows and you know all these different things that
a guy his size shouldn't be able to do. Yeah,
I still contend Jones. I know he's had his personal foibles, whatever.
(32:39):
I still think the two fighters, if you took their
best moments, are Jones at his best, his best forty
five seconds and Habibe. I don't think I ever saw
him bleed. Did he ever bleed? Yeah? Yeah, No Habibe?
And again I can't remember this is don't quote me
(33:00):
exactly on this. I don't think Cabbes lost more than
one or two rounds in his entire career. He went
thirty and oo or twenty nine to No. Right, twenty
nine to world champion, lost only one or two rounds
in his entire career rounds? Do you is it was
(33:21):
it his father? I mean, was it was it genetics?
Was it natural? Did he have like country strength like
to you? Was it his work ethic or some of
it was just genetic? The composition of his culture, his body. Yeah,
I think I think you take all the things you
said and mix it into the pot, and it's all
the ingredients that built one badass dude. That is abb
(33:45):
the murder bed off And you know, grew up grew
up in a rough part of Russia. His dad out
him wrestling with bears when he was a little kid,
literally had him wrestling with bears. Um, you know the
mental uh strenk that his father built in, the durability
that you know, he's got the chin, he's got the
(34:06):
you know, the power of the speed, the strength, I mean,
all that stuff. It is genetic and obviously geographic. By
the way, now that you're loaded, are you ever? You're
a tough guy, but are you a little softer? Are
the sheets satin? Now? What's the first thing with money?
(34:26):
You said, Hey, I'm getting this shit right? You know
what's funny? This This is what I got mad at
you four or five years ago when you said, oh,
he's got so much fucking money. Now, forget about it.
He's gonna he's not gonna be the same guy. He's
not gonna work as hard, he's not gonna do this.
He doesn't care as much. Um, Yeah, none of that issue.
The crazy thing is it has never been about the
(34:48):
money for me. I've had money for a long time.
I mean our first deal that we did h was
back in like two thousand and eight, seven or eight,
two thousand and seven or eight, and I have that money,
like crazy money since then. Obviously with the sale, but
I already had everything. What the fuck else do I need?
What else am I going to buy? What other vacation
(35:09):
can I possibly go on? What other car am I
going to buy? I've had all the cars and the
ship and all the you know, this is what I
love to do. This is this is what I'm truly
passionate about. This is what gets me on a bed
in the morning. And I always say this, if if
you're doing anything because of money, it's not truly what
(35:29):
you love to do. It's not It's not what your
passion is. You know. I love taking this business to
the next level every time, going to the next level,
the next level. And I just can't see a day
where I don't do this, no matter how much money
I make. Does your wife ever say, hey, hot shot,
take the garbage out? Oh hey? This is why, this
(35:51):
is why most people get divorced man, it's because I
say this all the time and I try to get
my fighters through this. So what's a fighter? Make some
money and then uh, you know, become famous and you know,
you go out this Saturday night in Jacksonville, people want
to take pictures with you, get your autograph and shit.
Then you get home and you get that reality. Hey,
(36:13):
get the fucking go over here and do this and
do that. But all the ship, you know, but that's
what keeps you grounded, That's what keeps you normal. You
need you need that that woman at home that keeps
everything straight. Well we both have yes, Yeah, yeah, I
got one to a Chicago girl. I don't get away
with anything. Dana. It's great talking to you. You're you know,
(36:34):
I really root for you, and I'll be watching Saturday
and I appreciate it. Man, Thanks buddy, I appreciate you
all right, Dana White. I talked to him about three
times a year. I'm not sure there's a guy I
like to talk to you more than Dana White. You'll
learn a little about a UFC. You learn a lot
about him, You learn a lot about business. It's my
(36:55):
perfect guest. He just gives you. It's like a book.
Several different apts. We get through all of them three
or four times a year. By the way, we have
a YouTube channel now, the Volume Sports. You can also
follow us Instagram and Twitter at the Volume Sports. Rate Review, Subscribe, God,
I love this podcast. This was fun. The Volume
The volume. The Colin Cowherd Podcast brought to you by
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Duel more ways to win. Everybody wants to create a stir.
(00:31):
Everybody wants to be bold, daring trailblazer. But being a
trailblazer isn't just blazing the trail. It's actually having the
balls to set the fire, let it burn, and then
walk down the trail you just blazed. The other day,
the heads of all the big European soccer teams blazed
a pretty impressive trail. Then that blaze became a bonfire,
and twenty four hours later they pulled the fire alarm,
(00:54):
broke the glass and ran for the nearest fire escape.
In case you need to catch up on this story
or the other day, like literally the other day, all
the top European soccer clubs like Arsenal, Real, Madrid, Chelsea
basically told the top soccer leagues to go u way
for themselves because they were going off to start their
own super league. Then came the obvious blowback. Tons of
(01:18):
protests from angry European soccer fans. Well, I'll just say
soccer fans, since soccer fans in Europe are usually angry anyway,
the fans protested and suddenly the teams got scared. The
chairman of man You resigned, the president of Uventus resigned,
and now the Super League is neither super or a league. Figures,
(01:40):
everybody wants to be bold, few have the cajones to
deal with the blowback. A few years ago, ESPN signed
the edgy bar Stool Sports and put them on the air.
One episode later, they pulled the stool right out from
under them. Recently, Spotify signed the edgy podcaster Joe Rogan,
(02:00):
then oh so quietly removed more than forty of his
episodes that were just too edgy. Those Vanilla executives love
blazing the trail right up until they get burned. That's
not being bold. In fact, it's the opposite. Listen, I've
had blowback. It's part of my career. But when I
go to a therapist, I don't talk about the audience
(02:21):
that hates me. It's mostly about my weird childhood, and frankly,
half of my audience hates me. Some days I hate
half my audience. I think it's beautiful we can at
least share that common ground these days, if you can't
stand the heat, not only get out of the kitchen,
still eat your Twitter. So to all those bold and daring,
(02:41):
trail blazing leaders of the European soccer world, I commend
you for that solid twenty seven hours of boldness. You showed.
Well done. Next time, who knows, maybe it can last
a whole week. And with that I lead to somebody
who knows a thing or two about handling blowback, somebody
who is frankly a master at it. He's proven time
(03:01):
and time again, especially over the course of the last
year and how he's handled the pandemic. My friend UFC
Commissioner Dana White. All Right, I've known Dana White for
a long time, don't really need to introduce him, but
I've been saying the last week anybody in life that
does something first gets the most blowback. And I thought
(03:22):
the commissioner that did the best job in the country
was not Adam Silver Roger Goodell, it was Dana White.
Because it's really easy to follow somebody else who takes
the headwind, and it was easier for everybody else, And Dana,
who started this business with about two million bucks in
two thousand and one sold it for over four billion.
(03:43):
You think bitcoin is making people money. Dana did very
well for himself. It is interesting, Dana, because listen, you
got corporations. I mean, you're not just a maverick doing
it yourself. You got your big beer sponsors. And so
when you went for it and fight I did, was
there any part of you that thought, shit, I'm gonna
get some corporate blowback here from some of my sponsors. Yeah,
(04:07):
first of all, thank you. At second of all, yes,
we definitely thought we would. But our sponsors were pretty cool.
Actually they let me. Let me put it to you
this way. So when we went our sponsors stood by
us and it stuck with us, and we're very cool.
Then sponsorship went through the roof once we pulled it
(04:31):
off safely. Um, we killed it. We killed it in
twenty twenty was sponsorship, and it led over into twenty
twenty one and we have we broke the all time
record for the company for for global sponsorship. You know,
it's interesting because when ESPN and you made the deal,
(04:55):
I I know you know, we know every you know
everybody at Fox. I know everybody at Fox ESPN. I
worked there for a decade and I said, I said
to one of the executives there, I said, I don't
worry about UFC. It's whether you guys have the cajonez.
Because Dana White is not Adam Silver. He's not gonna
do with the you know, sometimes he's gonna say stuff
(05:15):
and you gotta deal with it. The responsibility's not on him.
It's on you because it's gonna make you a lot
of money. And when you go into a big deal.
Was there a moment Dana were you thought, Okay, holy
you know it's Disney. Okay, it's a different baby. You
know Fox we do the Simpsons, they do Beauty and
the Beast. It's a little different brand. Did you for
(05:35):
five minutes worry got it? I got a tiptoe a
little bit here. I did worry about them, and I
have to be brutally honest. As usual, they have been
incredibly supportive. Man. I have to say, we had that
one that you know, I was going to go on
that Indian reservation in California originally, you know, because I
(05:57):
was trying to find a way to get around all this. Uh,
you know, everything was closing down the day after day
after day after day, and I get it. The governor
of California and other people. They called ESPN, they called
Disney and they said, listen, you gotta shut this down.
(06:19):
Happening here and whatever. And I can't get into details,
but ESPN came to us, asked us to stand down,
but reciprocated. They were very very good and how they
handled it, and they've been very supportive and the relationship
(06:39):
has been awesome. And you know, I love my time
over at Fox. Eric's I just saw Eric Shanks the
other day. I love Shanks. We look, we all here
at UFC love all the people from Fox and the
relationships that we had with them. But I can tell
you this. You know, when you're an organization like me
that started where we started, you think about being on
(07:01):
ESPN someday and you think that it will be big
for your business and you think it'll be, uh, you know,
a big moment and change the dynamic of everything, but
you don't really realize until you get there what it's
really like to be with ESPN. Well, the scale's much bigger.
We're a much smaller company now. We do live, Sports, Live, Politics,
(07:23):
Live news. ESPN's much bigger, Disney's much bigger. So from
your vantage point, I totally got it in my takeaway.
And I remember I talked to Shanks and others about this.
I'm like, I'm still going to talk to UFC. I
buy their cards. So and he's like, of course, like
we're not We're not territorial. Both have a great relationship
with Fox Fox. Let me tell you what. There is
no ESPN without Fox. That's a fact. Yeah, they helped
(07:48):
build UFC. You know, it's interesting. So I took my
wife's not a sports fan, but I took her to
Mayweather and McGregor and it was the most fun. It
was better than any concert we've gone to. And it's interesting,
Dana and I'm and listen, I'm I'm kind of a traditionalist,
but I grew up with their devils. I grew up,
(08:10):
you know, I grew up with that shit evil Knevil.
And I remember when Ali fought a Japanese wrestler. And
I watched Jake Paul this weekend, and I know it's sticky,
but I'm sitting to myself thinking, if it's interesting, you
have to have these conversations McGregor and Mayweather was fascinating
and I'm thinking to myself, you know, we can all
(08:31):
make fun of Jake Paul, but shit, he's three and
oh he's totally into it. I mean, he's not going
to be a heavyweight champ, but there's something there. I mean,
how do you view a celebrity boxer who is authentic
and is into it and he cares. How do you
view it? Let me tell you what. Boxing has just
continues to decline like this, and this whole Jake Paul
(08:55):
thing is the right guy at the right time. And
you know, this kid's doing what he needs to do
and he's gonna get paid. He's getting paid. Um, you know,
he keeps, you know, doing what he's doing. He's got
these these kids, you know, believing, you know, they're believing
that this guy is the guy. And part of being
(09:19):
a showman and and making money and and doing these
things and being an entertainer is all part of what
this kid is doing. And he's doing it. So good
for him. You know, when you go back on the
fighters you've had, um, some of them, McGregor are really dynamic.
They just totally Muhammad Ali embraced showmanship. Joe Frazier, didn't
(09:41):
you know that Ken Norton maybe didn't. George Foreman, the
second George Foreman did, the first one didn't. When you
get him McGregor and he I think he you know,
he he's gonna fight again, and he's still a very
good watch. All buy it. He's a good one watch.
But where is Dana White? Where are you on the Okay? Now,
(10:06):
it's not good for my business? Or is it strictly
pay per view buys? No, it's well, there's there's there's
two different things. Well you can we're talking about the
Jake Paul kid. You know, ideal in the best, fighting
the best. There's no gimmicks over here, there's no you
know that that whole thing is a great gimmick at
(10:26):
the right time, in the right place. So Connor McGregor,
you know, is still fighting the best in the world.
He's still fighting the best guys in the world. And
until he gets to a point where you know, he
gets so many losses that he can't continue to compete.
I mean, it's time gets us all, age gets us
all it will get you know, it got the Chuck
(10:48):
Lidell's it got the Ronda Rousies and the list goes
on and on of people that we've had. Um. But
but Connor McGregor in his day and his age and
his time was undisputably one of the one of the best.
Is there such thing as bad press? I will watch McGregor.
I think John Jones in my in my opinion, when
(11:11):
John is focused, he is your most dynamic fighter ever.
I'm not saying he's the best. That's probably habib But
in terms of my eyes your screen watching a fighter focused.
He's had some bad press. McGregor's had it. But Dana,
is there such a thing in your business or do
you find that Listen? Do you ever have to weigh
(11:33):
it ain't great for my brand, but it's good for
pay per view? Or is there a bad press? Well,
there's there's different things. You know. Obviously John Jones and
Connor McGregor's and the guys like this, you know, they're
fighters at the end of the day. And I think
that people, um, you know, look at fighters different than
than they look at you know, public figures or or
(11:56):
you know, guys who run companies and maybe even other
athletes too. I think they get a little more Leeway people. Yeah,
you're right. So you know, I don't think when you're
a fight. I think when you're a fighter, you know,
the crazier the better. When it comes to the fans,
the fans, you know, I love the crazy people. Um,
you know. Uh so, So I don't know if it
(12:19):
negatively impacts our business, does do you? There's Madison Square
guard I mean forever and ever. It took a while
to get into New York. You've had Fight Island, you
had Vegas. I still think Vegas feels bigger to me.
But there are cities Dallas, Miami, London which feel feel
to me like big cities. Dana, tell me how it
(12:43):
works for your business. If a city came to you,
if Jerry Jones came to you and said, hey, I
want to buy a year, I want to buy four
fight cards, tell me how that works. How do you
end up where you end up? Well, normally, what we
do is we travel this thing around to plays that
we haven't been in a while. Obviously, since this pandemic,
(13:03):
we haven't been anywhere in a while. So we went
on sale in Jacksonville. We sold Jacksonville is this Saturday.
We sold out under five minutes we put Houston on
sale right behind it sold out, and under five minutes
we put Vegas on sale with Connor McGregor and Dustin Pourier.
Twenty thousand, eight hundred tickets sold out in seconds. So
(13:27):
three events, fifty thousand tickets, twenty million dollars in revenue,
and under five minutes. Okay, So why not go to them?
Why not go two hundred thousand stee stadiums? Why not? Yeah?
I probably should have, but you know, only only places
(13:48):
that are playing ball the way that I want to
play ball right now are Florida, Texas and Vegas will
open up again. That one's gonna be July tenth. So
you know, as things start to open up and there's
weren't any places where I could really go, and I
won't do an outdoor arena. Tell me why because the
(14:12):
weather is too unpredictable and having fights outside if it rains,
if it's too windy, you know, there's certain things that
can happen that will affect the outcome of the fight,
and I don't like that. You know those hot takes
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See FanDuel dot com for terms and conditions. Dana, I know,
(15:41):
I mean, I know I've told you. I don't I
think I've told you this story. I remember the first
time I watched MMA, it was in the condor. It
was a sports bar in San Francisco, and it was
pretty rough. And you came in and you know, you're
a maverick, but you clean some stuff up, you no
question about it. You saw the revenue with advertisers if
you clean some of the stuff up. But it still
(16:01):
has to be brutal. This this can't look like anything else,
nor does it. So you start the business and you
had a lot to fight through commissions in New York
and States. Is it harder to do that or is
it harder now to stay at your standards that you demand.
It would seem everybody would think, oh, it's easy for
(16:23):
Danta now he's got the damn thing rolling. But your
standards have changed now everybody expects a certain level of excellence.
Is that Compare the two, which is actually harder? Yeah? No,
I think that our philosophy in buying this thing is,
you know this, many people want to see a real sport.
This many people want to see a freak show. So
(16:44):
you could you could, you know, build a better business,
build the sport by being a real sport and following
you know, like you said, the gold standards and it's
what we try to do. You know, every time that
we put on an event, I want to put on
the best live product that I can for you on television.
Listen if I get you, well, it's in the real
(17:06):
world when everything was normal for me to get you
to stay home on a Saturday night. You know, there's
just so many other things that you can do. The
new movie that just came out. You got to take
your wife out to dinner. It's a beautiful night out.
You want to go out anyway or whatever. There's just
so many different things that we compete with. I have
to put on a product that makes you want to
stay home on Saturday and watch it. But more importantly,
(17:29):
when it's over, you turn the TV off and you say,
I'm so glad I stay at home and watch this.
You know that what I have to deliver every Saturday.
Then for the people who fly in from out of town,
I have to put on an incredible live experience for
them inside the arena. So those are the things that
I focus on every Saturday. Who in your inner circle
(17:53):
you get sick tomorrow and you got four days and
the event Saturday and you can't get out of bed.
Who is your right hand man that you trust implicitly. Well,
there's different there's different people in different places, as a
guy named Craig more Sorry, who runs all the production
who I would talk to you know multiple times, a
night hunter Campbell, who is my lawyer but also my
(18:18):
right hand man in making all the fights and making
sure that everything is done the right way the night
of the fight legally and everything else. And our chief
operating officer Laurence Epstein. You know, I have a good
cruise around me that I'm in great communication with all
(18:39):
the time. Plus all the other guys that run the
show know what I'm looking for, know what I'm not
looking for. It's almost on. I don't want to say
it's on autopilot, but it's damn close. Most great people
I've ever met are good listeners, and you have such
a strong voice. Are there ever times one of your
(18:59):
advisers says, Dana, this is just it's not gonna work
and you and you say shit, You turn the telescope
around and go, wow, I missed on that. Yeah, So
I mean I listen. I listen. I hired these people
that are around me for a reason. I trust them,
I respect them, and I listen to Lenae, who's sitting
(19:20):
right here, my head of pr I asked her stuff
all the time. I ask her advice. I asked her questions.
She works here because she's the best of the business,
and and you know, I take her advice all the time.
I'm not. I need somebody to sometimes I go fucking
who you know what I mean? And I need somebody
(19:41):
to fucking reel me back in and say, yeah, no, Dana,
don't do that. That's not a good idea. Have you noticed,
because when you're a young business and I really still
consider you, I mean, you've arrived, you're not going anywhere,
you're ascending, But in the history of American sports, you're
still young. When have you noticed that these other leagues
(20:06):
have ever stolen things from you? Production graphics? Like you
ever watched these leagues and things? Well, you, son of
a blank, you stole that from us, And I love it.
I mean, it's it's the old I don't ever say
son of a bitch, but I go, oh, look, they
got that from us all the time. Me and Lorenzo
used to do that all the time. Um, but it's
(20:26):
awesome because guess what a lot of what I do
I got from them? I mean, I grew up watching
these sports, whether it was the NFL, Major League Baseball, NBA,
bass or boxing. Um, you know, I saw all these
things that I like, I saw things that I didn't like.
Took from here, it took from there, and uh yeah,
(20:48):
it's just it's it's the ultimate uh compliment when you
see that stuff happening, Dana. The great thing about being
an international sport is the quality of your sport is
just deep. There's just more good fighters now, there is
that balance. Part of the NFL's success is it's a
(21:11):
strictly domestic product. Hockey's international, basketball is increasingly international. You
currently have a lot of international champions, not as many domestic.
This is a two part question. Number one, why do
certain cultures Russia, why do they produce so many good fighters?
(21:32):
And are you ever concerned that you don't have enough
you know, domestic champs. Yeah, it's it's it's funny because
as the sport was growing, there were obviously a lot
of American champions, a lot of Brazilian champions. And as
it's grown internationally, you know, it's part of what's what's
(21:52):
helped this thing grow. When you get somebody, for instance,
like Connor McGregor. When you get a guy looks like you,
talks like you would from where you come from, and
he's seen as the baddest motherfucker in the world, everybody
in that country gets behind him, you know. So he
really helped Europe explode. We got three Africans right now,
(22:14):
right it's exploding in Africa. We're working on doing an event.
We're probably gonna do an event in twenty twenty two
in Africa, which has always been a dream of mine.
So that's huge. And one of the things about fighting
that's fascinating is as Americans, like if an Italian. We
got a kid named a Tory who's Italian. If he
(22:37):
wins and becomes a world champion, like he's in the
top five right now, if he becomes a world champion,
believe in Italy is gonna blow up. Everybody in Italy
will be talking about UFC and watch the UFC. But
in America, we don't care as much where these guys
are from. We just care who's the best, and we
just want to see the best compete. The guy could
(22:58):
be British, the guy could be a Eric, and the
guy could be Polish, Italian, Puerto Rican. We don't care.
We just want to see the best fight the best.
I may have asked you this before, so you have
you must have a fairly big scouting department, Dana, Like,
if somebody's listening to me, obviously you're looking at tape constantly.
(23:22):
But what's your minor league system? Where do you find
guys in at what age? Yeah? So I have My
scouting system is two guys. I have two guys too, Yeah,
two matchmakers who have their finger on the pulse of
what's going on out there. They know who all the
up and coming guys are, and and if they see
(23:46):
somebody that's really special that they think is whatever, they'll
get me involved early. Otherwise I will see these people
the night of the fight, and I decide who I
like and who I think could be next, and then
we start working internally to build these kids into stars. Okay,
(24:06):
what are you looking for? First of all, Well, it's
a lot better when we have crowds, because you can
see the way the crowd reacts to a guy or
girl when they come out, when they fight, when they
do their interview, how they fight. There's just so many
different things that go into seeing if if somebody has
(24:27):
that quality to be a superstar. So this weekend, Jeremy
Stevens in that fight with her clothes. He got canceled
because there was an injury in the stairedown and by
the way, the stare down part of your cars are
kind of interesting. But I'm watching that and I'm thinking, Oh,
(24:48):
Dana is not going to put up with that nonsense.
I mean, that got so where do you stand on that?
Are you gonna make changes? So my daughter, it's funny
you saying this. My daughter was competing in the ESPN
cheerleading competition in Orlando, Florida, so that's where I was
when that happened. As soon as I saw it on Instagram,
(25:13):
I called Sean, who was our matchmaker and he was
the one standard in between them, and I said, what
the fuck were you doing? Did you not see him
coming in? You know, one hundred miles an hour, you
should have been in between that. I called Sean as
soon as that thing was over and it cost us
(25:35):
to fight. Well, it's interesting because I actually like it.
I think it's really smart. By the way, that's something
you may have taken from boxing, because I watched that
for thirty years from boxing. I love that. Is it
the first time Jeremy Stevens is a savage. He's a savage.
He's not just coming out and having a boring, you know,
(25:56):
low energy stardown. You should be ready for Jeremy Stevens
anyone is there. When you make all these matchups up,
I always think like, do you have to weigh things? Like, Okay,
I love this kid, but I don't like his style
and I'm not going to crush his confidence now because
(26:18):
you know, being undefeated doesn't really matter. I mean, if
a guy, I mean McGregor still draws in it maybe
helps to some point. But do you if you ever,
how do you do when you have a young fighter,
he's got a unique style and you love him, but
you have to weigh this with I know he's better
than that guy, but he could lose to that guy.
It's a bad matchup for him. Yeah, So we we
(26:43):
don't ever worry about things like that. If we have guys,
we bring in the best of the best. Everybody here
is the best, and the best guys that are available
are who we have here are girls. So we don't
worry about that. We don't worry about oh, if we
line him up with this guy, this will happen. The
(27:03):
fans think. So if you look at all the fan sites,
they're like, oh, Tina doesn't want him to lose to
this guy and things like that. We literally never do that.
I put my conspiracy had on for that. Ye, you've
been combative with the media, but I always wonder do
you really need at this point, Dana? Do you need
the media? That's a great question. And I'm very combative
(27:28):
with the media because they're full of shit and every
time I read something, and you know, it makes me crazy,
So I don't read anything afore. I try to stay
away from it. But yeah, I wouldn't say that we
don't need the media. I think that there are a
lot of people out there that have, you know, a
(27:51):
fan base on a following and have their own opinions
or perspectives on things that that people want to want
to see in here. So yeah, yeah, I think we
do need the media. I think the problem is today,
here's the problem with today determining who's media and who's not.
(28:12):
Anybody who can create a fucking website now considers themselves media,
you know what I mean? Or if they have an Instagram.
You know, now they can become media and just most
of these people are full of shit and and have
no place writing or talking about anything. But there are
some real good media people out there still. Well, I
(28:32):
have to talk about a bunch of sports. So I've
always said the NFL currently in my world is a
big deal. And then you know, and I always say,
I talk about six things. NFL, little college football, baseball playoffs,
NBA playoffs, Tiger Woods wins a major and UFC. You know,
that's kind of it, like a big fight. And but
(28:53):
but I can't be an expert on it because shit, Dana,
I'm a mile wide and an inch deep. That's my world.
I got watch, I gotta I'm married. I can't sit
and watch TV all day. But I do buy the
UFC cards, and so it is interesting. My perspective is
I follow my audience, and when they're onto a guy,
then I'm onto a guy. Right. So, if I said
(29:15):
to you, tell me who is going to be a
fighter in the next six months, the Colin Coward, keep
your eye on, because he has a chance. He's two
or three fights away from popping, I would say, off
the top of my head, right now, is the guy
that I was talking about earlier, Vatorian names Marvin Vittori
(29:39):
Italian kid. He's tough, durable, likes to bang, but can
wrestle too. He's interesting and if this kid takes off,
I love when we get a guy that can get
a whole country behind him or a whole group of people.
So when you think about it, when's the last time
the attack Allians had at a real Italian from Italy
(30:05):
who was a world champion that they could get behind,
and you know, was Rocky Marciano Italian. Yeah, I mean
that's it. Marciano. Um, you know, I can't think of
anybody else after Marciano that was that big, that was
(30:26):
that huge, And Marciano was the heavyweight champion of the world. Yeah,
one of the greatest of all times. So yeah, so
Marta Vittori. So in Jacksonville this weekend, you worry on
a macro level about the whole card, But is there
something in the Jacksonville card You're like, Okay, this is interesting,
(30:47):
that this could be something, This could be a bigger storyline. No,
it's not that that, it's that it's shocking or this
could be a better storyline. Waylee Jang our our first
ever Chinese world champion being female, is taking a Rosanoma Judas,
who is absolutely, positively one of the best fighters in
(31:07):
the world. And I'm so excited for this matchup. I
just I'm curious to see how it's gonna play out.
Whale Jang is a fucking force of nature. She's a beast,
kicks hard, punch is hard, and trains like an absolute savage.
Rosenama Judas is very slick and smooth, and I just
(31:29):
I'm so excited for this fight. I can't wait to
see how this thing plays out. Dana, If there's a discipline,
if you were to build the perfect fighter, what is
the discipline, whether it's wrestling, boxing, what is the discipline
that is hardest to beat in all your years of
running this wrestling? If you have a very strong wrestling base.
(31:54):
That's why early on a lot of wrestlers were very
dominant in the sport, and even today, guys who have
phenomenal wrestling and then add on all the other things
are very tough to beat. If I said to you
box things a certain percent, wrestling a certain percent, what
is John Jones to you? John Jones was a great wrestler.
(32:15):
He's a first of all, he's a freak athlete, phenomenal athlete,
comes from a family of phenomenal athletes, but has has
really good wrestling, and you know that. Then he added
spinning elbows and you know all these different things that
a guy his size shouldn't be able to do. Yeah,
I still contend Jones. I know he's had his personal foibles, whatever.
(32:39):
I still think the two fighters, if you took their
best moments, are Jones at his best, his best forty
five seconds and Habibe. I don't think I ever saw
him bleed. Did he ever bleed? Yeah? Yeah, No Habibe?
And again I can't remember this is don't quote me
(33:00):
exactly on this. I don't think Cabbes lost more than
one or two rounds in his entire career. He went
thirty and oo or twenty nine to No. Right, twenty
nine to world champion, lost only one or two rounds
in his entire career rounds? Do you is it was
(33:21):
it his father? I mean, was it was it genetics?
Was it natural? Did he have like country strength like
to you? Was it his work ethic or some of
it was just genetic? The composition of his culture, his body. Yeah,
I think I think you take all the things you
said and mix it into the pot, and it's all
the ingredients that built one badass dude. That is abb
(33:45):
the murder bed off And you know, grew up grew
up in a rough part of Russia. His dad out
him wrestling with bears when he was a little kid,
literally had him wrestling with bears. Um, you know the
mental uh strenk that his father built in, the durability
that you know, he's got the chin, he's got the
(34:06):
you know, the power of the speed, the strength, I mean,
all that stuff. It is genetic and obviously geographic. By
the way, now that you're loaded, are you ever? You're
a tough guy, but are you a little softer? Are
the sheets satin? Now? What's the first thing with money?
(34:26):
You said, Hey, I'm getting this shit right? You know
what's funny? This This is what I got mad at
you four or five years ago when you said, oh,
he's got so much fucking money. Now, forget about it.
He's gonna he's not gonna be the same guy. He's
not gonna work as hard, he's not gonna do this.
He doesn't care as much. Um, Yeah, none of that issue.
The crazy thing is it has never been about the
(34:48):
money for me. I've had money for a long time.
I mean our first deal that we did h was
back in like two thousand and eight, seven or eight,
two thousand and seven or eight, and I have that money,
like crazy money since then. Obviously with the sale, but
I already had everything. What the fuck else do I need?
What else am I going to buy? What other vacation
(35:09):
can I possibly go on? What other car am I
going to buy? I've had all the cars and the
ship and all the you know, this is what I
love to do. This is this is what I'm truly
passionate about. This is what gets me on a bed
in the morning. And I always say this, if if
you're doing anything because of money, it's not truly what
(35:29):
you love to do. It's not It's not what your
passion is. You know. I love taking this business to
the next level every time, going to the next level,
the next level. And I just can't see a day
where I don't do this, no matter how much money
I make. Does your wife ever say, hey, hot shot,
take the garbage out? Oh hey? This is why, this
(35:51):
is why most people get divorced man, it's because I
say this all the time and I try to get
my fighters through this. So what's a fighter? Make some
money and then uh, you know, become famous and you know,
you go out this Saturday night in Jacksonville, people want
to take pictures with you, get your autograph and shit.
Then you get home and you get that reality. Hey,
(36:13):
get the fucking go over here and do this and
do that. But all the ship, you know, but that's
what keeps you grounded, That's what keeps you normal. You
need you need that that woman at home that keeps
everything straight. Well we both have yes, Yeah, yeah, I
got one to a Chicago girl. I don't get away
with anything. Dana. It's great talking to you. You're you know,
(36:34):
I really root for you, and I'll be watching Saturday
and I appreciate it. Man, Thanks buddy, I appreciate you
all right, Dana White. I talked to him about three
times a year. I'm not sure there's a guy I
like to talk to you more than Dana White. You'll
learn a little about a UFC. You learn a lot
about him, You learn a lot about business. It's my
(36:55):
perfect guest. He just gives you. It's like a book.
Several different apts. We get through all of them three
or four times a year. By the way, we have
a YouTube channel now, the Volume Sports. You can also
follow us Instagram and Twitter at the Volume Sports. Rate Review, Subscribe, God,
I love this podcast. This was fun. The Volume
Host
Colin Cowherd
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