September 9, 2025 • 32 mins
UFC President & CEO Dana White joins the show to talk about the upcoming Canelo vs Crawford boxing match and why Mark Zuckerberg is one of the most impressive people he has ever met
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Thanks for listening to The Herd Podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
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dot com, or stream us live every day on the
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Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
All right, Dana White is around the corner. But first,
Jamack with the news.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Let's start with your boy bo Nix, who had a
brutal Week one. I mean, listen, I don't want to
hammer the guy too are, but he turned it over
three times and looked pedestrian. Sean Payton knows sometimes it's
just about getting through Week one.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I thought he hung in there, he battled, made some
critical place for us in the second half, and so
obviously he'll be disappointed with the turnovers, but uh, you
know there there was a gutsy performance, you know, and
we got a pretty usual week one.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
For the record. One of the interceptions was a throw
to Courtland Sutton. It was just a great play by
the dB. Oh, it was a great It was a
go either way.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Play.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Not every interception just terrible decision.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Are you seeing this line?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Come on, Broncos Colts?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How are the Broncos underdogs here?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You're a playoff team?
Speaker 5 (01:30):
The culture garbage?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
What am I missing?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Broncos is my second favorite number on the board. Bow
Nix is not.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Losing to this Colts defense That confounded to a no.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
No.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think Bronco's body bag Colts here, well, I think
they beat them, but not Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Not every interception is a bad throat. Brock Purtty has
had throws. I mean, not just just throw Brock pretty up,
but if you up the fumble, no.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I'm no, I'm but not.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Every turnovers, I mean a terrible throat bow Nicks. One
of the picks was a throat at Courtland Sutton. It
was a jump ball.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Can you apply that to rock Pety please?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
His winning touchdown, by the way, as you said, was
an anticipatory throw. There was nobody open.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Let's move on to another AFC West team.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The Raiders.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
They beat the Patriots.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
But the bad news is Brock Bowers went out.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Early with a knee injury.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Pete Carroll just said at the podium they're taking it
day to day, but it helps them that they have
a Monday night football matchup with the Raiders. Raiders against
the Chargers on Monday Night football, so that's an extra
day for Rock Bowers. They listen, they need him calling
if they want to take down the way you sees.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
There's an argument he's the best tight end right now
in his prime in football.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, I mean, who's the only second year tight end?
He is an un when you can spread a tight
end out in the slot and he can beat corners
Kese right now. Yes, absolutely. If I can dig the Chiefs,
I will.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Final story, Colin is the Seattle Seahawks lost to the
Niners in a tough one. Your boy Sam Donald fumbling late.
The only bright spot on the offense was Jackson Smith,
the Jigba who was everywhere. He actually tried to throw
a later roal which was wild. Mike McDonald said. The
rest of the offense definitely needs to step up their game.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Jack's made a lot of great plays.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
There's more opportunities for him out there, which I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I'm sure he'll tell you. And we're going to count
everybody you know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
See who steps up so we can It's not the
Jack Show every snap.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I will say this if you didn't watch the game,
Seattle was driving in the red zone for the win
and Donald bangs into his own player. Also, they had
the most pressures week one, Seattle was the best team. Well,
I would say Baltimore's probably the best team that lost.
I thought Seattle looked really good.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Oh and they had two hundred and thirty yards of offense.
What is good about that against a rebuilt nine Ers?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Dare First of all, they're rebuilding. They rebuilt Saul is
a great defensive coordinator, and they were rebuilding their receiving corps.
So like not everybody in Week one is week eight performer.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And the Cooper Cup was terrible at a couple drops.
They just don't have any offense outside of JSN and
Kenneth Walker A. J.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Brown Philadelphia to Seattle, No, I mean I why not?
Although they just moved off a very dramatic, expensive wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Any thoughts on Seahawks at Steelers.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I would take I would take Seattle plus free.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I'm an agreement there totally.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
J Mack with the News, well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the herd Line news. Well, he
has been one of the mavericks in sports, certainly in
the last twenty years UFC president and CEO. He's now
so iconic. He's doing Dodge Ram commercials. I saw that
last night. Our friend Dana White is joining us here
(04:46):
on a Tuesday in the herd. Longtime, no talk. It's
great to see you again. And you major s mean,
most of these commissioners, you don't already want to hear
from him that much, but you're out there. You put
yourself out there with any all time. It could be politics,
it could be sports, it could be football. I would
imagine it's been good for your business.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah. Business is good. Yeah, yeah, business is very good.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So your entire in my entire life, boxing has been
pay per view. You now have a deal with Paramount
where you're like, listen, we're gonna move off from what
I can tell the pay per view model. I like
that for the fans. My takeaway is finally somebody rewards
the fans. I buy your pay per views all the
time they were about sixty five bucks something like that.
I also go to your fights. But when you made
(05:30):
that decision, it's counter to what boxing and UFC has
been my entire life. Which is mostly pay per view
stuff for the big stuff. Why the decision and is
there any risk to it?
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Well, the world is changing now, I mean, you know
all these streaming services. Here's the thing about a streaming service.
You know, you can have tons of great programming. I
can go watch it whenever I want to write. But
live sports you have to tune in at a certain time.
And I was waiting for the moment I knew that
there were are all eventually gonna need live sports. Now
(06:02):
you see him doing deals with the NFL, NBA, and
now US. It's just been an evolution, you know, as
Cable continues to you know, nose dive.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean, so you are now doing You're promoting
your first boxing match. Now, we talked about this before
you grew up in Boston. I was a boxing guy
in Vegas. You now live in Vegas. So my first
job out of college was in Vegas. I watched Hagler Hearns.
I was a Pacific Northwest kid. I moved to Vegas.
I fell in love with boxing. You know, I knew
I watched all Lee or you'd hear stuff as a kid,
but we didn't really have boxing. You know, where I
(06:36):
grew up, you were a boxing fan, and I always
kind of waited for you. My takeaway was, I would
argue you kind of ended boxing and then you create
TKO and you go into boxing. So is that telling
me that boxing still has a life.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
I mean every time you think that boxing's dead, a
big fightful pop up again. But you know it's it's
it's every once in a blue moon. I mean we
at the UFC, we go every Saturday, pretty much every
Saturday all year. In boxing is you know, here and there.
So I'm promoting this Crawford fight this weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Probably the best fight in five to six years. I
would say Canal Alra is the fighter of his generation.
He's a four division champion yep, never been knocked down.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I agree.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I love this fight and the fact that Crawford is
willing to risk moving up and wait to fight him.
I mean, this is if you're a fight fan, this
is the.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Stuff for us.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I've never lost tough childhood, been willing to put on
weight again. He's a knockout guy. Seventy six percent of
the fights are knockouts. This is as good as boxing
to me in the last five years. This is probably
the best fight. I agree, I think it's the best fight.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
I love this fight. I forgot where the hell I
was going with that. But yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
The difference promoting UFC and boxing, no real difference.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
I mean, you know, as long as you're putting up
oh that's what so I'm doing Canelo Crawford fight for
Shake Turkey. Then in twenty six I'm gonna start my
own I guess we call a league in boxing. Basically,
what I want to do is I want to build talent.
Like tonight, I have a show on called The Contender Series,
which I absolutely love Tuesday Night since I take the
(08:19):
best unsigned guys, yeah in the world. They face each
other that night and I decide who gets a UFC contract.
And basically that's what I want to do with boxing too.
I want to take these up and coming guys, you
know ten and oh, twelve and oh and a ten
and oh fights A twelve and oh you know, and
like the undercard of Canelo versus Crawford, the undercard is excellent,
(08:40):
Like the UFC, when you know, people show up for
the first fight of the night, not just the main event.
It's going to be that kind of a fight. This
weekend in Vegas. So the whole undercard is incredible, not
just the main event.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Well, Nick conn who you know very well, and you
Dana White, both are in the business of accumulating talent
and finding before the rest of the market moves. And
I have a little podcast company. We do the same thing.
It's exhilarated. There's nothing better than share somebody's ride. But
it's just unbelievable. So when you it's interesting, Like a
lot of times on TikTok, I go to a lot
(09:14):
of business guys yourself, a Jeff Bezos, It can be
a Mark. I think it's Andreesner Anderson and really smart guys,
Mark Zuckerberg. I'm looking for. I guess the thread among
successful business people. This is the thread I oways here
Amazon didn't make money the first twenty years is that
(09:36):
I don't think people understand you had a lot of headwinds.
I mean, at one point UFC John McCain wanted it
off cable and I always look at your rise and
I don't think people understand how hard it is. Was
there ever a time in your rise that the head
went you had the fatidas behind you. Was there ever
a time though that you woke up and thought, is
(09:58):
this thing going to work?
Speaker 5 (10:00):
To get it?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Am I going to get a week of good news?
What was the point that was hardest for Dana White?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
I always thought it was gonna work, you know, just
as the timing right. It was the question. And there
there was a time Lorenzo called me one day and said,
I can't keep doing this. I can't keep pumping this
money into this thing. Go out and see what we
could sell this for. So I started calling around that
day and I came back to him that night and said, uh, yeah,
(10:27):
probably seven or eight million dollars when we were probably
forty million in at that time, maybe maybe thirty something million.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I don't remember. I did you convinced him? Huh? How'd
you convince him to stay in? I didn't.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
I just told him that and he said, okay, i'll
call you tomorrow. He literally called me the next morning
when I was driving to work and said, fit, let's
keep going. Let's keep going. So we did, and you know,
thank god, here we are today.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern not a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (10:58):
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me time pro bowler LeVar Arrington,
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
called Up on Game.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
What is up on Game?
Speaker 7 (11:07):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris,
you can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada,
(11:30):
and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, no, it's it's been pretty remarkable when you you know,
when you look at right now at UFC, I've always
thought the hardest thing in your job, and I don't
know if there's any luck involved, but finding the next
John Jones, who I think is the best fighter I've
ever seen in UFC. I would say, probably pound for pound,
(12:01):
probably the best.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In my opinion.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Yes, yeah, you know, you know, as you look at
boxing and where it is now, everybody's undefeated, right, they
have all these guys that are undefeated because they won't
fight anybody. Now in the UFC, whatever division you were in,
you fought the toughest guys all the way up to
become a world champion. And John Jones did that for
the last however many years, and he's still undefeated.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh yes, So when you and I've asked you this before,
but I think it's I think it's compelling, and I
think you're going to find this in boxing. Boxing feels
and UFC feels to me so global. Is there ever
a moment when when is there talent of plenty? Is
it just for Dana White to find it? Or are
(12:47):
there cycles where like it's dry that you go six
months and you can't find talent.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
No, I wouldn't say that. But and especially the sport
gets bigger. You know, there's more and more people that
realize now they can make millions of dollars fighting, right, So, yeah,
there was a point in time. There was a point
in time when that was the case, but not now.
(13:14):
There's plenty of talent out there.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's interesting. You used to come to California all the time.
We barely get you out here anymore. Sure, there's a
lot of people that.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
We're just talking about that. I was just talking about
that my crew when we were coming in.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well, I mean it's a different time. There's a lot
of pushback. There's a lot of things happening in the
country where when you embraced Trump, that's your audience. I've
been to UFC fights. I've been there twice. When he's there,
people love him, They go crazy. Did you ever worry
when you did this, we're such a tribal, polarizing country.
This could be bad for business. Did you ever worry
for a minute about that?
Speaker 7 (13:46):
Well?
Speaker 6 (13:47):
Trump and I have been friends for you know, twenty
five years.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
So it's not like, oh, yeah, that's right. It's not
like I was.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Getting political and you know, choosing a side or any
This guy's my friend. It's been my friend forever. So
it wasn't really that way for me. And he's a
huge UFC fan, And he came to the UFC before
he even thought about running for president. He would be
at the events and held the events at the taj
Mahal and New Jersey. So this guy is just a
(14:15):
person who's been a friend of mine for a long time,
and he's a huge fan of not just UFC, but
a fighting period. I mean all the big fights he
held at the taj and Atlantic City back in the day.
It wasn't really a political move for me.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Have you and Trump have something in common? You don't
sleep much. You're a live concert, live event, moving all
the time. There are certain there's almost an innate energy
with you that you this is who you are. Were
you always this guy? Were you always like burn twenty four?
So you're like a human red bull? Was it always
(14:50):
like that?
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Yeah, I can tell you this. Though he's seventy nine
years old, he's way worse than me. He never sleeps ever.
I mean, this guy will call me at night and
it's and it's two o'clock in the morning on the
East Coast, and and and he'll hit me again in
the morning and he's up already. He never sleeps. It's crazy.
So I'll get four or five hours a night, and
(15:14):
I'm good. I saw a guy on Joe Rogan saying,
anybody that tells you that they sleep four or five
hours a night, they're they're full of crap.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
No, dude, you're full of crap.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
I literally sleep four or five hours a night and
and and I'll can tell you right now, Donald Trump
sleeps less.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
By the way, my staff, can I take magnesium when
I go to bed because I'm allowsy sleeper? Five hours
maybe five and a half.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
My eyes are wide open.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I can't sleep anymore. So whatever it is, it is,
I'm with you. You are having a White House UFC.
Is it next summer?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, So this is interesting because I had a friend
once that was number one at Air Force, and I
think it was Reagan spoke. He goes, you cannot believe
the security with the president, but you don't even understand
what it's like. Literally, one minute before dinner, they changed
all the glasses in case there was poisoning. And he said,
So my takeaways, this is a big event. You're gonna
(16:10):
have a president there. Do you already have to plan that?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I mean, how far in advance?
Speaker 6 (16:15):
So we went to the White House last week, me
and my team, and we had the first meeting with him.
We laid out all the renderings and we started to
get him to sign off on what he likes and
doesn't like, and he loved it. So yeah, now we're
diving in head first. Now all the work starts. But
you're right, but this is the first time. This last
(16:36):
time I was at the White House, I went up
on the roof of the White House and they got
snipers with fifty cows all over the roof of the
White House. And it's pretty crazy. But yes, I mean
the security is going to be a massive issue because
at the end of the day, Secret Services job is
to protect the president. And I don't know how it's
(16:59):
going to work out as far as having people there
live on the on the lawn of the White House.
It'll be under five thousand though, But there's a I
can't remember what they call it. There's a park that's
connected to the White House. We could put eighty five
thousand people over there with screens and you know, we're
gonna put a big stage out there in new concerts
(17:20):
and we're going to take over Washington, DC that whole week.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So when you you know this, this fight this weekend's allegiant. Okay, Yes,
And I think ideally you'd like to be in Vegas.
Vegas McCarn or Harry Reid Airport. Now it's easy to
get in, it's the weather's almost almost good. You don't
have to worry about flight delays when with the UFC.
Are there still states that you'd like to go in
(17:43):
that push back? Or is the world open? Do you
have a second favorite venue? Is there a venue you've
never had a fight that you're in. I mean, you
took it to an island during COVID, So where is
the place that you want to go that haven't and
are you still accepted virtually everywhere?
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Yeah, the world is wide open for you. See, we
haven't been in Spain yet. I mean this Saturday, I
have two fights. I have UFC Ocha in San Antonio, Texas,
which is sold out. We broke the record for the
gate and the boxing event this weekend is the number
three all time boxing event. Number one is Mayweather Paciot,
(18:21):
Number two is McGregor Mayweather and number three, by.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The way, I was in Nello Crawford. Okay, So I
was at the first two. I want to circle back
to this because it's worth noting. If you don't follow
boxing and you're sitting here thinking Saturday night, the college
football game you wanted to watch was in the afternoon.
Canelo Averlayers has held the title in four divisions. That's
unheard of. Most of us grew up with Ali. He
(18:45):
was a heavyweight. He wasn't going down four different He's
never been knocked out, never been knocked down. But Crawford
is nineteen and oer one world title fights. Unbelievable story.
My take on this this, I mean, it may not
be Hagler Hearn's first round, but it will be a
fairly aggressive fight. That's do you have a sense of
(19:07):
what it will look like? And do you usually with fights?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
I agree?
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I think that you know, Crawford has taken this fight
to prove that he's, you know, one of the greatest
of this generation, and I think he's going to be
very aggressive. I think he's going to go after Canelo,
and you know, Canelo is an unbelievable counterpuncher, great head
movement and powerful. I think that this fight is going
(19:33):
to be a war. I think that It's what I
love about being a part of this promotion. I think
that the fight's going to be great, and the whole
undercard is going to be great. I think people are
going to turn off their TVs on Saturday and be
happy they stay at home and watched it win. This
reads everything to me.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, No, I mean it's I am a regular US
watcher and I buy for years pay per views, so
the paramount deal for me is a win. I think
it's always a win. I've talked about this with broadcasters before.
I don't want to be behind to pay per view.
I mean even there was a time Howard Stern everywhere
and then you disappear behind a wall. I mean, everybody's
(20:10):
charging for something. Give me something I can just turn
on the TV and get well.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I love being with the Allison's. You know, they're obviously
very smart guys, great businessmen, and very aggressive. So I'm
looking forward to being in business with these guys for
the next seven years.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
So when you go look at your life and your career,
of all the people you've dealt with, and you've dealt
with business leaders, global leaders, politicians, is are you ever surprised?
Are are do any of these people you ever meet
your match? Do you ever think to yourself you walk
out of a room and think, man, that if I
(20:45):
could hire that guy, would hire that guy? Because you're
dealing with industry leaders, a lot of alphas, very aggressive people.
I mean, when's the last time you were blown away?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Well, let me tell you this. I got the answer
to that question. So Mark Zuckerberg reached out to me
and asked me to be on the board of Meta.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Right now.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I would never imagine that I would want to be
on the board of anything, but when you look at
Meta as a business and a company, when you go
in to one of these board meetings and they start
at like eight thirty in the morning, and first of all,
the board of Meta, just the people they have on
there are all just absolutely brilliant and badass. And when
Zuckerberg comes in and starts running this meeting, I am
(21:27):
literally on the edge of the seat the whole time
listening to changing the world, what they're doing and the
level that they're doing it at. What blew me away
is that I would be so into you know, this
thing starts at eight thirty in the morning and we
end at five point thirty at night. These board meetings,
and he's got every minute dialed in. He knows everything
(21:50):
about the company inside and out. His cfoh, his CFO
is unbelievable. She's brilliant, and she comes in and goes
toe to toe with the Wall Street guys. It's it's
absolutely fascinating and one of my favorite things to do,
which I would never in a million year's dream I
would be that into it.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, Congress, on that you you are known as an
aggressive is it poker or twenty one?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
What do you play? Well, I'm playing baccarat these days,
and you're aggressive.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I'm aggressive and you just walk in and you're going
for it. Is there any casino that has said, Dana,
you're too good, there's too much money, our margins are slim.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
That's not that I'm too good, But what they do
is I have a style where I come in and
I want to bet as much. I want to bet
a million dollars a hand. I'm working on it right
now with MGM. MGM might actually let me do this. Yeah,
and one night, me and me and Michael Ruben so
fanatics and yeah, so he and I together one night
(22:53):
only a million dollars a hand. Working on that right now,
on that deal.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh, were you always a risk taker? Is this just
who you are?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Ye? I guess yeah, that's who you are?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So again, allegiant. You have two events? You have one
in San Antonio on one in Vegas?
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Which one needs you more?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:16):
I think they listen. The UFC is a well oiled machine.
We go every Saturday. What I'm looking for on Saturday
Night for Canelo Crawford is you know, I can tell
you right now, the television production will be amazing, It'll
be perfect, it'll be great. What I'm looking for is
(23:36):
the live event. You know, we're in a stadium, which
I don't love stadium fights because I feel like, you know,
you're watching two ants fight on a matchbook, right, So
we have to make sure that the people do not
have that experience. They have a much better experience live VIP.
You know, you get to your seats, you know your
(23:57):
ticket in and they get you right in, sit you down.
I want everything to go smooth with the live event.
You know, when you think about the live event, people
fly in from around the world in other states. They
have to get a hotel room, they bought tickets, they
got to pay for the restaurants. It's expensive. So I
always it's a big deal to me that the live event,
(24:18):
the people who show up have an amazing experience. I
went to a boxing match a few years ago and
it was a horrible experience, So that's a big deal
to me.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
On Saturday, Vegas has struggled year to year, last several years.
I've got my beliefs. Why how does Vegas turn it around?
They have not been on a good two to three
year role economic that's.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
Total bs man. You know this whole narrative right now
about Vegas. Vegas is always doing well. Vegas has booming.
This weekend, there's going to be over sixty thousand people
coming in for this fight in Vegas. And that's just
one event. You know, Bruno Mars plays there all the time.
His show is great, His show is incredible actually, and
(24:58):
many many other things to do Invegas. So everybody's always
counting Vegas out. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
The restaurant. I always say this, if you you know,
when I got to Vegas, I was out of college,
it was like eighty six eighty seven, the rebels, Jerry
Tarcani and Steve Winn. You didn't have pro sports. There
was a stigma that was all nonsense. I said that
for years, UFC didn't exist. There were boxing matches. It
was it was Don King and Bob aarm. But I
used to you know, I used to always say this
(25:23):
is people don't understand how good of a food town
it is, because everything starts in Vegas so true. It's
like every great restaurant that ever franchises, and I mean
the high end stuff. If I said to you, you're
going to Vegas for a weekend, You're lucky. You just
got a bonus at work. Somebody's watching this that you
can fly in to watch Canelo alve resident Crawford and
you can have one meal in Vegas. Where would you eat?
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Carbone? Oh, the Italian Place. Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
That's in incredible, always consistent, the services off the charts,
and if you have to wait, they got a great
bar too. It's a great restaurant. I love Carbones. But
like you know, when I was growing up in Vegas
and when you were there, you know, Vegas was buffets
or you know, ninety nine cent breakfasts and things like that.
(26:12):
Now it's all the best restaurants in the world. There,
the best restaurants, the best shopping.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
Now now there's live sports there, you know, and when
people are talking about Vegas, the Raiders are playing again,
so you know all their home games are going to
be sold out and packed and people coming in from
all over the country. And if you're if you're a
fan of the Patriots. Right, and there's an away game
that you're.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Going to go to. You're going to the Vegas away
So we said for years, you're flying.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
On Thursday, you know, have a blast, go to the
game on Sunday and then fly home.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
By the way, that was, I know what. You were
torn Vegas against New England.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Who are you rooting? I'm not torn at all. It's Newland. Okay,
I'm not torn at all. You know we've lost. We've
just lost Sunday to the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Oh you do you know Vrabel?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
No, we'll go.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh he's a butt kicker.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Yeah I heard.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Oh there's no nonsense with Rabel, sharp as attack.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Well, I'm close to Max Crosby, so if we're gonna
get beat anybody, at least it's Max gros.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Nobody better in the league than Max Fross. Love the
great guy. Hey, congrats, we'll be watching the fight. Haven't
seen you in a while. You look fantastic, man. We're
doing Okay, back in a second, it's to hear.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern a Empacific.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
All right, welcome back. Thanks to Dana White, who stopped
by today we appreciate that. And Nick Right, as always
was funny, so you know it circling back to Caleb Williams,
you know, the two things are true. He has a
lot of talent and you know, strength and movement and
power arm that throw to room Adonze it was like
(27:55):
ninety nine miles. You know it was a heater. But
he misses the strike zone a lot, and I thought
the more he got off script, the more he struggled.
So again, Brian Flores and the Vikings are a web
above average defense. I mean, Denver's defense is probably better,
but I mean Buffalo's isn't Philadelphia's. I thought. I thought
both Ceedee Lamb and George Pickens found all sorts of
(28:17):
space in the secondary, so Minnesota could have a top
two or three defense. And he was ten for ten
in the first drive and creates problems, but and didn't
have a pick six like JJ McCarthy did. But here's
Nick Right earlier on what he watched last night.
Speaker 8 (28:33):
He really struggles with the operation still and the getting
out of the huddle motioning guys a little too late
like the pre snap stuff. He still looks like a rookie,
and this is year two I still believe in Caleb
Williams's long term, but I think it is going to
(28:55):
be a much slower process than I had hoped.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And I will say bow Knicks struggled with some of
the mechanics of the Denver offense. So I mean, if
you go look at the young guy, Drake May struggled.
JJ McCarthy struggled for three quarters. Bow Knicks struggled. A
cam Ward was good but didn't have much to work with.
I thought Michael Pennix was very good. I thought Jayden
Daniels was good. So I think you get a mixed
(29:21):
bag with young quarterbacks. And for the record, I thought
Caleb Williams in the first half was pretty good. And
the other thing, he wasn't lured into interceptions like he
was dropping it underneath. But I did think in the
second half, especially that first series, you were watching Ben
Johnson's body language, He's swearing on the headset. I thought
he had a really bad opening series in the second
(29:43):
half and I thought it had affected his confidence. So
with young quarterbacks again, with Tom Brady, you can do it.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Pick six.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
He didn't care, he didn't lose his confidence. JJ McCarthy
hit that big throw to Justin Jefferson early in the
fourth quarter. He came out and hit that throw and
like his body lane uage his velocity, his confidence flipped.
And so for young quarterbacks, it just takes one mistake
or one great throw and things changed. That's very much
Baker Mayfield early in his career. Again, Baker and Sam
(30:13):
Darnold and Gino Smith, they're veterans now they're more settled in.
But your first three or four years in the league,
half to half series, the series it ebbs and flows.
And I remember once this was long, long time ago,
and we know how obsessed Tom Brady was. Jay Glazer
was interviewing him during a camp and Brady said, you know,
I'm in year you know blank fourteen. He goes, I've
(30:35):
seen every defense now, I mean, Mahomes admitted it wasn't
until year three when everything slowed down. So if you
just take year one out, it was a disaster in Chicago.
Take year one out. Let's pretend this was the first
game with a competence staff and an offensive coach. You
would say, first half was pretty good. They led seventeen
(30:56):
to six. But man, that he missed some easy stuff.
All right, Well, you would say about JJ McCarthy. He
was terrible for three quarters and then he caught fire.
Whereas JJ was awful and then great. Whereas Caleb was
like pretty good into pretty bad. He was more in
the middle. Ten was JJ McCarthy, One was JJ McCarthy.
(31:20):
Caleb was more four through seven, four through six. And
so they grow. And now Caleb goes against the Detroit
defense where there is no Brian Flores and it's not
as good a personnel, and Detroit, you know, has got
their own offensive issues they're concentrating on. There's no Aaron Glenn.
My take is Caleb Williams probably in week two looks
(31:43):
a little better, looks a little cleaner, and things are
a little easier off script. And I don't think JJ
McCarthy next game looks like he did in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
That was magic.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
He won't looked like he did in the first, but
he won't look like he did in the fourth. All right,
we are done. I'll be joining you from Chicago tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
It's the hurt
Thanks for listening to The Herd Podcast. Be sure to
catch us live every weekday on Fox Sports Radio in
noon to three Eastern nine am to noon Pacific. Find
your local station for The Herd at Fox Sports Radio
dot com, or stream us live every day on the
iHeartRadio app by searching Fox Sports Radio or FSR.
Speaker 2 (00:21):
You're listening to Fox Sports Radio.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
All right, Dana White is around the corner. But first,
Jamack with the news.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Turn on the news. This is the Herdline News.
Speaker 3 (00:39):
Let's start with your boy bo Nix, who had a
brutal Week one. I mean, listen, I don't want to
hammer the guy too are, but he turned it over
three times and looked pedestrian. Sean Payton knows sometimes it's
just about getting through Week one.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
I thought he hung in there, he battled, made some
critical place for us in the second half, and so
obviously he'll be disappointed with the turnovers, but uh, you
know there there was a gutsy performance, you know, and
we got a pretty usual week one.
Speaker 1 (01:11):
For the record. One of the interceptions was a throw
to Courtland Sutton. It was just a great play by
the dB. Oh, it was a great It was a
go either way.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
Play.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Not every interception just terrible decision.
Speaker 3 (01:24):
Are you seeing this line?
Speaker 5 (01:25):
Come on, Broncos Colts?
Speaker 1 (01:27):
How are the Broncos underdogs here?
Speaker 2 (01:29):
You're a playoff team?
Speaker 5 (01:30):
The culture garbage?
Speaker 2 (01:31):
What am I missing?
Speaker 3 (01:32):
No?
Speaker 1 (01:33):
Broncos is my second favorite number on the board. Bow
Nix is not.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
Losing to this Colts defense That confounded to a no.
Speaker 5 (01:41):
No.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
I think Bronco's body bag Colts here, well, I think
they beat them, but not Daniel Jones.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
Not every interception is a bad throat. Brock Purtty has
had throws. I mean, not just just throw Brock pretty up,
but if you up the fumble, no.
Speaker 5 (01:58):
I'm no, I'm but not.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
Every turnovers, I mean a terrible throat bow Nicks. One
of the picks was a throat at Courtland Sutton. It
was a jump ball.
Speaker 3 (02:07):
Can you apply that to rock Pety please?
Speaker 1 (02:10):
His winning touchdown, by the way, as you said, was
an anticipatory throw. There was nobody open.
Speaker 3 (02:18):
Let's move on to another AFC West team.
Speaker 2 (02:20):
The Raiders.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
They beat the Patriots.
Speaker 3 (02:22):
But the bad news is Brock Bowers went out.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Early with a knee injury.
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Pete Carroll just said at the podium they're taking it
day to day, but it helps them that they have
a Monday night football matchup with the Raiders. Raiders against
the Chargers on Monday Night football, so that's an extra
day for Rock Bowers. They listen, they need him calling
if they want to take down the way you sees.
Speaker 1 (02:43):
There's an argument he's the best tight end right now
in his prime in football.
Speaker 5 (02:47):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Well, I mean, who's the only second year tight end?
He is an un when you can spread a tight
end out in the slot and he can beat corners
Kese right now. Yes, absolutely. If I can dig the Chiefs,
I will.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Final story, Colin is the Seattle Seahawks lost to the
Niners in a tough one. Your boy Sam Donald fumbling late.
The only bright spot on the offense was Jackson Smith,
the Jigba who was everywhere. He actually tried to throw
a later roal which was wild. Mike McDonald said. The
rest of the offense definitely needs to step up their game.
Speaker 1 (03:20):
Jack's made a lot of great plays.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
There's more opportunities for him out there, which I'm sure.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
I'm sure he'll tell you. And we're going to count
everybody you know.
Speaker 3 (03:28):
See who steps up so we can It's not the
Jack Show every snap.
Speaker 1 (03:33):
I will say this if you didn't watch the game,
Seattle was driving in the red zone for the win
and Donald bangs into his own player. Also, they had
the most pressures week one, Seattle was the best team. Well,
I would say Baltimore's probably the best team that lost.
I thought Seattle looked really good.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
Oh and they had two hundred and thirty yards of offense.
What is good about that against a rebuilt nine Ers?
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Dare First of all, they're rebuilding. They rebuilt Saul is
a great defensive coordinator, and they were rebuilding their receiving corps.
So like not everybody in Week one is week eight performer.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
And the Cooper Cup was terrible at a couple drops.
They just don't have any offense outside of JSN and
Kenneth Walker A. J.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
Brown Philadelphia to Seattle, No, I mean I why not?
Although they just moved off a very dramatic, expensive wide receiver.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Any thoughts on Seahawks at Steelers.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I would take I would take Seattle plus free.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
I'm an agreement there totally.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
J Mack with the News, well that's the news, and
thanks for stopping by the herd Line news. Well, he
has been one of the mavericks in sports, certainly in
the last twenty years UFC president and CEO. He's now
so iconic. He's doing Dodge Ram commercials. I saw that
last night. Our friend Dana White is joining us here
(04:46):
on a Tuesday in the herd. Longtime, no talk. It's
great to see you again. And you major s mean,
most of these commissioners, you don't already want to hear
from him that much, but you're out there. You put
yourself out there with any all time. It could be politics,
it could be sports, it could be football. I would
imagine it's been good for your business.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Yeah. Business is good. Yeah, yeah, business is very good.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
So your entire in my entire life, boxing has been
pay per view. You now have a deal with Paramount
where you're like, listen, we're gonna move off from what
I can tell the pay per view model. I like
that for the fans. My takeaway is finally somebody rewards
the fans. I buy your pay per views all the
time they were about sixty five bucks something like that.
I also go to your fights. But when you made
(05:30):
that decision, it's counter to what boxing and UFC has
been my entire life. Which is mostly pay per view
stuff for the big stuff. Why the decision and is
there any risk to it?
Speaker 6 (05:39):
Well, the world is changing now, I mean, you know
all these streaming services. Here's the thing about a streaming service.
You know, you can have tons of great programming. I
can go watch it whenever I want to write. But
live sports you have to tune in at a certain time.
And I was waiting for the moment I knew that
there were are all eventually gonna need live sports. Now
(06:02):
you see him doing deals with the NFL, NBA, and
now US. It's just been an evolution, you know, as
Cable continues to you know, nose dive.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
Yeah, I mean, so you are now doing You're promoting
your first boxing match. Now, we talked about this before
you grew up in Boston. I was a boxing guy
in Vegas. You now live in Vegas. So my first
job out of college was in Vegas. I watched Hagler Hearns.
I was a Pacific Northwest kid. I moved to Vegas.
I fell in love with boxing. You know, I knew
I watched all Lee or you'd hear stuff as a kid,
but we didn't really have boxing. You know, where I
(06:36):
grew up, you were a boxing fan, and I always
kind of waited for you. My takeaway was, I would
argue you kind of ended boxing and then you create
TKO and you go into boxing. So is that telling
me that boxing still has a life.
Speaker 5 (06:51):
Yeah.
Speaker 6 (06:51):
I mean every time you think that boxing's dead, a
big fightful pop up again. But you know it's it's
it's every once in a blue moon. I mean we
at the UFC, we go every Saturday, pretty much every
Saturday all year. In boxing is you know, here and there.
So I'm promoting this Crawford fight this weekend.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Probably the best fight in five to six years. I
would say Canal Alra is the fighter of his generation.
He's a four division champion yep, never been knocked down.
Speaker 5 (07:22):
I agree.
Speaker 6 (07:23):
I love this fight and the fact that Crawford is
willing to risk moving up and wait to fight him.
I mean, this is if you're a fight fan, this
is the.
Speaker 5 (07:31):
Stuff for us.
Speaker 1 (07:31):
I've never lost tough childhood, been willing to put on
weight again. He's a knockout guy. Seventy six percent of
the fights are knockouts. This is as good as boxing
to me in the last five years. This is probably
the best fight. I agree, I think it's the best fight.
Speaker 6 (07:46):
I love this fight. I forgot where the hell I
was going with that. But yeah, there is.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
The difference promoting UFC and boxing, no real difference.
Speaker 6 (07:56):
I mean, you know, as long as you're putting up
oh that's what so I'm doing Canelo Crawford fight for
Shake Turkey. Then in twenty six I'm gonna start my
own I guess we call a league in boxing. Basically,
what I want to do is I want to build talent.
Like tonight, I have a show on called The Contender Series,
which I absolutely love Tuesday Night since I take the
(08:19):
best unsigned guys, yeah in the world. They face each
other that night and I decide who gets a UFC contract.
And basically that's what I want to do with boxing too.
I want to take these up and coming guys, you
know ten and oh, twelve and oh and a ten
and oh fights A twelve and oh you know, and
like the undercard of Canelo versus Crawford, the undercard is excellent,
(08:40):
Like the UFC, when you know, people show up for
the first fight of the night, not just the main event.
It's going to be that kind of a fight. This
weekend in Vegas. So the whole undercard is incredible, not
just the main event.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Well, Nick conn who you know very well, and you
Dana White, both are in the business of accumulating talent
and finding before the rest of the market moves. And
I have a little podcast company. We do the same thing.
It's exhilarated. There's nothing better than share somebody's ride. But
it's just unbelievable. So when you it's interesting, Like a
lot of times on TikTok, I go to a lot
(09:14):
of business guys yourself, a Jeff Bezos, It can be
a Mark. I think it's Andreesner Anderson and really smart guys,
Mark Zuckerberg. I'm looking for. I guess the thread among
successful business people. This is the thread I oways here
Amazon didn't make money the first twenty years is that
(09:36):
I don't think people understand you had a lot of headwinds.
I mean, at one point UFC John McCain wanted it
off cable and I always look at your rise and
I don't think people understand how hard it is. Was
there ever a time in your rise that the head
went you had the fatidas behind you. Was there ever
a time though that you woke up and thought, is
(09:58):
this thing going to work?
Speaker 5 (10:00):
To get it?
Speaker 1 (10:00):
Am I going to get a week of good news?
What was the point that was hardest for Dana White?
Speaker 6 (10:05):
I always thought it was gonna work, you know, just
as the timing right. It was the question. And there
there was a time Lorenzo called me one day and said,
I can't keep doing this. I can't keep pumping this
money into this thing. Go out and see what we
could sell this for. So I started calling around that
day and I came back to him that night and said, uh, yeah,
(10:27):
probably seven or eight million dollars when we were probably
forty million in at that time, maybe maybe thirty something million.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
I don't remember. I did you convinced him? Huh? How'd
you convince him to stay in? I didn't.
Speaker 6 (10:36):
I just told him that and he said, okay, i'll
call you tomorrow. He literally called me the next morning
when I was driving to work and said, fit, let's
keep going. Let's keep going. So we did, and you know,
thank god, here we are today.
Speaker 2 (10:48):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
at noon Eastern not a em Pacific on Fox Sports
Radio FS one and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 7 (10:58):
Hey, what's up everybody? It's me time pro bowler LeVar Arrington,
and I couldn't be more excited to announce a podcast
called Up on Game.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
What is up on Game?
Speaker 7 (11:07):
You asked, along with my fellow pro bowler TJ. Hutschman,
Zada and Super Bowl champion. Yep, that's right, Plexico Burris,
you can only name a show with that type of
talent on it. Up on Game We're going to be
sharing our real life experiences loaded with teachable moments. Listen
to Up on Game with Me LeVar Arrington, TJ. Huschman, Zada,
(11:30):
and Plexico Burrs on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or
wherever you get your podcasts from.
Speaker 1 (11:39):
Yeah, no, it's it's been pretty remarkable when you you know,
when you look at right now at UFC, I've always
thought the hardest thing in your job, and I don't
know if there's any luck involved, but finding the next
John Jones, who I think is the best fighter I've
ever seen in UFC. I would say, probably pound for pound,
(12:01):
probably the best.
Speaker 5 (12:02):
In my opinion.
Speaker 6 (12:03):
Yes, yeah, you know, you know, as you look at
boxing and where it is now, everybody's undefeated, right, they
have all these guys that are undefeated because they won't
fight anybody. Now in the UFC, whatever division you were in,
you fought the toughest guys all the way up to
become a world champion. And John Jones did that for
the last however many years, and he's still undefeated.
Speaker 1 (12:26):
Oh yes, So when you and I've asked you this before,
but I think it's I think it's compelling, and I
think you're going to find this in boxing. Boxing feels
and UFC feels to me so global. Is there ever
a moment when when is there talent of plenty? Is
it just for Dana White to find it? Or are
(12:47):
there cycles where like it's dry that you go six
months and you can't find talent.
Speaker 6 (12:54):
No, I wouldn't say that. But and especially the sport
gets bigger. You know, there's more and more people that
realize now they can make millions of dollars fighting, right, So, yeah,
there was a point in time. There was a point
in time when that was the case, but not now.
(13:14):
There's plenty of talent out there.
Speaker 5 (13:16):
You know.
Speaker 1 (13:16):
It's interesting. You used to come to California all the time.
We barely get you out here anymore. Sure, there's a
lot of people that.
Speaker 6 (13:22):
We're just talking about that. I was just talking about
that my crew when we were coming in.
Speaker 5 (13:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (13:26):
Well, I mean it's a different time. There's a lot
of pushback. There's a lot of things happening in the
country where when you embraced Trump, that's your audience. I've
been to UFC fights. I've been there twice. When he's there,
people love him, They go crazy. Did you ever worry
when you did this, we're such a tribal, polarizing country.
This could be bad for business. Did you ever worry
for a minute about that?
Speaker 7 (13:46):
Well?
Speaker 6 (13:47):
Trump and I have been friends for you know, twenty
five years.
Speaker 5 (13:50):
So it's not like, oh, yeah, that's right. It's not
like I was.
Speaker 6 (13:53):
Getting political and you know, choosing a side or any
This guy's my friend. It's been my friend forever. So
it wasn't really that way for me. And he's a
huge UFC fan, And he came to the UFC before
he even thought about running for president. He would be
at the events and held the events at the taj
Mahal and New Jersey. So this guy is just a
(14:15):
person who's been a friend of mine for a long time,
and he's a huge fan of not just UFC, but
a fighting period. I mean all the big fights he
held at the taj and Atlantic City back in the day.
It wasn't really a political move for me.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
Have you and Trump have something in common? You don't
sleep much. You're a live concert, live event, moving all
the time. There are certain there's almost an innate energy
with you that you this is who you are. Were
you always this guy? Were you always like burn twenty four?
So you're like a human red bull? Was it always
(14:50):
like that?
Speaker 5 (14:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (14:52):
Yeah, I can tell you this. Though he's seventy nine
years old, he's way worse than me. He never sleeps ever.
I mean, this guy will call me at night and
it's and it's two o'clock in the morning on the
East Coast, and and and he'll hit me again in
the morning and he's up already. He never sleeps. It's crazy.
So I'll get four or five hours a night, and
(15:14):
I'm good. I saw a guy on Joe Rogan saying,
anybody that tells you that they sleep four or five
hours a night, they're they're full of crap.
Speaker 5 (15:22):
No, dude, you're full of crap.
Speaker 6 (15:23):
I literally sleep four or five hours a night and
and and I'll can tell you right now, Donald Trump
sleeps less.
Speaker 1 (15:29):
By the way, my staff, can I take magnesium when
I go to bed because I'm allowsy sleeper? Five hours
maybe five and a half.
Speaker 5 (15:36):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:38):
My eyes are wide open.
Speaker 5 (15:39):
I can't.
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I can't sleep anymore. So whatever it is, it is,
I'm with you. You are having a White House UFC.
Is it next summer?
Speaker 5 (15:47):
Yeah?
Speaker 1 (15:47):
Okay, So this is interesting because I had a friend
once that was number one at Air Force, and I
think it was Reagan spoke. He goes, you cannot believe
the security with the president, but you don't even understand
what it's like. Literally, one minute before dinner, they changed
all the glasses in case there was poisoning. And he said,
So my takeaways, this is a big event. You're gonna
(16:10):
have a president there. Do you already have to plan that?
Speaker 5 (16:12):
Now?
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I mean, how far in advance?
Speaker 6 (16:15):
So we went to the White House last week, me
and my team, and we had the first meeting with him.
We laid out all the renderings and we started to
get him to sign off on what he likes and
doesn't like, and he loved it. So yeah, now we're
diving in head first. Now all the work starts. But
you're right, but this is the first time. This last
(16:36):
time I was at the White House, I went up
on the roof of the White House and they got
snipers with fifty cows all over the roof of the
White House. And it's pretty crazy. But yes, I mean
the security is going to be a massive issue because
at the end of the day, Secret Services job is
to protect the president. And I don't know how it's
(16:59):
going to work out as far as having people there
live on the on the lawn of the White House.
It'll be under five thousand though, But there's a I
can't remember what they call it. There's a park that's
connected to the White House. We could put eighty five
thousand people over there with screens and you know, we're
gonna put a big stage out there in new concerts
(17:20):
and we're going to take over Washington, DC that whole week.
Speaker 1 (17:23):
So when you you know this, this fight this weekend's allegiant. Okay, Yes,
And I think ideally you'd like to be in Vegas.
Vegas McCarn or Harry Reid Airport. Now it's easy to
get in, it's the weather's almost almost good. You don't
have to worry about flight delays when with the UFC.
Are there still states that you'd like to go in
(17:43):
that push back? Or is the world open? Do you
have a second favorite venue? Is there a venue you've
never had a fight that you're in. I mean, you
took it to an island during COVID, So where is
the place that you want to go that haven't and
are you still accepted virtually everywhere?
Speaker 6 (17:57):
Yeah, the world is wide open for you. See, we
haven't been in Spain yet. I mean this Saturday, I
have two fights. I have UFC Ocha in San Antonio, Texas,
which is sold out. We broke the record for the
gate and the boxing event this weekend is the number
three all time boxing event. Number one is Mayweather Paciot,
(18:21):
Number two is McGregor Mayweather and number three, by.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
The way, I was in Nello Crawford. Okay, So I
was at the first two. I want to circle back
to this because it's worth noting. If you don't follow
boxing and you're sitting here thinking Saturday night, the college
football game you wanted to watch was in the afternoon.
Canelo Averlayers has held the title in four divisions. That's
unheard of. Most of us grew up with Ali. He
(18:45):
was a heavyweight. He wasn't going down four different He's
never been knocked out, never been knocked down. But Crawford
is nineteen and oer one world title fights. Unbelievable story.
My take on this this, I mean, it may not
be Hagler Hearn's first round, but it will be a
fairly aggressive fight. That's do you have a sense of
(19:07):
what it will look like? And do you usually with fights?
Speaker 5 (19:09):
I agree?
Speaker 6 (19:10):
I think that you know, Crawford has taken this fight
to prove that he's, you know, one of the greatest
of this generation, and I think he's going to be
very aggressive. I think he's going to go after Canelo,
and you know, Canelo is an unbelievable counterpuncher, great head
movement and powerful. I think that this fight is going
(19:33):
to be a war. I think that It's what I
love about being a part of this promotion. I think
that the fight's going to be great, and the whole
undercard is going to be great. I think people are
going to turn off their TVs on Saturday and be
happy they stay at home and watched it win. This
reads everything to me.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Yeah, No, I mean it's I am a regular US
watcher and I buy for years pay per views, so
the paramount deal for me is a win. I think
it's always a win. I've talked about this with broadcasters before.
I don't want to be behind to pay per view.
I mean even there was a time Howard Stern everywhere
and then you disappear behind a wall. I mean, everybody's
(20:10):
charging for something. Give me something I can just turn
on the TV and get well.
Speaker 6 (20:14):
I love being with the Allison's. You know, they're obviously
very smart guys, great businessmen, and very aggressive. So I'm
looking forward to being in business with these guys for
the next seven years.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
So when you go look at your life and your career,
of all the people you've dealt with, and you've dealt
with business leaders, global leaders, politicians, is are you ever surprised?
Are are do any of these people you ever meet
your match? Do you ever think to yourself you walk
out of a room and think, man, that if I
(20:45):
could hire that guy, would hire that guy? Because you're
dealing with industry leaders, a lot of alphas, very aggressive people.
I mean, when's the last time you were blown away?
Speaker 6 (20:53):
Well, let me tell you this. I got the answer
to that question. So Mark Zuckerberg reached out to me
and asked me to be on the board of Meta.
Speaker 5 (21:03):
Right now.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
I would never imagine that I would want to be
on the board of anything, but when you look at
Meta as a business and a company, when you go
in to one of these board meetings and they start
at like eight thirty in the morning, and first of all,
the board of Meta, just the people they have on
there are all just absolutely brilliant and badass. And when
Zuckerberg comes in and starts running this meeting, I am
(21:27):
literally on the edge of the seat the whole time
listening to changing the world, what they're doing and the
level that they're doing it at. What blew me away
is that I would be so into you know, this
thing starts at eight thirty in the morning and we
end at five point thirty at night. These board meetings,
and he's got every minute dialed in. He knows everything
(21:50):
about the company inside and out. His cfoh, his CFO
is unbelievable. She's brilliant, and she comes in and goes
toe to toe with the Wall Street guys. It's it's
absolutely fascinating and one of my favorite things to do,
which I would never in a million year's dream I
would be that into it.
Speaker 1 (22:09):
Well, Congress, on that you you are known as an
aggressive is it poker or twenty one?
Speaker 5 (22:17):
What do you play? Well, I'm playing baccarat these days,
and you're aggressive.
Speaker 1 (22:22):
I'm aggressive and you just walk in and you're going
for it. Is there any casino that has said, Dana,
you're too good, there's too much money, our margins are slim.
Speaker 6 (22:31):
That's not that I'm too good, But what they do
is I have a style where I come in and
I want to bet as much. I want to bet
a million dollars a hand. I'm working on it right
now with MGM. MGM might actually let me do this. Yeah,
and one night, me and me and Michael Ruben so
fanatics and yeah, so he and I together one night
(22:53):
only a million dollars a hand. Working on that right now,
on that deal.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Oh, were you always a risk taker? Is this just
who you are?
Speaker 5 (23:00):
Ye? I guess yeah, that's who you are?
Speaker 1 (23:05):
So again, allegiant. You have two events? You have one
in San Antonio on one in Vegas?
Speaker 5 (23:10):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (23:10):
Which one needs you more?
Speaker 3 (23:14):
Uh?
Speaker 5 (23:15):
Yeah?
Speaker 6 (23:16):
I think they listen. The UFC is a well oiled machine.
We go every Saturday. What I'm looking for on Saturday
Night for Canelo Crawford is you know, I can tell
you right now, the television production will be amazing, It'll
be perfect, it'll be great. What I'm looking for is
(23:36):
the live event. You know, we're in a stadium, which
I don't love stadium fights because I feel like, you know,
you're watching two ants fight on a matchbook, right, So
we have to make sure that the people do not
have that experience. They have a much better experience live VIP.
You know, you get to your seats, you know your
(23:57):
ticket in and they get you right in, sit you down.
I want everything to go smooth with the live event.
You know, when you think about the live event, people
fly in from around the world in other states. They
have to get a hotel room, they bought tickets, they
got to pay for the restaurants. It's expensive. So I
always it's a big deal to me that the live event,
(24:18):
the people who show up have an amazing experience. I
went to a boxing match a few years ago and
it was a horrible experience, So that's a big deal
to me.
Speaker 1 (24:27):
On Saturday, Vegas has struggled year to year, last several years.
I've got my beliefs. Why how does Vegas turn it around?
They have not been on a good two to three
year role economic that's.
Speaker 6 (24:37):
Total bs man. You know this whole narrative right now
about Vegas. Vegas is always doing well. Vegas has booming.
This weekend, there's going to be over sixty thousand people
coming in for this fight in Vegas. And that's just
one event. You know, Bruno Mars plays there all the time.
His show is great, His show is incredible actually, and
(24:58):
many many other things to do Invegas. So everybody's always
counting Vegas out. That's ridiculous.
Speaker 1 (25:03):
The restaurant. I always say this, if you you know,
when I got to Vegas, I was out of college,
it was like eighty six eighty seven, the rebels, Jerry
Tarcani and Steve Winn. You didn't have pro sports. There
was a stigma that was all nonsense. I said that
for years, UFC didn't exist. There were boxing matches. It
was it was Don King and Bob aarm. But I
used to you know, I used to always say this
(25:23):
is people don't understand how good of a food town
it is, because everything starts in Vegas so true. It's
like every great restaurant that ever franchises, and I mean
the high end stuff. If I said to you, you're
going to Vegas for a weekend, You're lucky. You just
got a bonus at work. Somebody's watching this that you
can fly in to watch Canelo alve resident Crawford and
you can have one meal in Vegas. Where would you eat?
Speaker 5 (25:46):
Carbone? Oh, the Italian Place. Yeah, it's incredible.
Speaker 6 (25:49):
That's in incredible, always consistent, the services off the charts,
and if you have to wait, they got a great
bar too. It's a great restaurant. I love Carbones. But
like you know, when I was growing up in Vegas
and when you were there, you know, Vegas was buffets
or you know, ninety nine cent breakfasts and things like that.
(26:12):
Now it's all the best restaurants in the world. There,
the best restaurants, the best shopping.
Speaker 5 (26:18):
You know.
Speaker 6 (26:18):
Now now there's live sports there, you know, and when
people are talking about Vegas, the Raiders are playing again,
so you know all their home games are going to
be sold out and packed and people coming in from
all over the country. And if you're if you're a
fan of the Patriots. Right, and there's an away game
that you're.
Speaker 5 (26:37):
Going to go to. You're going to the Vegas away
So we said for years, you're flying.
Speaker 6 (26:41):
On Thursday, you know, have a blast, go to the
game on Sunday and then fly home.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
By the way, that was, I know what. You were
torn Vegas against New England.
Speaker 5 (26:49):
Who are you rooting? I'm not torn at all. It's Newland. Okay,
I'm not torn at all. You know we've lost. We've
just lost Sunday to the Raiders.
Speaker 1 (26:58):
Oh you do you know Vrabel?
Speaker 5 (27:00):
No, we'll go.
Speaker 1 (27:01):
Oh he's a butt kicker.
Speaker 5 (27:02):
Yeah I heard.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Oh there's no nonsense with Rabel, sharp as attack.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
Well, I'm close to Max Crosby, so if we're gonna
get beat anybody, at least it's Max gros.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
Nobody better in the league than Max Fross. Love the
great guy. Hey, congrats, we'll be watching the fight. Haven't
seen you in a while. You look fantastic, man. We're
doing Okay, back in a second, it's to hear.
Speaker 2 (27:26):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Herd weekdays
and noon Eastern a Empacific.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
All right, welcome back. Thanks to Dana White, who stopped
by today we appreciate that. And Nick Right, as always
was funny, so you know it circling back to Caleb Williams,
you know, the two things are true. He has a
lot of talent and you know, strength and movement and
power arm that throw to room Adonze it was like
(27:55):
ninety nine miles. You know it was a heater. But
he misses the strike zone a lot, and I thought
the more he got off script, the more he struggled.
So again, Brian Flores and the Vikings are a web
above average defense. I mean, Denver's defense is probably better,
but I mean Buffalo's isn't Philadelphia's. I thought. I thought
both Ceedee Lamb and George Pickens found all sorts of
(28:17):
space in the secondary, so Minnesota could have a top
two or three defense. And he was ten for ten
in the first drive and creates problems, but and didn't
have a pick six like JJ McCarthy did. But here's
Nick Right earlier on what he watched last night.
Speaker 8 (28:33):
He really struggles with the operation still and the getting
out of the huddle motioning guys a little too late
like the pre snap stuff. He still looks like a rookie,
and this is year two I still believe in Caleb
Williams's long term, but I think it is going to
(28:55):
be a much slower process than I had hoped.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
And I will say bow Knicks struggled with some of
the mechanics of the Denver offense. So I mean, if
you go look at the young guy, Drake May struggled.
JJ McCarthy struggled for three quarters. Bow Knicks struggled. A
cam Ward was good but didn't have much to work with.
I thought Michael Pennix was very good. I thought Jayden
Daniels was good. So I think you get a mixed
(29:21):
bag with young quarterbacks. And for the record, I thought
Caleb Williams in the first half was pretty good. And
the other thing, he wasn't lured into interceptions like he
was dropping it underneath. But I did think in the
second half, especially that first series, you were watching Ben
Johnson's body language, He's swearing on the headset. I thought
he had a really bad opening series in the second
(29:43):
half and I thought it had affected his confidence. So
with young quarterbacks again, with Tom Brady, you can do it.
Speaker 5 (29:49):
Pick six.
Speaker 1 (29:50):
He didn't care, he didn't lose his confidence. JJ McCarthy
hit that big throw to Justin Jefferson early in the
fourth quarter. He came out and hit that throw and
like his body lane uage his velocity, his confidence flipped.
And so for young quarterbacks, it just takes one mistake
or one great throw and things changed. That's very much
Baker Mayfield early in his career. Again, Baker and Sam
(30:13):
Darnold and Gino Smith, they're veterans now they're more settled in.
But your first three or four years in the league,
half to half series, the series it ebbs and flows.
And I remember once this was long, long time ago,
and we know how obsessed Tom Brady was. Jay Glazer
was interviewing him during a camp and Brady said, you know,
I'm in year you know blank fourteen. He goes, I've
(30:35):
seen every defense now, I mean, Mahomes admitted it wasn't
until year three when everything slowed down. So if you
just take year one out, it was a disaster in Chicago.
Take year one out. Let's pretend this was the first
game with a competence staff and an offensive coach. You
would say, first half was pretty good. They led seventeen
(30:56):
to six. But man, that he missed some easy stuff.
All right, Well, you would say about JJ McCarthy. He
was terrible for three quarters and then he caught fire.
Whereas JJ was awful and then great. Whereas Caleb was
like pretty good into pretty bad. He was more in
the middle. Ten was JJ McCarthy, One was JJ McCarthy.
(31:20):
Caleb was more four through seven, four through six. And
so they grow. And now Caleb goes against the Detroit
defense where there is no Brian Flores and it's not
as good a personnel, and Detroit, you know, has got
their own offensive issues they're concentrating on. There's no Aaron Glenn.
My take is Caleb Williams probably in week two looks
(31:43):
a little better, looks a little cleaner, and things are
a little easier off script. And I don't think JJ
McCarthy next game looks like he did in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 5 (31:54):
That was magic.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
He won't looked like he did in the first, but
he won't look like he did in the fourth. All right,
we are done. I'll be joining you from Chicago tomorrow.
Speaker 5 (32:04):
It's the hurt
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Colin Cowherd
Jason McIntyre
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