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Podcast Notes: This Past Weekend w/ Theo Von - Episode E470: Dana White
Episode Overview In this episode, Theo Von sits down with Dana White, the CEO and President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. They discuss Dana's journey as a business mogul, the evolution of the UFC, and various personal anecdotes, including notable friendships and experiences within the industry.
Key Topics Discussed
- Dana White's Rise in Business
- Transition from a struggling businessman to leading the UFC.
- Strategies for building and promoting the UFC brand.
- Importance of perseverance in the face of criticism.
- UFC and Entertainment
- The evolution of UFC into a mainstream entertainment brand.
- Comparison to other sports and entertainment formats, like Power Slap.
- Insights into choosing walk-up music for fighters and its significance.
- The Emergence of Power Slap
- Dana's thoughts on Power Slap and its potential to attract audiences.
- The unique format and appeal of the sport, described as “bite-sized” entertainment.
- Observations on how social media amplifies content exposure in combat sports.
- Personal Relationships and Influences
- Friendship with President Trump and its implications.
- Reflection on retirements of prominent fighters like Ronda Rousey and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
- Importance of personal connections within the sport and how they impact his leadership.
- Navigating Criticism and Expectations
- Dealing with pressure from critics and industry insiders.
- How Dana maintains focus on the UFC's mission despite external pressures.
- Business Philosophy
- Emphasis on aligning with partners and sponsors that share core values.
- The importance of maintaining integrity in business relationships, especially with sponsors.
- How to handle situations when sponsors attempt to influence content.
- Family and Personal Life
- Dana shares personal stories about his children and family dynamics.
- The balance between work and family responsibilities.
Key Takeaways
- Resilience is Key: Dana highlights the importance of resilience in business and personal life, particularly in combat sports.
- The Fun of Live Events: He expresses his love for live events and the thrill of seeing fighters achieve their dreams.
- Sponsorship Integrity: Dana stresses the importance of working with sponsors that align with personal and professional values.
- Emotional Ties to Fighters: There is a deep emotional connection to fighters, making their successes and retirements personally significant.
Quotes
- "If you take the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, UFC, WWE, NASCAR, and a couple of other ones, you combine all their numbers together on social, multiply them by four, they don’t do what Power Slap does."
- "The pandemic never made sense to me... if they can do it over there, why can't we do it over here?"
Conclusion This episode of "This Past Weekend" provides listeners with a unique insider perspective on the life and thoughts of Dana White, alongside Theo Von's humorous and engaging interviewing style. The discussion encompasses a wide range of topics, from the evolution of combat sports to personal reflections, making it a rich listening experience for fans and aspiring entrepreneurs alike.
For more content and updates, listeners can follow Theo Von via his social media platforms and check out tour dates and merchandise links provided in the episode description.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:00At Sierra, discover top workout gear at incredible prices, which might lead to another discovery. Your headphones haven't been connected this whole time. Awkward. Discover top brands at unexpectedly low prices. Sierra, let's get moving. Today's guest is an entrepreneur. He's a renegade. He's a business model. And he is the head of the UFC. He's from Massachusetts. And I couldn't be more excited to go a couple rounds with someone. Today's guest is Mr. Dana White.
0:40I'll sit and tell you my stories. Shine on me. And I will find a song I've been singing. Almost.
1:01Dude, you feel handsomer as you've gotten more in shape? You guys got to deal with Celsius? Yeah, it's pretty good. Yeah, it's awesome, man. So, it's good, man. We've had a really great year. It's been fascinating, man. All types of just interesting people. Rappers, Robert F. Kennedy. We just had Wayne Gretzky. I don't know who else we've had. You got to do Trump. Yeah, we'd love to have him. If we get closer, I'll get you Trump if you want to do him. Yeah. Well, we had Sexy Red on, and she's from the hood, right? She has some pretty ratchet stuff. She sings about her vagina and stuff, but people love her, right?
1:36But that's her? Yeah, Sexy Red is wild. She, yeah, and she is actually pregnant as well. The best part of it was at the end, I was like, hey, I'm going to invite you to UFC fights sometimes. She's like, I'd love to go. That would be awesome. So the hood would really show up for that. What did you think about Slap? Well, it's a great question, brother. First of all, I didn't know what being there makes it, you're like oh my god this is amazing i like how it's bite size in the way that if you want to like hang out with friends and chat you can be talking to your buddy and you know exactly when the action is going to happen so as whereas ufc you don't want to miss any of the true any of the dance that's a really good point so i loved how it was like very digestible like in okay it's like hold on dude chill let's focus this is it um i like the people that were there i thought was really interesting i can't tell when i'm there there's moments where i'm supporting and then there's moments where i'm heckling almost right there's respect for sure but i could like i don't know it was weird like cow like cowboy serrone is there and he's like knock him out them slides like one guy's wearing sandals you know so i think there's a little bit of a peanut gallery aspect there is um but there is at ufc too though i mean there's a lot of a lot of yelling and shit talking at UFC.
2:58I think UFC has become a lot more sophisticated over the like the last 10 years. Yeah. But before that, it was quite a slap crowd. Yeah. Oh, well, dude, I remember when I first heard about UFC, it was like the kids who were not going to finish school were watching it. Right. It was like they had a VHS. It would like come in the mail. That dude. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, dude. Yeah, that dude. Talk about a guy that's become famous just off fucking one picture of sitting in the crowd. Just Bleed. He works with blood drives now, too, which is crazy, huh? Are you serious? No, I'm not, but that would be, yeah.
3:35But that would be, actually, it's not a bad partnership. Dude, I'd fucking, I'd pour a 12-ounce O negative for that guy if you asked me to. That guy's an animal. I'll tell you something fascinating about the slap content. So there's a woman named Amy Kaplan, and she's a media member, right? and I don't know who she writes for, but she comes to everything, UFC, Slab, she supports, whatever, right? So when she showed up to Slab on Wednesday, she had 20 followers on TikTok. So she posted the video of Sheena, the women's one, knocking her out. Right now it's at 1.6 million views, and she has 3 ,600 followers off one post from Slab.
4:18How crazy is that? This is the one right here. Yeah, you should have cut that up and put it out. That's all the influencers that come. They love it because the content's so powerful. Listen to me. If you take the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, UFC, WWE, NASCAR, Formula One, PGA, and a couple other ones, you combine all their numbers together on social, multiply them by four, they don't do what PowerSlam does. No way. Fucking fact. and when you post this content, it is unbelievably powerful, man. Yeah, other things that I thought really about it, I liked how, I wish I knew some of the fighters better.
4:59I know some of that takes time and getting to know them, right? 100%. This is only our fifth ever event. It's been around for eight months and yeah, no, this thing's a fucking juggernaut though, man. But I dug it, dude. I'm sitting there with my buddy Sheldon Sore and we're like, holy shit, dude, this is so much fun. Like I was like, I was excited to come back. I'm not going to say it surprised me, but it did. When the guy almost got a haircut off of his beard, you don't even know if he has a chin. You're like, what if that dude doesn't even have a chin? And he's just fucking out here. That's one of the things we've been talking about.
5:32Some of these beards are so big, it's not where the hell their face is. I agree. That's hilarious. But I kind of love that aspect of it. It's a little bit of camouflage, dude, where some guy rolls out there with a naked chin, some little fucking nudist, you know? You're like, this guy's got to calm down. This pervert, grow a beard, man. Did you make it up to Red Rock after? No, I didn't. It was fucking mayhem up there. Really? Yeah, we go to the high limit room after and big party up there at Red Rock after the thing. And everybody's gambling and all this shit, but we had done this thing. We did a sweepstakes where somebody would get the opportunity to come and gamble with me and Steve will do it.
6:10Right? So we sit down at the table. You couldn't fucking write this. You couldn't write this. Sit down at the table. I give the guy five grand. We start gambling. And he just leaves with it? We start gambling. And me and Hunter were just talking about it. Hunter was his coach. Hunter was kind of coaching him over there on the side. And Hunter said the guy was so nervous. He's like, you know, at one point, he got up to what, Hunter? Eight grand? Wow. He was up to$8 ,000 he had won. He was in the fucking perfect seat at the table. Up to eight grand. He's up to nine grand now. and and and i said listen you don't have to stay here you can you can leave whenever you want whatever he's asking hunter questions like dana doesn't care if you want to leave oh yeah you quit when you want to so he says okay this is my last bet then win lose or draw this is my last bet he puts it up steve will do it throws a thousand up on it underneath the guy put up like four or five hundred steve puts a thousand under it he hits a fucking blackjack and wins i mean you couldn't write a better fucking story than that so the kid leaves there with almost 10 cheese and uh you know he won the sweepstakes come gamble with us and actually got the experience slap got to go to the party after and actually won 10 grand and win wow yeah that's incredible i love doing fun shit like that yeah dude you know what you do a great job of that i'll say like i tune like and even now just being in the facility and seeing like the kitchen where you guys shoot the uh fuck it friday and stuff i'm like man that's pretty brave were you concerned about it at all at first like just putting yourself out there like that because i think there's always this wall between like, is it, you know, when people step into like putting themselves out into social media?
7:45Yeah, no, I don't care. I've been doing it for so long. And I mean, uh, I mean, I was doing these video blogs before this whole influencing thing was a thing. You know what I mean? I used to do video blogs on YouTube. They would follow us around in the plane, going to events and all the behind the scenes type stuff. So I I've been doing this for a long time. it doesn't bother me yeah what um what kind of tunes do you listen to what kind of music do you listen to i'm into i'm into so many different types of music i like uh i mean my all-time favorite bands are rage against the machine the beastie boys and the red hot chili peppers um but i listen to everything i listen to 80s music listen to 70s music i listen to uh rap i listen to you remember your first concert you ever went to the first concert i ever went to is kind of weird.
8:34It was Berlin. I went to Berlin. It's a band? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm not familiar with them. Okay. No more words. Oh, yeah. Wait, no more words? Play a beat of it. No more words. No more words. I'm thinking more than words. I'm actually going to the cult tonight. The cult's in town. I'm going to the cult. And they're British, huh? Yeah. Oh, yeah. you know the cult yeah kind of you know who i know
9:08who'd you go with i go okay i get a little bit of energy now for what's going on there will you stop it was michael bisping the dj you know he used to be a dj i didn't know that dude he has a great story about uh somebody um stole his records when i isn't this right isn't michael bisping somebody stole his records right he's the fucking dj right like the last guy you want to steal from right some one guy some one-eyed fucking you know music maniac running skrillex you know so he fucking he finds out who the dude is right the guy denies that he pops the trunk and the records are in the fucking trunk dude and i think he put the dude in the trunk did he really i think that's how it ended but yeah uh anyway he was a dj but um no i I wasn't familiar with them.
9:52My first, I did see Duran Duran recently though. I did too. Did you? They were great. Yeah, I thought it was pretty good, man. They were great. Yeah, I was very impressed with how good they were. I love live music. So I go to lots of concerts. There's this kid. So funny, we say the cult, I'm going to the cult tonight. I see the cult all the time. Big cult fan too. Cult's one of my favorite bands of all time. So I go to the cult and some band called Des Rocks is opening for him. I never heard of him. and uh so i said let's just go walk around we'll come back later i come back and they have a couple songs left i was blown away really by how good they were i was so blown away that i jumped on on a plane the next day and saw him again in san diego yeah and i saw him in utah now most of the music that you see for ufc and powerslap is des rocks no way when we do the commercials like the commercials and all the hype pieces i use his music oh it's amazing man yeah he's he's incredible he's playing the troubadour in la uh next sunday oh sweet i think i'll be out there then let's go you're gonna go i'm gonna fly in for you are yeah you want to go yeah i have to go now but yeah i'll go fuck yeah let's do it um i'll go and uh i'm going i think you guys are going to the motocross on sunday yeah no uh with john shahidi are you guys doing that thing i'm doing nitro circus i'm doing nitro circus tomorrow i'm gonna go oh it's tomorrow it's tomorrow in anaheim yeah yeah i actually i'm meeting trump tomorrow morning for breakfast on his plane wow his plane is landing here we're gonna have breakfast on his plane then i'm jumping on our plane and going to uh to nitro circus oh that's gonna be fun yeah i wanted to be over there what does trump have for breakfast you think if you have breakfast i'll tell you tomorrow okay okay tomorrow all right What would your walkout song be, you think, if you were a fighter?
11:43Oh, shit. There's so many good ones to choose from. I sort of lived vicariously through the athletes over the last however many years because I picked a lot of the songs for a lot of these guys to walk out to. Do some of them just not want to pick it? Some of them don't even give a fuck. What? They could care less. They could die. They're not even going to know what music's on the way there. Nope. Oh, damn. Yeah, most of them didn't even care in the early days. You can't die with Hilary Duff when you're going to the fucking war. Yeah. No, most of the music that was picked back in the day was done by me.
12:17But the walkout song's important. It's a big deal. It's one of the things that if you're not a big star already and the song comes on and people connect with the song and like it, they're like, oh, who's this guy? It's a big deal. Yeah, Bobby Green, I think, does it pretty well. I noticed he'll kind of change his up, and he brings so much energy, but I think you can feel his energy when he's coming in. Poirier has that James Brown. You know, some of these fighters come up with songs that I would never dream of could be a cool walk-in song. Yeah, the walk-in song is a fun but very important part of the live event.
12:51Yeah, I think so. Man, I want to say too, man, just your bravery in doing and keeping things going during the pandemic, it changed everything. It gave a lot of people a feeling like that there was still somebody that could do something different. it gave a lot of people a feeling that like um everybody wasn't subject to uh kind of like the privatized tyranny that's kind of going on yeah you know and um i agree with you and man it made it made me so much more of an involved fan dude that's awesome well i appreciate it listen the pandemic never made sense to me and again because of my close relationship with abu dhabi you know i knew over there that they were doing testing and they were doing all this stuff i'm like if they can do it.
13:32Why can't we do it over here? Yeah. And why couldn't we create, you know, this space, you know, they ended up calling them the bubble, but this space where, you know, everybody was tested and you knew everybody was clean and we couldn't put on an event. We did it in Jacksonville. We did it in Abu Dhabi. And, uh, you know, I'm one of these guys, I love this country. I love America. Uh, this country has obviously been very good to me, my family and uh a lot of my friends and employees we don't just fucking roll over and hide in this country man this whole pussification of america and everybody you know fucking scared of everything and whatever i was like if this is as bad as they think it is or they're saying it is fucking dead anyway yeah we're gonna die you don't want to die yeah just wearing a mask They can't even see your face.
14:22Dying a mask, hiding in your house. Hell no. So what do you think your walkout song would be? Can it just be the cult? Sure. I'd do the cult. I'd do the cult. She sells sanctuary. Listen, you know when you can never go wrong with a walkout song? ACDC. Yeah. You'd never go wrong with ACDC. I'm trying to think of an ACDC song. Back in Black? Yeah. For those about to rock? For those about to rock. Oh, that's the shit my brother used to beat the shit out of me, all that music. Exactly. It's some good ass whooping music. Oh, I still have a floating rib that was originally not floating because of half of Alice in Chains' second album.
15:04Big Alice in Chains fan, too. Big Alice in Chains fan. Bro, we would lose. Bro, one time I go over to Perry Farrell's house, right? I relapsed. First of all, I relapsed at a one-year-old's birthday party. So, obviously, I've had some tough times. But a friend of mine who's in jail now, I think, but at the time he had a child. A friend of mine had a party at Perry Farrell's house because he had a nice home. And it was a one-year-old's birthday. And I go in, and I didn't know who Perry Farrell was. I'd listen to him. You know, I just couldn't recognize him. And then there's this dude kind of just mumbling around by this big bookcase.
15:38And I go there. I'm fucking talking to the dude about these different books. And it ended up being him. Anyway, the story's anticlimactic. But, yeah, I met him at a one-year-old's birthday party. And neither one of us knew the child, which I think also made it weird. And we talked about that a little. It's weird to be at a really small kid's birthday and pretend that he's bigger or something. Right. You know? What is that, Nick? Sinead. Oh, that's Sinead. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good one. You know, it was fascinating, too, because I was a big Sinead fan. And I actually didn't go to my high school 10-year reunion because Sinead O 'Connor was playing at the Hard Rock.
16:17I went to see Sinead O 'Connor instead and then to meet her and go through this whole thing with Connor and she was such an incredible performer and had such a great voice and I think this kind of goes to what you were talking about about putting yourself out there you know she ripped up that picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live that night and she got fucking just attacked by everybody. I mean, everybody just started coming after her and she got beat on for so long that she actually got to the point where she would have terrible anxiety when she would go out and try to perform. So leading up to that Connor walkout, it was, uh, we didn't know if it was going to happen or not happen live, even though she was there and we had done the deal with her to come.
17:06But yeah, I adored her. She was a really good person. I liked her a lot. And it's sad to see her go, but I was a huge Sinead fan. Did you like give her a pep talk before? Is there any kind of communication like that? 100%. I absolutely did. Yeah, I can imagine. I can totally relate to what you're saying is if you think the media especially or people, some people are on your side and how they would be so scary, especially if you're a singer to go out there. Yeah, it's listen, when you're out in the public and whatever, the thing is with me is I don't give a fuck. I don't give a fuck. I don't give a shit what anybody says or what anybody thinks.
17:40I have this mindset. I know exactly who the fuck I am. I have my circle of people that I hang around with who know me and know what I'm about and whatever. And anybody else who doesn't like it or doesn't want it, I'm fucking bad. Were you always like that, do you think? Always like that. Wow. I was always like that. Because that's the part that I think these days it gets a little bit harder to create. Like, I mean, I work for myself, right? And so it's nice to have your own space where you don't have to answer anybody. You have to answer to advertisers sometimes. But at this point, you can also sell direct to consumers.
18:15You can say fucking sayonara to advertisers if you need to. I will never, ever answer to a fucking advertiser. Never. Yeah. I've been through it. Believe me. Yeah. Listen, this is a really easy fucking solution. Pay me what you owe me and you go your way and I'll go mine. pretty easy fucking solution that's it yeah yeah don't you can't ever let these these fucking people hold you hostage or try to you know try to change who you are or what you stand for or um try to try to uh determine how you're going to run your business yeah that shit do you think that that is becoming more the commonplace or that it got to be the commonplace and now we're getting out of that i think it it needs to be the commonplace you cannot you cannot be held hostage by advertisers i mean uh dave chappelle has this great um comedy thing that he was doing and he says uh you know everybody asked me why i don't have a tennis shoe and you know i've been offered tennis shoe deals you know i don't have a tennis shoe because as soon as you do something they don't like take the tennis shoe away it's gone and all that shit and you know what I mean he's right that's why I don't fuck with Hollywood a lot man I don't do a lot of shit they say come do this come be in the movie yep the guy calls me fucking Ricky Furley or whatever calls me hey you want to be in the you know dope sick 11 or whatever the fucking movie is I don't give up dude no I don't want to fuck I don't want if they I don't want them to be able to write an article to be say hey we took this away from this guy because he said this yeah I don't fucking need any of that shit 100 and they only came to ask me once I started doing my own thing anyway so fuck them sorry man i'm obviously angry about that but um but thanks for some of the yeah you're not wrong you're right yeah there's a lot of that energy in the world that people don't know what to do it's got to be 100 man you let these people come in and and and you know these people are paying to be a partner with you to to put their logos with you and be with you until something goes you find out who's with you and who's not when the shit hits the fan yeah you know i mean i say this all the time it happened with me and my my employees during covid right right right in covid they're laying people off and whatever we didn't fucking lay anybody off didn't you negate some of your salary or something what'd you guys do no i said i would but okay i said we're gonna go through this we're not laying anybody off we're going through this yeah and um you know every christmas party i get up on stage and tell my fucking team how much i love them and how important they are to me and then the scariest time in our lifetime uh hits and i'm like hey i love you guys so much i'm gonna fucking lay off some of you have been with me 10 15 20 years that i'm one of these guys the whole fucking ship goes down together we're not at all we're all fucking sinking me included or we don't at all you know and and uh you know that doesn't exist in this world that we live in today everybody's just so easy to pull the trigger and let go of some of their people and you know it's something good i need to hear that too you know i'm just as my business grows i've become more of a boss i never wanted to be a boss how do you do this How do you do this without these two?
21:25I don't. Right. But, yeah. And now that you said that, I'm going to have to give them a Christmas gift. How do these two do this without you? Right. You're a fucking team. I think we've realized that more this year, I think. But it's become a learning lesson for me as a boss. You know, it's like you think, like, I need to just hold on. But you really need to let go and let others help. You're a team. What you do is when you run a successful fucking business, you do it by building a really good team around you. Yeah. You know? and uh i have you're lucky you have a lot of great employees man i got the best team in the world man i really do 150 un-fucking-believable people when i said we're fucking storming the beach we're going definitely dude nobody fucking said no there is no experience man when i go to the ufc fights it's like the whether it's the assistants or your directors or um the guys who are opening the cage door, you look over and there's like some hero years, there's David Spade or there's Mel Gibson or there's Joe Burrow.
22:24It's like you have all of just like, and it just feels like you're in this fun fucking family. That's a little bit mentally unhinsed, right? I'm not going to say that. Okay. No, you're not wrong. Yeah. This family's had some fucking domestic disputes. All right. But they, uh, but it just, dude, it feels so much fun. When I leave the event, I miss that. I miss the people that you work with just as much as I miss the action. That's awesome. I love hearing that. And thank you. And you're not the first one to tell me that. Everybody tells me that. Anybody who interacts with anyone on my team. And everybody here is smart, hardworking, the best at what they do.
23:08And there's none of that bullshit at the office where there's all this backstabbing and fucking all this bullshit. Those type of people we get rid of immediately. Yeah. You don't last here being that kind of a person. This is a team. This is a family. And we throw parties here all the time for all of our employees. We throw different types of parties, like parties for the employees where they can bring their spouse or their wife or whatever. Then we throw parties where you can bring your kids because we want their kids to come and see the place where their parents work and they want them to feel, you know, your parents are gone at work all the time.
23:41We want the kids to look at where they go to work as a fun place, as a place that's cool. Oh, mom and dad are at work. We love going to their work. You know what I mean? Oh, fucking start a 37-pound weight class, dude. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. It's awesome. I mean, that's out of line because that's children fighting. But was it hard for you to learn to be a boss as your business grew? Like, what was some of the... Because, man, even you just saying this in front of us, man, it's important for us to hear because I need to do a better job of it. And some of that is just stuff I'm learning as my business has grown and my responsibilities and not feeling like I need to really try to do everything myself.
24:16I can be a better boss and coworker a lot of times. So it's just powerful you're saying that in front of us. Delegating. Yeah, and respecting people's ability to do stuff. I was always so used to doing things myself growing up. 100%. Listen, I'm still as successful as this thing has been and all the stuff that we do. I get here every day at 9 o 'clock, and I'm one of the last guys to leave this building every night still. Was it hard to learn to be a boss? Did you have a role model with that? Well, I had my own business before this, but the only difference in coming to the UFC was the size, being a global company, and obviously the finance side.
25:05I went from dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars to dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars. So that's the difference. But, you know, finance is not my fucking thing. We have a very strong finance team. One of the things I hated the most in being in this business was fucking budget meetings, man. We used to be in budget meetings. You know, when we were getting murdered and we were losing money, we were in budget meetings for fucking, it felt like, days. And that was the only not fun part of the business for me. and uh now where we are now i only do the fun shit i only do the shit that i really love to do yeah and and i stay completely focused on which is making sure the production the live and in-house production is fucking perfect um finding new talent uh putting on the best fights we can possibly put on and start building those are those are the things that i really focus on um so more more marketing i don't fuck with finances at all yeah good yeah i mean just because you like to gamble you know and because fucking i do too man so you know i fucking i'm on some site now i can't even get my money out of the fucking thing like jesus dude i online gaming is as a little as a little strange isn't it yeah i respect them and we're happy that they advertise but it's also a little obtuse sometimes.
26:32I'm an old school brick and mortar, you know, sit at the table and play kind of guy. Oh, yeah, I'd rather not be able to pay my tab and have two fucking Italians beat the shit out of me, you know? Because at least it fucking evens out, you know? At least in the morning I wake up and I'm like, oh, fuck, I deserve it, you know? It's like, you know, it's physically part of you feel like it makes sense. What if I said that the perfect gift does exist, and I'm talking to you about Manscaped. That's right. they want to baby them balls baby they want to help you out down there manscaped's brand new performance package 5.0 ultra featuring the new lawnmower 5.0 watch all your wishes and mistletoe kisses come true if you hang in some mtoe off that down boy look nice when you're getting naughty by going to manscaped.com and use code theo for 20 % off.
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29:48ShipStation has effortless integration anywhere you sell online, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and more. ShipStation's robust automations and reporting makes scaling easy. As your business grows, you can save thousands on shipping costs, get discounts of up to 84 % off USPS and UPS rates. Just go to ShipStation.com and use code Theo today and sign up for your free 60-day trial. That's ShipStation.com, code Theo. Make ship happen. Is it hard for you guys to pick sponsors? I know you guys have a new sponsorship. You guys have a new sponsorship with Bud Light, right? Yep. But do companies come and do like Shark Tank for you kind of to present the brands?
30:36Yeah, kind of. So, you know, UFC is at a point now where, you know, guys come to us and want to pitch their brands or whatever it is to advertise with us. And recently, you know, I've become very involved in the on the sponsorship side. So, you know, I meet with these guys and, you know, I just did an interview the other day with the media at the Scrum at Slap. and it's just I'm at a point now where in my life and my career I want to be with people that I'm aligned with people that you know yeah it's it's not it's not just about the money it is about the money because it's a sponsorship deal but it's not just not going to go for not going to take a bigger offer if it isn't something that I am aligned with and don't 100 believe in fuck yeah dude good for you it's nice to be in that space you know and I bet we can probably all be there but I think some of it's fear.
31:37But yeah, I had a business guy. We were just talking about this. Were y 'all? In life, you have to have no fear. You have to have no fear. You have to believe in who you are and what you do and just go fucking get it. Don't be afraid to tell somebody no. Fucking water guy wants to do a deal with you and the money looks good, but there's certain things about that you're not into. Fuck them. Don't do it. Yeah, the right thing will come along. There will be another one. Exactly. and somebody that you're more aligned with. When you look at these type of things, it's no different than a relationship.
32:12If you're going to get into a relationship with somebody, right? Imagine if you had to drop a contract with some woman. Aqua Fiend. You say, we're going to, no, some woman. We're going to be in a relationship for six years. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You have to be aligned and you have to, it has to be somebody that you can be in a relationship with for six years. Yeah, you don't want to be three years in and be like, oh, I'm still drinking Ronda, you know? Or you don't want to be three years in and be like, oh, I'm still drinking Britney, you know? Well, what happens, too, is - I didn't mean to say Ronda, because I know she's a fighter here.
32:46I just don't want there to be any weird energy. Okay. There won't be. Anyway, good. Ronda was amazing, actually. I know, she's one of your favorites. I know, that's what Nicole said. She said that - Of all time. She named somebody else favorites. But go on, I'm sorry. I fucked us up. Fuck. Man. Sorry. No, you - You don't want to be in a relationship with somebody for a long time. The COVID thing. It's like, you know, you think you're in this business with, you know, whatever product it is. And the shit hits the fan like that. That's when you find out who everybody really is. Yeah. Including some of your sponsors.
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33:20Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? So you get, you know, you're in this sponsorship deal and the phone's ringing every day. You're picking it up and, you know, they don't like that you're doing this. They don't like that you're going through COVID. This is irresponsible. you know that now get the fuck out of here get the fuck out of here you know what i mean you just it just when you do a sponsorship deal with somebody you have to look deep into who they are and you know who's running the company who's making the decisions and are you aligned yeah i love that man yeah because we had robert kennedy jr on and we had a company call a couple companies call after that and say yeah just stuff about him we're not advertising on this episode my advertisers like you guys need to take the episode down you know and uh and and we ended up what's wrong with him nothing nothing guy's fucking brilliant and i've known he's a smart fucking i've heard for seven years great guy i mean a neat man right i i've never met him yeah i've only watched his stuff and you got this whole democrat republican fucking all this crazy bullshit he's a fucking democrat yeah right but now they hate him just because he doesn't believe like he's a democrat with common sense right yeah right he's like an old school democrat yeah and smart guy whatever let me tell you this let me fucking tell you this this is america you can fucking have whoever you want on your podcast you can do whatever the fuck you want to do imagine a sponsor that's sponsoring you calling you and telling you that you can't have this guy what sponsor did it um i i let me think and i'm not afraid to name them i don't know if i remember i really don't i don't know if i believe you but okay that's fair um but i really don't know if i remember imagine and this happened to me too this this happened to me i posted a video for trump right on my personal social media and one of our big sponsors called and said take that down you know i said go fuck yourself yeah you vote for whoever you want to vote for and i'll vote for whoever i want to vote for that's how this works i don't even care who you're voting for it's none of my fucking business but fuck you yeah don't ever fucking call me and tell me who to vote for yeah yeah yeah i think a lot of people feel in fear these days you know a lot of people feel in fear that if they don't vote for certain people they're going to lose their jobs i mean it's hollywood for example think about how fucking crazy that is it sounds insane it sounds just like Well, it'll keep happening unless more people stand up for themselves and give them the fuck you response.
35:59Well, I'm going to tell my sponsors right now. If you don't like what I fucking have on, I'll tell you exactly what I'll do. I'll end my deals and I'll just sell direct to consumer for a lower price because the people will support you. You know? Well, listen, man. You can't. It's like this whole Bud Light deal. You know, people are talking shit now. Sell out and all the shit that they'll fucking say. Believe me. I'm the furthest fucking thing from a sellout. yeah bud light is the right move for me they're exactly who i want to be with right now and uh we are very aligned as far as core values go you know what i mean 65 000 americans they employ yeah that right there should be enough 65 000 americans are employed there why would you want to put a bullet in that brand off of one fucking thing how about you go back and look at all the good things they've done yeah right that's a good point and where they really stand and what they really believe in they take care of veterans they they take care of veterans families and first responders families who have fallen and the list just goes on and on almost a billion dollars a year with u.s farmers wow that alone is the reason you should be drinking fucking bud light yeah so fuck i look deeper than just fucking right you know oh they did this fucking can with whoever i don't give a shit about that it's they've already they're showing right now that they're coming with me and they want to be aligned with me those of you that are hardcores some of you guys are fanatical on this shit that should be your you know and you guys think you're all looking for an apology they ain't gonna fucking apologize to you yeah just because some risky fella you know just because some you know and they had 2500 influencers that day they gave everybody their own i know they did i knew that shit i'm like they just gave a can everybody nobody's paying attention everybody got it if i don't know where i'm at sexually i could probably use a drink you know that's honestly how i feel dude that guy's having that guy's having the toughest day you can't decide what union to fucking be in bro that's a fucking issue dude that's a big issue to me but um no i think look man i think it's important and you know what it makes me think i don't look and see who because we're in a place now where i can choose the advertisers that i want and i never thought about that before i never have until just now and i could i can look at advertisers and see if they have some of the same beliefs and values that I do.
38:18A hundred percent. You know, and it's important. And that is how you start to build back things the other way. I wish. And it makes it fun. Whoever you are and whatever you believe in, when you align yourself with people, not just the people that work for you and around you, but the sponsors that you're with. Yeah. It just makes everything so much more fun. You enjoy your job. You love what you do every day. And there's no bullshit. Nobody's fucking calling you going, you know, hey, don't have fucking Kennedy on your show. Yeah. Hey, go fuck yourself. yeah fucking tell me who i'm gonna have on my show yeah go john f fuck yourself that's what i'll tell him there you go you know exactly dude it's crazy because lee harvey oswald went to the same middle school as me which is pretty wild but um anyway i don't know why i told you robert kennedy's a smart guy and he's you know he's a great man he's an environmentalist first of all and he helped clean up our environment right he's he grew up raising homing pigeons and he has this great story about him and his friends when they were kids they would put they would give the homing pigeons to a to the train conductor right and they would be like okay take these to virginia or whatever and let them off at the same time you have to promise us and whoever gets back to the roost first that's who wins right so imagine that game with your buddy you're just fucking sitting there waiting for a pigeon to come in you know just the guy's fascinating right that's some rich people shit right oh dude that is fucking rich bro something flies by us dude somebody's fucking gunning it down bro you know um but uh we actually had a couple brothers bus grilling up a dove one time our neighbors and uh and i never eaten dove but it was pretty good but um but robert's a fascinating guy but that's how he started carrying up caring about vaccinations was he's in he cared about the environment outside of us so then he started care about the environment inside of us right um so it all makes perfect sense but um but yeah i love the guy um what about so when you deal with like how has it been harder because you guys are part of william morris right i work with them right yeah they're pretty woke company right is it woke as woke can be yeah yeah i think it's woke morris entertainment or something you know it should be anyway but um yeah they're fucking well they're always crazy we had tucker carlson on the other day and they're all fucking i'm sure you know or whatever putting on their maxi pads but um i love tucker too yeah tucker's fucking fascinating he's awesome i'm actually going to dinner with him here in the next uh next few weeks yeah he's it was interesting i didn't know what it would be like you know he looks like a guy that you know uh gets dressed at johnston and murphy in the airport every day you know but um he was really really cool yeah he's a great dude smart guy too really smart yeah it was fun i don't judge people by their politics or or their race or their religions or any of that shit.
40:58You're either a douchebag or you're not a douchebag. And if you're a douchebag, I want nothing to do with you. If you're a good person, I don't care who you vote for or who you sleep with or what religion you are. I don't care about any of that shit. How much have you learned about different cultures and ethnicities just having your, because, dude, you bring in, there's people with flags sometimes that I got to look them up. Yeah, no, it's true. That's funny. It's amazing, though. it's like i learned about uh ecuador from um cheeto vera right i didn't know about it but next thing you know i know about it i get to talk with him it's like yeah yeah thank god i got that right too because that fucking flag i got it wrong i questioned it um cheeto vera is a great dude he's fascinating but it is it's it's it's there will be nights that we'll be sitting there by the octagon and i trip out i grew up a big bruce lee fan right and when you watch enter the dragon it's basically the premise is this this fanatical guy got all these people from around the world who are supposed to be the best martial artists in the world he brings them to one place to fight um that's the movie yeah enter the dragon enter the dragon i've heard of it you never saw enter the dragon i never saw it you need to watch that tonight when you go home all right yes sir and I will dragon so this guy brings them all to this island the guy ends up being you know bad guy he's corrupt or whatever and Bruce Lee kills him sorry to ruin the movie for you but uh I'll still watch it but some nights I'll sit there and I'll think about it I got I got this guy from China fighting a guy from Kazakhstan I got this guy from Brazil fighting a guy from France you know what I mean and it's like it is it's like I grew up loving enter the dragon and that whole concept and then now here you are doing it.
42:45Doing it. Wow. Yeah, it's pretty fucking cool. Dude, laughter and left hooks, those are universal languages, I think. It's true. I agree. Because it's crazy. Imagine two guys that can't even speak to each other. Then you put Keith Peterson in between them as the mediator. And no offense, I love Keith. He came to a show in New Jersey. He knows I love him. But if that's the fucking moderator and then they can't even speak, but they're fighting. It's really, it's kind of a beautiful dance. The whole thing is a beautiful dance have these people from different parts of the world right and they're training and they're trying to become the best mixed martial artist they can be and somebody on the other side of the planet is doing the same and we can actually put them together to see who is the best it's fucking awesome dude that's got to be so high man it's awesome have you had trouble do you ever have trouble like i have trouble a lot of times feeling proud of myself is something i've had trouble with has that ever been something you've dealt with does that make any sense when i ask you that I'm never proud of myself.
43:42I always look at things like we're not even close. People ask me all the time, do you ever look around and say, oh, wow, look at it. I'm always like, what's next? What's next? What's next? Yeah. Why do you think that is? Do you think because I'm that way, too. It's hard for me to feel kind of where I'm at sometimes because I always have some vision or something, you know, that needs to be done. Yeah. Do you think that comes because I notice it's a commonality amongst some some folks. Do you think there's any you able to get in touch with any of that? and think about that at all? No, I don't give a shit.
44:13Yeah. I just keep fucking, I just keep plugging. I just keep plugging, man. There's just so much more work to be done. I just want to do as much as I can do until I can't do it anymore. Dude, I'm so thankful that you said that about the advertisers because I don't even think about it. We advertise for a lot of companies, right? And we can have an effect on how well they do. We've helped build some big brands and to think that I should know what some of their thoughts are and their beliefs are so that I can align them with mine. Fucking, that's cool. That's a way that I can help contribute towards in the world.
44:45And have fun doing it. You know, you help build their business. They help build yours. It's a really, it should be a great relationship and it should be a good experience for everybody involved. Yeah. But I can tell you from experience, if you end up with the wrong one, there's nothing fun about it. And actually, you end up in a bad relationship. It's like any other bad relationship between you and a woman or whatever it could be. Nobody wants to be in a bad relationship. Yeah. Have you all struggled with that? I mean, it happens. It's happened a couple of times, but yeah. Oh, Peloton was the, we just got an update.
45:21It was Peloton. Peloton was the people who wanted an ad out. Peloton. And meanwhile, you have RFK. So Peloton. Yeah. What do they sell? Fucking bikes? The stationary bikes? Peloton sells stationary bikes and they got a problem of Robert fucking Kennedy. Fuck you, Peloton. Who the fuck are they? Yeah, first of all - Right? Are you fucking kidding me? Yeah. Fucking Peloton calling bitching about Robert Kennedy. Yeah, dude, you want to go nowhere? Who's the CEO of Peloton? I want to see this fucking guy. Yeah, I want to see this fucking lamb, dude. Hey, you know what gets you further than Peloton?
46:01Hitchhiking, okay? How about that, dude? Barry McCarthy. This fucking wiener schnitzel, huh? Let's see Barry McCarthy. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Oh, fucking yeah. Barry McCarthy looks like that guy. A hundred percent. Look, if you're just listening at home and you're thinking of what he looks like, you're right. He looks like a douchebag. Yeah, dude. A hundred percent. Where's he from? Oh, yeah. He looks like somebody that eats his own skin a little bit at a time. Yeah, he is. He is. Where is he fucking from? If you call me up and said this guy was complaining about something, I'd say, oh, fuck. San Francisco, California.
46:46There we go. My boy. Ring-a-ling, dude. There you go. They've been giving Pelotons to fucking vagrants. That's why they're not leaving. Yeah. Fuck you, Peloton. Yeah. Do we have Pelotons in the gym? Are those Peloton? ass sports no no there's bikes next to it ass sports ass yeah we're getting rid of them yeah we're getting rid of the pelotons yeah and if they ever mail me sorry he's gonna kill himself but we're getting rid of the pelotons pelotons are out of the gym whoever uses the most can fucking have them at home but they can't use them here brother that's what you do that's what you do you stop fucking using their products and you fuck them yeah and tell them to go fuck themselves and that's the same thing for me like if somebody's telling you that you can't vote a certain way if Someone who's telling you that if your boss is, make a video and fucking blast them.
47:35Imagine that fucking dork fucking picking up the phone, calling you, and telling you that you can't have Robert Kennedy, who is a Democrat, by the way. You know that guy's a fucking Democrat, right? Telling you that you can't fucking have him on your show. Who the fuck are you, Barry McCarthy? To think you can pick up the phone and call anybody. You sell fucking stationary bikes for a living, you fucking clown. Fuck you. Yeah, fuck them, dude. God, dude. And what is he fucking? What is he? He's probably middleweight. I'll fucking cut 40 pounds and fucking. That guy is the typical fucking pompous, arrogant fucking douchebag that I cannot stomach.
48:15It's people who don't know. Yeah, it's people that think they know what it's like somewhere and they've never even been there. That's a story of a lot of our country these days. But I like this. It gives me an avenue to feel like I can fight back. So I appreciate that. You have to fight back. Yeah. You're going to let that fucking guy tell you what to do? Fuck no, dude. I will cook that dude's fucking - Look at this. There he is. That right there tells you exactly what fucking Barry McCarthy is all about. Peloton just laid off 500 of their employees in their fourth round of cuts this year. Yep.
48:44You know what, everybody listening? Fucking fuck Barry McCarthy and Peloton. Okay? That's what a stand-up guy Barry is. Yeah, dude. And that's why he ain't - Yeah, it's fucking - Let off 500 more of his fucking employees out in his fourth round of cuts. Yeah, and what's lamer than watching your husband get on a bike that doesn't go anywhere, huh? What wife is like, oh, I'm so proud of this guy. That's like my dad, man, right? Get Borsari in here right now. I need Borsari in here. Yeah, get him. Yeah, is he a bicyclist? He has to be. If he isn't, why does he look exactly like he's born? He's a workout freak.
49:27I'm not bullshitting you. You can film us. Yeah. My guys are going to take the Pelotons out of the gym today. We're getting rid of them. We're going to go throw them in the fucking garbage today. I'll be happy to toss them in. We're throwing the Pelotons in the garbage. We're throwing them out of the UFC gym. I'll be happy to toss them in. What about when you talk about star building, you mentioned earlier, and we'll do it. We'll do it. I know you're amped, and I appreciate it. Do what? We're going to throw those Pelotons out. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, that's the fact. Yeah. fuck, I'm almost excited now.
49:57Yeah, fuck that guy, man. You know what he did? They ruined my day. The advertisers calling. They want it down. They want it down. There's advertisers that are upset. They ruined my fucking day, and I was already having a shitty day that day, and they fucking made it just a nightmare. It was like 7 o 'clock at night. You got to take it down, and the episode had been up. It's a shit show, but yeah, screw them. You talked about star building a little bit ago, right? You mentioned it. what is it is there a toughest class or even gender is it tough to build like female stars like what is that kind of like star building so if you look at the contender series right i create lots of different content to build stars you got the contender series you have looking for a fight the ultimate fighter which was the greatest star building uh show in format of all time and i'm I'm literally doing that same format right now with Power Slap.
50:56We bring guys into a house. You find these guys, you bring them into a house. They live, eat, sleep, and train together, and then compete against each other. And what it does is it does a few things. While you're showing the world who they are on television or online or whatever it is, it's also a pressure cooker. They have to deal with pressure and competing over and over and cutting weight. then there's a camera in their face seven days a week 24 hours a day it's like media training at the same time it and and what always happens is no matter what the best always rise to the top it is fascinating all right so this is Craig Borsari he's my head of I know Craig he's friends with my my I know his neighbors yep there you go oh he's Craig Craig is very friendly with all Greg is an exceptional guy.
51:45So he was in a situation where he had Robert Kennedy Jr. on his show. And an advertiser called and told him, get rid of that. You're not posting that podcast. Take it down. Blah, blah, blah. Because he had Robert Kennedy on. Right? It was Peloton. Okay? Do you know who Barry McCarthy is? No. Barry McCarthy is the CEO of Peloton. Yeah. Let us see Barry McCarthy again. Can we see him again, please? We got pictures of you and Barry McCarthy together, actually, Craig. Is that Pelotons that we have in the gym? We have Pelotons, yeah. They're going. We're throwing them out. Yeah. Getting rid of them.
52:22That's Barry McCarthy. This is the fucking guy that called and told him to take down the fucking. We had an episode. Does that look like the guy that would call and bitch about Robert Kennedy Jr.? He does, doesn't he? Who is that fucking. Look at that guy. He looks a little like Tim Cook. Yeah, he does, huh, a little. I don't know who Tim Cook is. I mean, I'm just agreeing with you. I don't know him either. Oh, Apple. Okay. The Pelotons are gone. They're gone. They're going out today. So I got to go bike on the road now. No, you just got to use the assault bikes now instead. Yeah. Those are tougher anyway.
52:57Are they really? Way tougher than Peloton. It's time to step up. If I ask you to guess, so he called and he wanted Robert Kennedy Jr. taken down, right? Threatening him on his podcast, right? Yeah, they were about to go public, I think. Their company was about to go public or something. They're like, this could ruin everything. That's what our ad agency said to us. They're worried this could ruin everything. It's fucking 8 o 'clock at night on a Friday or something. Can you fucking imagine that? And they made us go take an older episode down because of something he'd said recently in the news.
53:28This was like a year or not, two years ago, maybe. Where do you think Barry lives? Where do you think he's from? Just look at him. Let's guess, huh? And listen to the conversation and see if you can tell me where Barry lives. Yeah, he probably lives... Craig? San Francisco? Oh! Fucking ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. Oh, dude. Hey, you just won... Barry lives in San Francisco. Hold on. You just won four Pelotons. Congrats. You just won a whole fucking line of Pelotons. That's what we want, bro. You can line them right up in your house. I can't set them up here in the office, so I might as well put them on my own.
54:02Those are going right in your house. Yeah. Congrats. I'll put them on my garage. You can have a flock of Pelotons, dude. Isn't that a band? You can have a flock of Pelotons, dude. That's classic, man. Oh, man. All right, anyway, just had to share that with you. Yeah. Go figure out my new workout. Go get those bikes sent over to your house. Yeah, dude. And send Barry a text and tell him thanks. Thanks, dude. That makes you feel empowered, honestly. No, this is what I do. I like this, dude. I gotta do more of this, bro. That's what I do every day. And no bike helmets either. Anybody wearing a fucking bike helmet out there?
54:39I bet you Barry wears a helmet when he rides his. Oh, I bet he wears one when he rides his wife, dude. You fucking come around me with a bike helmet, dude. I would rather get a concussion and dive and be seen in a fucking bike helmet. That is awesome. Anyway, what's it like? We'll switch out of this world a little bit. What's it like being a dad? You have a couple children, right? Yeah, I got three. I got two boys and a girl. Was that scary when you first thought about being a dad? Yes, very. Wow. And were you already having success at that point in your life? Because I don't know a ton about some of your history.
55:16So right when we bought the UFC, I had my first son, my oldest son. He's 22 now. At Dana Jr.? No. Yeah, Dana Jr., yeah. Sweet kid. And then as soon as you could be with your wife again after being pregnant, she got pregnant again. Wow. So my boys are less than a year apart. So I had two kids right out of the gates. Yeah. You had two kids right out of the gate. Then they said after, my wife had a tubular pregnancy where the baby gets caught in the tube and the tube bursts. And they said she couldn't have kids anymore. So we were like, whatever. And then five years later, she got pregnant with my daughter.
56:01Just miraculously. Yeah. Wow. That's like all of the miracle baby. Yeah. and what's something that you like about each one of your children just individually or that you admire about each one of them um my oldest one is uh is fun loving and and uh you know a great kid that you know he's like a meathead he plays football he loves to work out he hangs around he's in a frat you know at usd and all of his buddies are fun guys and uh they're actually having a this uh fraternity uh uh auction you know they're raising money for the fraternity next week so i'm going down there and going to their auction and all that shit beautiful school too then my younger son is very artistic very talented he could play any sport he wants to play he's really good at anything but all three of my kids are really good surfers snowboarders um and and my younger son loves the skateboard and all that stuff so he's actually working for a company that lorenzo fertita and i own called throw one which is thrill thrill one throw one We own Ridiculousness on MTV.
57:01Y 'all own that? Yeah. That's their only show. Yeah, it's basically the Ridiculousness Network. Ridiculousness. We own SLS Skate League. We own Nitro Circus and Travis Pastrana's Nitro Cross. Oh, nice. So my son works for them. Oh, he does. And then my daughter is 17. So he's the artistic one, that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're all athletic. He's the artistic one. And what about your daughter? My daughter cheers. She's a cheerleader. Oh, she is? Yeah, she's still in high school. She's a junior and just getting her ready to figure out which college she wants to go to and all that good shit.
57:35Is it tougher being a girl for you? Was it easier being a girl or boy dad? Did you have any stuff for being a girl dad? Because I didn't really give a shit what the boys did. You know, they could do whatever they want. She can't do whatever she wants. So, you know, as a dad, you have to sort of oversee and protect your daughter more than you did your sons. Interesting. And does that naturally I don't have any kids, but I would like to, you know. And so does that naturally just happen in a man? You think if you have a daughter, it just kind of shows up more? A hundred percent. Wow. Dude, I dated a girl I remember in high school and her dad was a fireman, right?
58:06And I broke up with her and he fucking made me eat like, like probably five hot dogs. I remember he was fucking mad at me because I went to another event with her and it was like this weird energy and he fucking sat there and made me eat as many as I could. It was just hot dogs. Yeah. Just like unlimited Franks, man. I'm trying to figure this one out. He just wanted to fucking put me through something, you know? And I think putting somebody through bad fucking pork while they're sitting there, you know? It's just a lot for me when I was a kid. You know, I didn't have a lot of role models, so I think it was a lot.
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1:01:33that's better help.com slash t-h-e-o better help any new partnerships or something that you're that you're kind of excited about um you think uh you know the thrill one stuff that i'm doing i love it uh you know we're having a blast doing that um you know hollerhead my whiskey yeah having fun with that you know i like uh i like building brands and i i love running businesses and more importantly i'm like addicted to winning i love to win i love to to get out there and take um these niche uh you know brands and and blow them up and make them big yeah i know i'm friends with john shahidi right and you are too man i love shahidi he's a nice guy love the both the brothers the Nelk boys uh that's that's my it's your squad that's my it's my squad they're my young I bet they keep you connected to stuff probably well you know how I got turned on to them was from my oldest son Dana during COVID he says uh dad I want to show you something he took me down in the moving room and showed me the Nelk boys oh yeah and I said yeah I get it I get it and then crazy enough organically they reached out to me during COVID and wanted to go to Fight Island so that was how we met and we became super tight i'm i'd do anything for them yeah yeah john's been an exceptional uh new friend to me in the past year and a half he's a neat guy he's inspiring he's fun he's creative he works hard 100 um do you is there any new places you're looking to fucking get this thing to happen like you thinking about doing like you know ufc on top of kilimanjaro ufc you know the thriller in manila do you guys think of redoing anything like that my next big project that I'm working on right now is the sphere.
1:03:22I want to do the sphere on Mexican Independence Day and literally create and put on the greatest live sporting event anyone has ever seen. That's my next big project. How much fun is it when Brandon Moreno comes into the ring? It's fun, isn't it? It's awesome. Yeah. Him. It's so fun. The whole Mexico thing and these Mexican talented kids. Yeah. I've been working on this for 22 years. Wow. That's finally starting to come to fruition. It's so cool, man. It's, I just, yeah, I love it when he comes to the ring. Yeah. I've met so many neat people and have been inspired by so many people from your sport.
1:03:58Dustin Poirier and I are close friends, you know, and it's been special. Like he's like a real friend to me. He's inspired me so many times when I want to give up. I remember things that he says or other fighters say. It's, it's interesting the amount of inspiration that a lot of people get from your sport. Oh, do you ever think about, yeah. How is the relationship with WMA? Is it good? Very good. Yeah. Yeah. Very good. You know, Ari is, uh, Ari's a maniac, man. A maniac in, in a good way. I, he, he is like a fucking serial entrepreneur and you guys have that in common. He's super fucking smart.
1:04:31And the fact that, you know, when we sold one of his big things was that I couldn't go. So at one point the Fertitta sat down with me and they were like, cause I thought we were just going to move on and go we're going to go do whatever next and they were just like listen this is really good for all of us and this and that you know you got to stay nobody's going to buy this thing unless you stay yeah so you know in the beginning i i had a hard time with it uh because i you know i didn't want to sell selling not lorenzo was done lorenzo was ready to move on and walk and i didn't want to so we got in with ari ari lets me run the business man and just you know if i need help on something like hey i need this connection or i need this or that he can make all that shit happen or he's that guy like oh yeah you want to meet the fucking i want to talk to the to the fucking uh ronnie nestle or president of fucking india or whatever the fucking yeah he can get that guy on the phone and get the ball rolling um yeah no ari's awesome he's been a other than being in business with the fertitas i couldn't have landed with with another better partner than fucking Ari.
1:05:42He really is awesome. I love him. Is it hard to fend off? Because I know you like to gamble. Is it hard to keep gambling out of, and I bet on fights, on UFC fights online. Is there a point where gambling or the odds makers try to come and infiltrate the actual outcome of sports? No. Does that make any sense, that question? Yeah, yeah, I get it. And do you have to keep that up? You're talking about like point shaving and shit like that. Like that happens with the - Right, which would be hard in your sport, I think, because these guys have so much individual pride and it would be so obvious. 100%.
1:06:16We just had an - The problem that we have, it just happened recently, is insider information is the bigger problem. These guys inside these camps - Oh, yeah. The guy gets hurt. Like Chase Sherman has a lisp or whatever. No. And he doesn't, and I love Chase Sherman. And that was just a joke, Chase. You know - Oh, so it's been an MA coach. James Krause worked with Offshore Sports. Ah. Ah, so he knows what's going on. So he's trying to bet. So he knows what's going on. So he lets these offshore guys know, yeah, this guy's going to fight. And he tore his ACL or something like that. This happened. It did.
1:06:52Yeah, this just happened recently. And that's the closest thing to, you know. Right. But there's no more about insider information. I see. But these guys, the thing that's so fucking stupid is when you start, when money starts coming in on a guy, these these these guys know they they know man they they they know the uh the gambling world inside and out so if anything's fishy then they end up launching an investigation yeah and they're gonna get you and guess what whatever you made on that bet is not fucking worth going to you've seen me say this before it's out there federal fucking prison you ain't going to the fucking white collar crime place over here you're going to fucking federal prison yeah you can't people have people be like, well, what are you in for?
1:07:36You know? And you're like, Paulo Costa in the third round, you know, like it would just be, it wouldn't be as like, you know, and I love Paulo Costa. That's not what it's talked about, but it's like, you can't have that be what you're in for in a fucking serious thing. There's a big difference when you talk about certain crimes, but this one is a federal fucking crime because it's gambling and you go to federal prison. That's, that's some real shit. Yeah. Oh yeah. I wouldn't like it. Um, what about, uh, and just one more question. But does that happen to sports where they get compromised, do you think?
1:08:08Like, does that make any sense when I'm trying? And I'm not saying that they— I don't know. I mean, it's a great question. It's something that—how many people have ever said to you, oh, my God, the NFL is so shady. Right, right, you hear that a lot more now. The Patriots just beat the Bills. Right. And the Bills were 10.5-point favorites. You know, it's stuff like that that makes people go crazy. Detroit just got killed. You know, one of the best. They were 5-1 or 5-0. I don't know what they were. But it's just all that type of shit is what made me stop. You know, I'm a fucking gambler. I love to play blackjack.
1:08:39I don't sports bet. I do not sports bet. Was there a bet that took you out of it or just that kind of stuff? You know, people say, I threw a little money on the game for fun. There's nothing fucking fun about betting on a game. It is the biggest sweat roller coaster of all fucking time, man. And it won't be fun or make you happy. It makes you fucking miserable. So you like to know that. So with blackjack, you know the outcome pretty quick. so you don't like that long waiting. There's no doubt about it. And, you know, you get in there and it's just more fun. I'm actually hands-on and actually playing the fucking game.
1:09:13You know, when you sit there and just watch a fucking game and watch this whole thing unfold and lose your money, there's absolutely nothing fun about it. Or these guys that will do these parlays. I got an 18 parlay and every fucking team wins and then you lose the last fucking game on the parlay, right? Yeah. And you bet$10 and it would have paid you$10 million if you fucking won the thing. And now you spent two days watching it too. Now your kids are eating fucking coffee. Yeah, that shit is fucking acting, dude. What about like, was there a fighter that retired and it just kind of broke your heart because you just, and it could be more than one maybe.
1:09:50I mean, I know you probably have a great relationship and unique relationships with all of them. But was there one that like, is it hard not to get attached to some of them? 100%, especially in the early days, we were like a big family. I mean, it was like everybody knew everybody. I mean, when you go back to Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin, you know, I mean, that whole group back then, I mean, these people would come to my house for Christmas and Thanksgiving and, you know, holidays and things like that. And then you had to go up there and watch them fight. And it was tough. And Ronda Rousey, Ronda and I are super close.
1:10:27And that That was a tough one. I would say the toughest retirement for me, because usually when it's time for them to retire, I'm happy for them to retire. It's over. You've accomplished everything that you could possibly accomplish. Why keep doing this? Habib was a tough retirement. Yeah. You know, because I think Habib had so much more to offer and so much more to accomplish. But I think when his dad passed away, it kind of sucked the fun out of it for him. And he was done. Plus, he made so much fucking money, he never has to do anything ever again. Oh, yeah. He could buy his own rock quarry over there.
1:11:04And no offense, I don't know where they're at, but I know it gets pretty paleolithic in some of those areas. I don't know if you have anything else to talk about, man. Yeah, one thing you said that kind of reminded me was I remember when Trump was running for office and Bill Belichick, they asked him about him. And he said, that's my friend. I support my fucking friend. Whatever you guys think about it is fine. And like, cause he wrote a letter to him telling him congratulations for running. I think was that, is that what happened? And, um, what are you talking about? Uh, it was when Donald Trump was running for office.
1:11:34Right. And they, and Bill Belichick had written him a letter that just said, Hey, congrats on running for president. Right. And I think Trump mentioned it. And then the media attacked Belichick about it, but he said, Hey, that's my friend. Right. I support my friend. Yeah. And it's, yeah. And people need to be able to stand up. I think a lot of people are in fear because... I'm having breakfast with him tomorrow on his plane. He's my friend. We talk all the time. We talk about fights. He called me up right after Abu Dhabi and said, those rides were great. Oh, my God. The Volk. Yeah. I met him twice at your events, man.
1:12:11Exactly. And it was great. He's a great guy. It was neat. Politics are dirty, man. It's nasty. It's ugly. And like all the shit that's going on with him right now, If he wasn't running, he wouldn't be doing any of this stuff to him. None of this would be happening. And if he wasn't in the lead, like he's going to win the election, none of this would be happening to him right now. So it's just, it is what it is. And the guy's always been an amazing friend to me. He and I will be friends for the rest of our lives. Yeah. Yeah, I'm glad I got to meet him. That's the first president I ever got to meet.
1:12:42I would support any of our presidents. I'm that guy too. I'm not volatile over politics, man. this is america yeah you can vote for whoever you want you could be on either side of the of the political spectrum i don't care i don't judge you by your politics i judge what type of a person you are yeah yeah and if you think the government's going to save your life dude i've always said this me too the government you they're just these people that want the government you want less government you want them out of your life you do not want the government and the government's never going to take care of you.
1:13:17Yeah. Never going to get rich off the government. No, dude. Stamp collections get fucked, Tommy, right? The post office is almost out of business, dude. Have you been to the post office recently? They just tell you how to get to wherever you want your mail to go. Dude, I'll say this. It's, yeah, there's nothing tougher than, there's nothing more ridiculous than expecting the government. But I think we're in a weird space now where we're between the government that we've been used to and a new kind of privatized communism almost so I think we're in this weird space of almost two governments where one is like a almost a like a shadow well there's a battle going on right now there's there's a there's a war there is going on uh in the government one that wants to go one way that most of us don't want to go and one that wants to keep things the way they are yeah it might be broken and fucked up and needs to be fixed but we're definitely in that weird place right now.
1:14:15I agree. So get off your Pelotons, boys, and let's fucking go to war. I love it. Dana White, man, thanks so much, dude. And just thanks for, yeah, David Spade got to bring me to a fight, and you let me come. I appreciate it, man. You're friends with a lot of my friends, and I'm just grateful. It's been a joy to get to know people that work in your office and just everything. It's added a lot of joy to my life. Well, congrats on all your success, man. We're happy for you. And, yeah, I'll see you at the next one. I'll see you next power slide, man. There you go. Boom.
From the publisher
Dana White is a businessman and entrepreneur who serves as the CEO and President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Theo Von joins Dana White at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for this episode of This Past Weekend. They chat about his rise as a business mogul, building up the UFC, how to pick the right walk-up music, standing up to pressure from critics, the emergence of Power Slap, his friendship with President Trump, the retirements that hit him the hardest, and more.
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