Issue 154

May 2017

When WME-IMG took over the UFC in 2016, the rumors said Ari Emanuel was all set to bring his own man on board and the long-time UFC president would be kicked to the curb. But that’s all wrong, Dana White said as he gave unprecedented access into his Las Vegas office. He’s nowhere near the end of his tenure as figurehead of this sporting superpower. 2016 showed he was just getting started...

Dana White doesn’t do interviews. He stopped doing scrums years ago.

He’s not even front and center at post-fight press conferences anymore. But when I call him up, he invites me into his office.

White is at the UFC headquarters. It is a Monday evening, around 6pm. We are between events. Most of the staff have gone home.

White is, as he always is apart from on fight night when he wears a jacket and shirt, in sneakers, jeans, and a t-shirt.

After waiting in reception for 30 minutes, drinking two coffees, his assistant – a former professional NFL wide receiver – tells me: “Dana is ready to see you.”

White looked physically depleted during the sale. “I was pretty f**ked up,” he says.

But now he’s looking like his old self. Fit, strong, in world-conquering mode. We sit down. The old table that dominated his office is gone. Things are relaxed. He’s an open book. No topics are off-limits.

So has it been tough for you with Lorenzo Fertitta leaving the UFC?

Both my guys (Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta). Lorenzo and I have been together for a very long time and we’ve all been pretty much together for 20 years.

It was pretty tough on me. Everybody talks about the money. I didn’t give a f**k about the money. The way I looked at is, I already had money. People keep asking me, what are you doing now you’ve got all this money and s**t? I’m doing the same s**t I did before I had it.

It didn’t really change my life that much to be honest with you.

You’ve always told me you just end up doing more and work harder and longer because you can expedite so many things.

Has that changed since the sale to WME-IMG?

The ship hasn’t changed that much.

We’re still doing the same thing with the same goals. Ari Emanuel and I agree in that we’re super focused on Russia right now. Maybe a couple of different things and that’s it. Ari was our agent for 12 years.

Everything is still the same except I’m not doing it with my best friend and Frank. Ari and I will sit down and go through all the things we feel we want and need and then Ari will go and handle that.

Is your role changing? Is there more reliance on your fight knowledge?

There’s more stuff for me to do now that Lorenzo has gone. Lorenzo and I used to kind of split it.

Lawrence Epstein, our chief operating officer, has taken a lot of the load too. There’s a lot more for him to do now than when Lorenzo was here.

The rumor mill went into full steam when the sale was made that Dana White would be done, that he would no longer work for the UFC.

It’s all good, believe me. Everybody I bump into, media, whoever, says, ‘I give you eight months.’ I’m like, ‘You’re crazy.’

This is what I love to do. I’m 47 years old. What else am I going to do? Go home and sit around all day? No way, man. I love this stuff. We have a five-year plan now. It’s all the same stuff. I’m not going anywhere.

Do you feel Lorenzo’s absence? Is there something missing at times?

Lorenzo is awesome. He’s fun, hilarious, brilliant. He was a fun guy to work with every day. Everybody here feels his absence. But like Lorenzo said, he’s not dead. He’s still around. Me and Lorenzo still talk about work.

I was driving the other day coming to work and I said, ‘I’ve got to get his take on this.’ Sean Shelby said Lorenzo hit him up the other day and said, ‘Hey, you and Dana need to do this, this, this and this. And Sean goes, ‘We’re already on it.’

You reckon Lorenzo misses it?

There’s no way he couldn’t miss it. He loved this as much as anybody loved it. He definitely misses it.

So why did Lorenzo decide to sell up and leave?

He was done. One of the things I always compliment Lorenzo about: he was a billionaire when he bought this company.

That guy came to work every day, worked all day, and was here later than most of the employees who worked here. Every day. That guy worked.

He wasn’t just some ivory tower billionaire who called in a few things here and there and did a few conference calls. That dude was in here working all day, every day.

Me and him have been side by side for 16 years – really 20 years. We were together before the UFC. Me and Lorenzo have been in this building since 1997. I was involved in this building when it was dirt, just plans.

It’s easy to forget that before the UFC, Dana White was a boxer. He fought amateur bouts. He even had street fights in Boston.

One of them ruined him, he told me, when “some guys beat me up bad”.

He lost the hearing in his left ear. That’s how he got Meniere’s disease. He reckons that had he been a very good amateur, he would have gone pro. Then, self-effacing, he adds: “I wouldn’t say I was a very good amateur.” But he loved boxing, loved working with boxers, and being in the gym.

He was a fighter, then a trainer, manager and he even refereed fights under the legendary Mitch Halpern.

Our discussion turns to the buzz about a bout between the two biggest stars in combat sports – and a match between White himself and Tito Ortiz that was scheduled in 2007.

Could Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather in a boxing match actually happen?

Anything is possible. With my experience over the last however many f**king years, I never say never anymore. But I would say the odds of this happening are about the same as me being the backup quarterback for (Tom) Brady at the Super Bowl.

And the UFC has to play a part in it if it does?

He’s under contract with me. How would I let somebody take this guy that I built and do it without me? That would be the stupidest move in history. There’s not a lot I wouldn’t let Conor do. Conor is a very special individual. He has created a lot of opportunities for himself. The one thing I don’t ever do is hold people back from opportunities.

Chael Sonnen is under contract with me. You know how much I asked for that fight (with Ortiz in Bellator)? A f**king goose egg. I would never hold Chael back from making money for himself and his family.

Is it true you sent Tito Ortiz gloves with your face on when he was training for that fight with Sonnen?

I figured it would make him train harder. I thought it was funny. I’m cool with Tito.

Let’s go back to that fight in 2007. You always say you would’ve beaten him.

I would have beaten him and he knows it. I’m not trying to talk s**t or start anything with Tito.

I would have won, he knows I would have won and that’s why he didn’t do it. And he was smart not to do it.

He would kill me now. He’d murder me. I’m old and banged up. But then, when that was going down, I’d have beaten the s**t out of Tito and he knows I would. I took it so f**king seriously. I was very ready for that fight. It’s not like that would have been the first time me and Tito threw punches at each other.

Was it a long-standing feud?

Me and Tito got into a full-blown fist-fight on a plane one time. Taking off on a f**king plane – a private plane.

That sounds like a scene from a movie. Why did he do that?

We were just f**king around. He put me in a f**king neck crank. Then he started cranking my neck. I tapped and he wouldn’t stop, so I started blasting him in the ribs and then he let go and we jumped up and started f**king throwing punches at each other.

The plane is taking off and going all over the place. Frank and Lorenzo jumped in and broke the fight up. Joe Silva was on that plane. I think Jens Pulver was too.

Do you have respect for what Tito achieved in the sport?

Tito and I had a long history together. I’m not saying who’s right and who’s wrong. I think Tito could have played a little different than he did. I mean look at Chuck Liddell. Look at the relationship I’ve had with Chuck for almost 20 years now. In every relationship, it has to be a two-way street. When dealing with Tito a lot, I felt like it was a one-way street.

The next morning, I went for a brief workout with Dana in the UFC gym.

His trainer, Skipper Kelp told me the UFC president would have taken Ortiz out with a body shot. He said White has a wicked liver punch.

Talk turns to another UFC enfant terrible, Jon Jones, and what happens next with the sidelined light heavyweight.

Let’s talk about Jon Jones. How is the relationship?

I don’t think Jon Jones and I have a bad relationship – like me and Tito. I don’t think there’s ever been a situation in the UFC like me and Tito.

That was one of a kind. Jon Jones has made a lot of mistakes. Jon has still got to prove himself in the sport... BJ Penn and Jon Jones are what could have been. The potential that these guys had... It’s already there with Jon.

Imagine if this guy had no trouble. Look at where he’d be right now. He’d be such a massive superstar in the sports world, let alone in the UFC – and how much money he’d have in the bank.

Matched against the Top 10 heavyweights now? He was going to be the Tiger Woods of MMA?

Exactly. He would have been.

Do you miss him? Surely it was like: here’s Jon Jones – here’s a pay-per-view event?

What I miss about Jon Jones is the talent. If he was on the straight and narrow, how good would he be now? What fights did we miss – and at heavyweight? I hate wasted talent. It kills me.

So what happens with Jones now?

His suspension is up in July. We’ll see where we are then.

On the heavyweight subject,

Mark Hunt is irked by Brock Lesnar and the situation after UFC 200. Can you talk about it?

Hunt fought in PRIDE for Christ’s sake. He’s worried about guys using PEDs. If you look at drug programs in professional sports, nobody beats us.

We have the best and most solid drug testing policy in all of sports. It needs to be. This isn’t hitting a ball with a stick. It’s a completely different game.

Did Meryl Streep get your goat recently?

She didn’t upset me. They asked me a question and I said I don’t expect an 80-year-old uppity lady to be a big fan of the UFC. I’m not inviting Meryl Streep to a UFC event.

She is somebody you will never get through to. She’ll never sit there at an event and go, ‘Oh my God, I completely change my mind. This is a great sport and I’m a fan now’.

It will never happen. I would never invite her to an event. I think that’s absolutely ridiculous.

Your projects. What’s the thrill for you with Lookin’ For a Fight?

I love Lookin’ for a Fight because I actually get to go out and watch fights. The night of our fights, I don’t really watch them like a fan. I’m watching them on TV and making sure the production is going the way it should.

I’m picking up the phone and saying, ‘Don’t f**king do that again’ or, ‘Let’s do this’. I’m working that night. The s**t going on in the back that I’ve got to deal with... When we do Lookin’ for a Fight I get to go out, sit down and be a fight fan.

New TV deals will be up soon, FOX is coming up. Crucial times?

Ari and I will go through all the things we want and we need and Ari will go handle that… That’s what Ari does.

So no letting up with the UFC ‘shifting the paradigm’?

We have been, we continue to be and we will always be the ones who are forging the way for the sport. When I see these guys who are reporters trying to write about the business side of the UFC and what we’re doing and all this other s**t, it’s f**king ridiculous. It makes me cringe.

It makes me laugh. They’re so way off. You know what they know? What I f**king tell them. That’s all they know. What we are doing has never been done before.

These reporters have never built anything.

Nobody has ever counted on them for a paycheck. Who the f**k are you to give us advice on what we’re doing or not doing?

Will you always be ahead, always revolutionary?

We start every year the same: how do we take the whole sport to another level this year? How do we do the same next year? Everybody over the last f**king 10 years has been screaming: demise, demise, demise, this is the peak, this is the end of it.

I’ve been saying this for 16 years and I’ll say it again today. We haven’t even scratched the surface of how big this sport is going to be.

One day there will be a fight which captures millions and millions of people on PPV? Say, a seven-foot-six tall Mongolian against a Brazilian who’s seven-foot-three. A genuine battle of the giants and a global pay-per-view. Does that stuff only happen when you dream and put it into action?

As technology continues to get better there will be a day – and it happens now – where the whole world will be watching a fight at the same time...Two guys or two women who are super f**king special.

The right fight with the right people at the right place and the right time. It will happen. Believe me...

That’s White. Utterly believable. Look how far he has come already. And who is going to doubt him? With a beaming smile, and a shake of the hand, the man who could be called the greatest promoter in the history of fight sports...