UFC CEO Dana White has always held fighting to a different standard than other professional sports, and for good reason.
Despite claiming just a month ago that he would never appear on a podcast again, two interviews with Mr. White recently surfaced, with Sage Steele and Rex Fridman.
Part of the conversation with Fridman covered everything from White's early memories of watching Muhammad Ali and Marvin Hagler vs. Sugar Ray Leonard to his evolving role as president and CEO of the MMA leader. Ta.
White, who turns 55 in July, has been at the forefront of the UFC since 2001, but said martial arts is just one of those sports that people either cling to or have no interest in at all. According to him, there is no middle ground.
“I don't care about the color of your skin, I don't care what country you're from, I don't care what language you speak,” White told Fridman. “We are all human. Fighting is in our DNA. We know it and we like it. And it's true. Fighting is in our DNA. It's part of who we are. You know, no matter where you are, when a fight breaks out, there's this fucking energy, this buzz, this feeling of fear. I mean, when a fight starts, people have all these different emotions. happen.”
White added that the humanistic nature of the fights is probably one way the UFC has grown from a former spectacle to a mainstream behemoth on ESPN. When White was still managing the likes of Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz, he found himself learning about the backgrounds of different fighters, including their education and profession.
White said he knew back in 2001 that the sport could grow if marketed the right way, and BetMGM says the UFC could be worth $12 billion by 2024.
“That's true,” White said, agreeing with Fridman that humans like to fight. “And that was my thought process in acquiring the UFC. I believed in this [sport] It would work anywhere and thank God we were right. ”
Although there are questions about retirement, White, who signed a seven-year extension with the UFC in 2019, has no plans or desire to do so anytime soon.
