Taking Over The Vegas Sphere w/ Dana White | 2 Bears, 1 Cave
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all right we are here uh another episode two bears one cave we're in Las Vegas and we're being joined by the one and only Dana White Dana thank you for coming today yeah thanks for having me boys we're talking about our kids a second ago here's what I'm thinking already just just in the brief conversation we were just having about your kids they seem to have like the same drive as dad because you got like

Three kids that are killing it. Like, did you instill this in them? Because this is impressive stuff already. I don't know. I think, you know, I've thought a lot about this type of stuff. I think, you know, some people are born with it and some people aren't. But it definitely the environment you grow up with. And, you know, like when you have boys, which you do. Yeah.

As a father, you know, you feel like, and especially if I'm their father, you feel like the first thing you have to do is teach them how to fight. So my kids trained in jujitsu and Muay Thai and boxing and all that stuff at a young age. But it's fascinating how they become who they're going to become. Right. I was always a fight guy. I like watching football and I'll watch some of this, some of that, whatever. Um,

But my oldest son was in love with football. Like absolutely fell in love with football. I remember watching that documentary. From the first time he ever started playing. And then he played at USD.

For four years. And he was devastated when football was over. And then now he's moving on to the next chapter of his life. My other son is his Aiden loves anime and comics and all that stuff. And he actually boxed too. He actually had a fight. He did one fight.

out in Boston. And, uh, and then my daughter, my daughter is so driven. Like I was telling you guys, we never had to wake her up for school. You didn't have to tell her to get ready to go do that. She does everything on her own and is so highly motivated. It's, it's insane. Yeah. That's it's, it's funny when you have, like when I have, I have two and you think that like, it's going to be a replica of your own experience in a way. So like my dad loved football and I love football.

And when I have two little baby boys, I was like, man, we're going to be like a football house. And when I'm watching football, they will walk in, look at the TV and go, oh, my God. They're like, can you just put something else on? I'm like, this is what we're supposed to do. I thought we were going to do this for fucking the rest of our lives. And they're like, this is the worst. Where's RuPaul's Drag Race? Yeah. They're like, this is bullshit. No, it is fascinating to see what kind of –

people they become. And you're at the age, your boys are six and eight. They're going to start to form who they are right now. Oh, yeah. And it's fun, though. It's fun to watch. One's obsessed with cars. So it's like, that's fun. And the other one is like, cars are lame. They just get their own identity. So true. It is fun, though. It's so true. Same parents, same household, yet they all become different people. They all become totally different. It's really cool. I say it all the time. One of the greatest things.

things you will ever do. Do you have a weird question, but like you didn't grow up a rich kid? No, but your kids, your kids grew up rich kids. The exact opposite of my kids. I grew up the exact opposite of my kids. Um, single mom who worked all the time, me and my sister. Um, my dad was never around and when he was, you didn't want him around, uh, you know, that kind of stuff. But

I always say it all the time. I wouldn't change my upbringing for anything. There's different, you know, you see these people who grow up victims like, you don't understand. I grew up and I had that. Yeah. So I didn't have any role models. Yes, you did.

Yes, you did. Yeah. Yeah. Tons of role models around me. Tons of people who showed me exactly what I don't want to do and what I don't want to be. Yeah. Just perspective is all it is. Like,

You think this role model is supposed to be some big hero that does this and that. No, there's tons of role models in your life that you need to learn from. Well, a lot of people talk about their life and they lead. Their narrative is here's everything that's stacked against me. They lead with that. And then they go, so this justifies anything that doesn't work out for me because it wasn't supposed to. Like they're just –

They're just like highlighting how hard it is. And again, it's hard. All this is hard. It's hard for everybody. Life is hard. Life is hard. Yeah. I say it all the time. When you get out of bed every day, life's standing right there to punch you right in the fucking mouth, man. Yeah.

And you got to get up and get ready to go every day. Can I ask you that? Cause I, I don't know that this is an old Boston story I heard. I don't know the full scope of this, but I have to ask you this. Did you have direct interactions with Whitey Bulger? Never, never, never, but never. As far as I know,

In those days, I don't even know if I ever saw him. You knew he was there. You knew his presence was in South Boston. But he had lots of guys that were under him. I dealt with the guys that were under him. As far as I know, I never ran into Whitey Bulger. But I didn't even know what Whitey Bulger looked like until after...

Um, you know, this is before the internet, you know, so, you know, if you saw him in the newspaper or something like that, which, you know, I'm in my early twenties, I'm not reading the newspaper. So I don't even, I don't know if I ever saw him. Are those, are the people that he, you dealt with though? Terrifying individuals also. Yeah. I mean, I mean, if you look now at the, at the movie and read all the, they were burying, they were killing people and burying bodies and, and, and,

You know, these guys would kill you. That was scary fucking shit. Yeah. So when I lived there, it was like these guys didn't even know what century it was, man. It was like... And they had this thing where you couldn't call the police. So... And if you did, now it makes sense. They were telling Whitey Bulger who was calling the police because he was working with the feds. Shut the fuck up. In South Boston, if somebody did something to you, right? Yeah. They fucking...

There were guys shooting each other and shit. Like somebody would walk up and shoot you. You'd have two options. You forget about it or you fucking retaliate. I mean, that, that was kind of how it was back then. You know, it was crazy. That is not, that sounds like another era. It was. Yeah. I mean, it was like, it was the early nineties, late eighties, early nineties, but it was like fucking, like I said, another century, man. It was, it was, it was so crazy, you know? And when you're that young, you're,

You realize it's a dangerous place, but you don't really realize how serious it really was after. Yeah, of course. You know what I mean? You look back on it and you're like, oh my god. My guy, Peter Welsh, that I sought out, this guy was a street fighting legend and Southie.

So I went looking for this guy because I wanted to quit my job and I wanted to work under him and have him teach me everything about fighting. But this guy was in like in the middle of all that shit. And the stories that he has today and when you hear this stuff, it's literally like watching every fucking gangster movie you've ever seen from Casino to Goodfellas to – you know what I mean? It's that type of shit. I remember watching a doc. My first job out of college, I used to work for America's Most Wanted. What?

So that's cool. Yeah. We would profile Whitey all the time. That is cool. Yeah. He was number one most wanted list, right? Oh, a hundred percent. Yeah. And we did multiple episodes on him. But one time I was watching this thing where they were interviewing his old right hand guy. I think Kevin Weeks was his name. And Kevin told the story about how it was like,

a chick's stepdaughter and and whitey was getting really annoyed by her so he goes he strangled her one night and he killed her and we put her in the basement he goes and the thing about it he's like whenever whitey killed it would just make him relax so much he slept for like two days he was just so he was in such a good mood and you're like

jesus christ like that that was him for him was like the spa yeah and i think choke somebody out the guy that he killed the girl that he killed was uh his right hand man uh i think his name was steven phlegmy yeah the rifleman steven phlegmy it was his stepdaughter right yeah yeah and they're like and he was like and now he was like happy that's a scary fucking story real shit man yeah is that shit still around

No, not anywhere that I've seen. It's not because you're in what they argue, like boxing. And this is apparently the most corrupt place in the world. Is that true?

They say that boxing is definitely not the most corrupt place in the world. That's for sure. No, this place is so regulated now. I mean, this, this place was definitely built by the mob, but this, this city is regulated. The game. That's why there's, that's why there's a sports here now. I mean, yeah, this is, this, this is, I tell people this all the time about gambling, right? Yeah. If you really are a gambler and you like, even if you're in your, your fucking podunk town, they got some shitty little casino down the street. Yeah.

Get a plane ticket and fly to Vegas and gamble here. Yeah. The gambling here is way more legit than any of these other fucking casinos that they pop up anywhere else. The only one that's even remotely close to here, and it is close, is Boston. The Encore. Really? Yeah, the Encore in Boston.

It was the closest thing to Vegas that you'll find out of. The most important question that I think anybody can ask you is definitely let's talk about blackjack. Okay. You are, this is, this is fucking there's so many stories about you.

I have friends that have played with you who shall remain nameless. But it's like legendary. Were you – first of all, did you always love blackjack? Because I love blackjack. Well, I've always loved gambling. Okay, hang on. Let's start here. Can you – I have a video about me loving drinking. I love drinking. Yeah, I can tell. I just – Yeah. Yeah.

It's fucking noon. I just flew in from Savannah. I've been drinking all morning, Dana. I didn't stop last night. It's fucking noon. He's got a bottle of vodka this big. Hey, give me a... What do you love about gambling? Explain gambling to people that... The Mennonites that might be listening. Explain what's beautiful about gambling. I have a passion for gambling, but...

It's a little more high stakes. I can't fall in love with $100 on a hand. But what do you love about gambling? I'm curious. It's a good question. So I love the energy of a casino. I love walking in. I love the energy of this city. This city gives me a different type of energy than any other city in the world. I've traveled the world. I go everywhere. We stay in great hotels.

I got, you know, places in other cities and all this shit. When I land in Vegas, man, and I see the fucking strip and all the lights and I get out and you feel the fucking heat and the, just this city just pumps me the fuck up.

And, you know, now it's got all the best restaurants in the world, all the best shopping and the biggest, you know, casinos and highest stakes gambling that you can do anywhere in the world. And it's and it's and it's regulated. Yeah. Right. There's no fucking cheating here. There's no there's no bullshit. I told I told the story I played in some shit fucking casino.

And Canada, the Canada, New York, Buffalo border there, Niagara. Fucking scumbags up there. Cheating, lying, dirty motherfuckers at those casinos. We use the word indigenous. Scumbags. So if you live in any of those areas and you think about gambling, just jump on a fucking plane and go to Vegas. It's...

You got a much better chance of winning. Best restaurants. 100%. You walk into a casino, you smell it. 100%. You smell a little bit of cigarette, a little bit of cigar, and a lot of luck. 100%. Fuck. That's the other thing that I love about casinos. They become pussified a little bit like the rest of the world has. But I don't smoke. I don't do any of that shit.

But I don't mind when people are fucking cranking off cigarettes or cigars or whatever. You're good with it. Do your fucking thing. You guys are in Vegas. Everybody comes to Vegas to do whatever the fuck they want to do. And if you don't like it, then get the fuck out of the casino. Smoke's bothering you? Yeah. Fly back to wherever the fuck you came from and don't come to Vegas. Vegas is where people can come and do anything.

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Anyway, when I walk into a casino, I love the fact that it's me versus them, right? This big, powerful casino versus me, and we're going to go fucking toe-to-toe tonight. My dick's getting hard. The other thing that I love is Vegas, no matter how much money you have or don't have, it's the only city in the world where you can go out one night and

with 200 bucks, have the greatest night of your fucking life and go home with 1500. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yes. That's what I love about this city. I think another thing, this is like my own assumption here is that you are a high achiever. You've had a lot of big wins. You're a winner. You, you, you get behind things and you win.

And I think some of that extends. Like, when you don't have a pay-per-view going on, you don't have a fight, you go there to gamble, and it's another win. It's another chance to get a charge of, like, tonight was a great gate at the arena. Well, tonight I just fucking won again here. I think it's part of the drive. It's the same thing that, like...

Jordan is like, you know, he's the best player. And then he's playing golf and he's like, we're playing a hundred grand a hole. He's just getting more wins. It's just wins and wins. You're not wrong. That is exactly what I mean. And listen, you don't go out and you don't win every night. Of course. But I look at each year as a war and there's little battles inside the war. Whether I win or lose or whatever happens to me every night, there's this road called Summerlin Parkway that comes down and goes everywhere.

down toward my house every fucking night when i turn that corner literally the whole vegas uh you know the the skyline comes out the entire vegas i film it at least once a week and post it today

I love this motherfucking city. That's great that you love your city that much. I love that. I don't know if anybody loves Vegas more than I do. I can't tell if this city was built for me or if I was built for this city. It sounds like you guys are a good match. It's fucking awesome. I was literally playing last night until one of them. I literally go out every night and play. Blackjack. Okay. We tour. I've become a Baccarat guy now.

Oh, you. Okay. We have to get there. Well, I haven't played blackjack in like six months. Okay. Hold on. Let me ask you a blackjack question first before we go back. So we're on the road a lot. We play casinos all the time. The bullshit ones and the great Vegas ones. And for me on the road, you know, we have our tour crew. You show up. Blackjack is like one of the things we do. Like, it's like my tour crew. It's like a fun thing. We go to the table and we play together and we have fun doing it.

There are a lot of people know who play blackjack. You know, there's the book you play, you know, the strategy of like, here's when you split this, we double down.

Do you do any of this or are you just like, I do whatever the fuck I want whenever I want? Can I say something? I've been at tables where they've said, this is what Dana does. I've been at tables where they go, this is what Dana does. Is there like, yo, it's like a fucking 14. He takes the fucking hit. Like it's – you seem to –

That's what I'm saying. So when you're playing, you play by the book. If the cards are

are feeling right right if you sometimes you get a goofy deck yeah where no matter what you do you're just like you'll get a you'll get a 20 yeah and they'll pull out some seven card 21 or push you on a 20 and things like that when your knight is going that way yeah you got to do all kinds of you got to throw the kitchen sink at them whether it's play one hand two hands three hands

Split shit you're not supposed to split. Double on shit you're not supposed to hit. You try to fuck up the shoe any way you possibly can. Because what you're trying to do, and what I try to tell people is, people will go in, and I don't know if their mentality is, you have the guys that, you guys all come in from out of town, you're on a bachelor party, right? And the mentality when you come in is, I'm bringing two grand, this is what I'm willing to lose in Vegas. Instead of

I'm going to bring two grand and I'm going to, I'm going to turn this two grand into another thousand. Right. If you have $2,000, you're not going to come to Vegas and win a million fucking dollars. Right. It just doesn't work that way. There have been crazy stories throughout the history of Vegas where guys have walked in and, and just,

fucking pulled off amazing things that you know you hear these stories and that's almost like the fantasy that everybody has of course in in the history of the city it's probably happened seven or eight fucking times you know what i mean yeah where a guy walked in with a few hundred and killed it but if you go in with the mentality that i have if i can double my money if you have a thousand

And you win a thousand. Yeah. Get the fuck out. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not the, because people are there to have fun and, and you and your three other buddies, there's five of you at the table and you're having drinks, you know, and you're laughing and telling fucking stories. You're in Vegas. This guy's,

fucking staying on a a a 16 when the dealer's showing a 10 yeah right he stays and then you get the fucked up card and everybody gets murdered yeah and that's what vegas was built on all the guys you know you have millions of people that come in to the city throughout the year that are just there to fuck around and have fun yeah and then you have fucking killers i'm talking snipers that come in that the casinos actually have to be worried about and um

And, you know, they go toe to toe. There's this guy. God, what the fuck is his name? He's from he's from Japan. I've been saying his name for like two weeks now. He just came in. He plays Baccarat. Rich fucking Japanese dude. This guy's a fucking gangster. Just beat them for 50 million dollars. 50 million. Beat the Venetian for 50 million playing Baccarat. Then I heard I was at. We got to get into Baccarat. I was at Bellagio.

The night that he was in there and he lost $25 million at Bellagio. And the whole place was like buzzing that this guy was there and had lost $25 million over there. But yeah, there's these fucking dudes that come in out of Asia. So how I started to learn how to play Baccarat is I went down to the High Limit Room at Caesars Palace. I love Caesars Palace.

So I go down there and it's all Chinese and Asians down there and they play Baccarat. They will, they will fucking sit there seven 30 at night.

Till 10 o'clock the next morning. Jesus. And they're sitting there. They got their cards. They're writing all this shit down. I learned how to play Baccarat from them, from the Chinese. Those are all my people now down at Caesars, man. Were you just studying them? I literally just get in and I fucking sit with them. And the women are even better than the men because the women have more patience than the men do. And they sit there and they pick their shots. I learned how to play Baccarat from the Chinese down at Caesars Palace. Holy shit. It's fucking awesome.

I've never done it. Is Baccarat more fun than Blackjack? Yes, it really is. And I never thought that I would say that in my lifetime. I don't even know how to play. I don't know how to play. I didn't either. They have a paddle. They have a paddle, right? I literally invested like three months into sitting in with these, with these Chinese people and, and, and learning how to play, watching what they do and, and learning, you know, the rules and the do's and don'ts of the game. And so I started playing seriously and,

And, uh, and January and I beat them for a million a night for, I don't want to, I want to say like 23 trips, 23 trips. I beat him for a million a night. Then we're about to go on a, uh, or going out of town somewhere. And I'm in there. We're literally supposed to be on the fucking plane in like 25 minutes. And I get clipped for 5 million.

And so we had to jump on the plane and go on a trip. I come back, beat Bellagio for $3 million. And anyway, this is what's been going on. You're the best. I beat Red Rock last night for $750,000. When you play Baccarat, you win so much more money. But wages are generating. So you can bet $450,000 a hand at Bellagio.

You can bet $350,000 a hand at Caesars and Red Rock lets me play $100,000 a hand. And it's – because I don't know anything about the game. A hand, is it over quickly? Like is it a complicated or quick thing? So what happens is you guys got to come do this one. Yeah, I want to. Absolutely not. I want to. Absolutely not.

You know, I just love the tickle of gamble. The thing I love about gambling is when you're not thinking about drinking, you're not thinking about your family, you're in the moment, and everything's tingling inside you. And your heart's racing. That moment of gamble...

is so sexy but it's but it but it's it's got to be worth something to you that's the thing that with me is that it it no longer is worth something to me so like i i'm not willing to bet that much money so it's got to tickle you like then see then you don't get the rush yeah the rush is what i want because you know i mean they always say and at black i don't know if you ever heard this you're preaching to the preacher here what's what's the when you're gambling on blackjack and they go and you uh you that first time you reduce your bet

You know, you go like you've been betting a thousand and you pull it back to a hundred. Then someone goes, oh, you I guess you this is how you want to hit blackjack. Like you're always going to get blackjack on the time you pull your bet down. I don't do that. I go fucking hard. What's your number? What's your number? Because I know my number for a bet that where the rush kicks in. Well, like when I I love the feeling of going like.

I'm all in. Like, I love that feeling of going, this is all the money I brought to the table. I'm putting it all on black. I love that feeling. What's your number? If that's my thing is about winning. I want to win. I want to, I want to come with you. What you said is dead on. I want to beat them. I want to win. So I'm not there. You know, you'll get these guys that'll go in there and fucking play for, for, for 10 hours. I've played for fucking 18, 19 hours. It's like,

If I'm there 18, 19 hours, that's not a good fucking thing. That means I'm getting my ass kicked and

And I'm trying to get back out. What I do is I go in and I try to be strategic and I try to be disciplined. Right? So you go in, you bet as big as you can, you win two or three hands, and you get the fuck out of there. And you do that a lot? 100%. 100%? Listen, if I'm betting $450,000 a hand and you win three hands, who the matter? It's over a million dollars. You get the fuck out of there immediately. No, 1,000%.

When you say, though, the hand on back rep, tell me how you – you were about to tell me how – So this is how it works. So you can either bet – you can bet banker or player. Okay. Right? And the way that you win, there's a natural. A natural is the equivalent of a blackjack. Okay. And blackjack. So –

If you get an eight or a nine, it's called a natural and you automatically win. Automatically. Unless the dealer flips an eight or a nine and then it's a push. Okay. You know what I mean? Okay. So an eight or a nine win you the hand. Okay. If you get anything else, the one who gets closest to eight or nine wins. Okay. So like seven would be close to... Yeah. Seven is good. I had some people with me last night that it was their first time playing. Yeah. So...

Kind of walked them through it and they played with me for probably, you know, I had already won. So I was just fucking around with them to kind of show them how to do it. And they all walked out of there with money last night. But I'm telling you, Mbakara is the closest game that's the closest to 50-50.

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You know what I mean? Odds-wise. It's a 50-50.

Weird question. Okay. You sit down at a Baccarat table. You ready for this? Yeah. And there's four fighters that you're really excited to sit with and gamble with. Who would those four fighters be? And then four fighters that you sit down at a Baccarat table and go, this is going to be fucking exhausting. Yeah.

Oh, fuck. I don't know the answer. I mean, listen. No, no, no, Dana. You've never bit your tongue once. Well, there's lots of fighters that I like. Sugar Sean and I were together the other day filming this thing with Tom Hardy for Venom, the new Venom movie coming out. And, you know, Sean's a great dude. Yeah.

Sean has that McGregor mentality. You know what I mean? Yeah. He's a smart kid. He understands the business and he gets everything. He's easy to work with because he...

He gets the business. Some of these guys are so fucking stupid and don't get it. They're short-sighted. They don't see the big picture. And, you know, there's nothing you can do for those guys. They are who they are, and they're going to do what they're going to do. But you've got like Conor McGregor and Sean and Ronda Rousey. Ronda Rousey is the greatest athlete I've ever worked with. For real.

Not even fucking close. The greatest athlete I've ever worked with. She was so smart. She built the women's division. Women are not fighting in the UFC had it not been for Ronda Rousey and how she approached it, how she approached me. Then once she got the opportunity, what she did with it. I mean, she's incredible. And look at what she's done athletically.

to the UFC. She owns real estate everywhere. She built this little ranch and farm that she has with her husband. She's the reason I plant onions when they start to sprout. During the pandemic, I saw she was planting onions and I was like, I'll do that. And of course, nine onions. Yeah.

Yeah. But wait, is it, is it, where do you live? LA. Okay. Plant onions in LA. Yeah. Next to my marijuana. Hey, Hey, wait, is it frustrating as a business owner?

who makes good money right on a business paradigm and then to have a guy like conor mcgregor show up or ron rousey who changed the game on you no i love it really i fucking love it man that that's like my my favorite thing like when we first found connor and i've told the story i was like um i told lorenzo i had dinner with him and i'm like lorenzo i don't know if this guy can fucking throw i i don't know if this guy can fight but if he can even throw a fucking punch he

He's going to be like the biggest star ever. You knew it. Oh, I fucking knew it the first night. Because of his charisma. 100%. Really? His energy, his personality. And he's not a dumb guy. Conor McGregor is a smart guy. He gets fucking business. No, it's clear he gets business. But don't you get a lot of people who like –

especially in the fight game who come in with a lot of bravado talk a lot of shit but do you are you able to then register or this is kind of like false bravado like this isn't you know i mean like the difference between that doesn't matter to me the thing is with me is when you when you come in whoever you are that's what i'm selling uh-huh right what i don't like is there's there's people that come in that are pieces of fucking shit there's guys that are bad guys yeah my job

is to make sure you don't know who the fucking pieces of shit are. You know what I mean? That's my fucking job. That's what I want to know. Can I tell you? Honestly, I was sitting on a plane today and I went, I've never met a UFC fighter that I didn't like. Every single one. Cowboy, Izzy, Connor, Nate. Every single one I've ever met, I've always enjoyed them. Cowboy. You know what's been awesome? As the sport

Yeah. Yeah.

with the fans. You know what I mean? Yeah. It's still to this day, this sport that if, if you go to a UFC fight, the odds of meeting some of your favorite fighters are fucking almost a hundred percent. Yeah. You're going to meet them, get pictures with them, sign stuff. And they're all really good to the fucking fans. It's, it's just that, that is the sport. And it's true. That like the, your sport, you, you are the most candid guy running one of the major sport, like all the other heads of,

of sports leagues, it's very corporate. Like all the answers are, you're just like, I didn't get anything out of this. You don't under, you don't know what the guy really thinks about anything. It's just like a statement that a lawyer wrote. It's a lawyer statement. And then also those leagues are,

oftentimes make sure that their athletes also don't become authentic, are not authentic. And then the athletes kind of give these canned answers too, you know? I don't disagree. It's really boring. And that was something that I never wanted this to be. Very cool. And I've always encouraged people

The engagement between the fans and the fighters and this sport, as long as I'm here, will always be fan friendly. And our fans are the fucking best, man. I mean, they're very opinionated. They're very, you know, and they'll go in on you. And that's what I love about the fight business, man. Yeah.

And the greatest thing about like, if you guys wanted to sit here right now and you wanted to get in depth with me and talk about cricket, we're going to have a real fucking short conversation. All right. If you wanted to go in depth with me and really talk about football and I'm a football fan. I'm so excited that football's back. Yeah. I couldn't do it, but.

Everybody, men, women, whatever, everybody has an opinion on fighting and everybody, you know, is an expert on fighting. You know, they feel. Sure. And that's what fucking makes this sport so great. And I love battling with the fans on Instagram or whatever it is. It's cool that you do it. Yeah, I fucking love it. It's, it's, it's, I love the sport. I love the fans. And when we're talking about our fighters, like we were talking about earlier, it's,

compared to boxing, our fucking guys are angels compared to the people that are involved in boxing. Boxing is like, oh my god. I mean, it's gotten to the point now where every time

uh, a pretty much a major, like, you know, this is a sanctioned big boxing fight takes place. You watch the fight and you see how the, like the judge, where are these judges from? It's all so corrupt. It's like completely lopsided. The person who clearly won the fight is losing the fight when it goes to the cards. Like it hasn't changed in like 20 years now. It just feels like it's, uh, you know, so this, this guy out of Saudi Arabia, shake Turkey is, uh,

It's an interesting play because this is the first guy in the history of boxing that has actually reinvested in the sport. He's actually investing money into the sport of boxing, which has never been done before.

The only investment that's ever been made in combat sports really is us. Yeah. You know, we keep reinvesting in the sport, right? Yeah. Why would I do the fucking sphere when I can just pull off a regular fucking fight every Saturday, right? Why would I build performance institutes in other countries? Why would we fucking do this? Why would we do that? Because we reinvest in this sport to try to help it grow and help build it. No different than the NFL did. No different than Major League Baseball does. And the list goes on and on. If you want to build a business, you have to invest in it.

And, you know, all boxing ever does, every time they put on an event, it's like going out of business sale. They fucking got to grab as much money as they can and run out of the room. Do you feel like we're going to see an end to this, like, celebrity, you know, exhibition shit? I don't think so. I think that – I say this – said this – that's what – the UFC was based on the premise that –

People love fighting, and when you get the right fight in the right place at the right time, everybody wants to see a fight. I mean, if a fucking fight just broke out out here, all three of us would run out there to go see what's going on. It's just human nature, right? And you're going to have these celebrity fights that people are going to go, oh, shit, I got to see this. I got to see this. Do you think that – I watch all of Jake Paul's fucking fights. It's never going to stop. I can't not watch them. I saw a couple of whatever, one of the first one or two, and then I missed –

The last one. Do you think this Tyson one will draw big numbers because it's him? Yeah. He's been very strategic in his career and making sure that he handpicks the right guys. Yeah. And if this one actually ends up happening, Tyson's the golden goose. Tyson's the one that actually – Jake Paul doesn't sell pay-per-views. Yeah. Tyson will sell pay. Yeah. Tyson will sell pay. You think we'll see a decent fight there? Huh? Do you think we'll see a decent –

Listen, Mike gets mad at me every time I talk about this. So, yeah, I think it'll be a great fight. I think it'll be the best fight you guys have ever seen in the world. But listen, what I want out of this is I hope Mike makes a shitload of money. And he will if this fight happens. And I just don't want to see him get hurt. Yeah, sure. Last time we saw you, we were backstage at the slap fight thing.

That fucking slap fight is so fucking good. It is so great. It's like jerking off. It really is. It really is. It's not fucking your wife. It's not an MMA fight, but it is nice. It is nice. We were sitting with Cowboy. He was like talking shit in a white guy voice.

And we were like, yo, you sound like we're us. Yeah, yeah. He was talking mad shit when it was silent. He was like, that wasn't shit. The people were like, oh, fuck. Everyone was going to be in trouble. It's not us. It's not us. When you first saw – did you first see this and have the thought –

This is something. You know what I mean? It seems like a simple enough premise, right? So did you see it and go, I want to get involved? Well, you guys have been there live, so you know. I mean, the live event is fucking unbelievable. It's very fun. It's so good. And I saw this shit in like 2017 on social, like everybody did. And it was the guy Dumpling that fought at the last event. That was the guy that got me into it. I started watching it and –

production was horrible they literally were slapping over like a fucking barrel and shit like that and but it had 350 million views on youtube in 2017 or 18

Which was the equivalent of a Bieber video back then. Yeah. And I was like, what the fuck? This is crazy. So I started taking a deeper dive into it and the stuff was coming out of Russia and Poland. And I was like, what if I did this? Made it just like the UFC. Turn it into a real sport. Give it great production quality. Build a great in-house live show.

What would this do? And the answer is fucking billions of views. We already have 17 million followers on social media in 19 months, right? And we have more sponsors than the UFC had in 10 years. Jesus. So in 19 months, it's things like anywhere between, if you did a real valuation on it, anywhere between 750 and a billion dollars. Wow. Jesus Christ. In 19 months. So wait, here's my question.

So we're all wealthy men in this room, but we're all morons, really. Yeah, I don't disagree. How do we – who measures your ideas? Because I think I know who you are based on Joe talking about you. You're just a dude from Boston. Yeah.

That got slapped in the head a couple times and really like fighting. And like you're a regular guy. You really are a regular guy who watched a bunch of people fuck up and then didn't choose those decisions. But like how do you – when you have an idea like investing a ton of money in something like that, who do you bounce those ideas off of? Nobody. I'm at the point now where like if I have an idea –

everybody's in yeah really everybody's in oh yeah i mean nervous and then no it's exciting i am so you guys both know hunter you know what i mean my guy hunter hunter says you are the most excessive risk taker that i've ever seen you you have um you you have the the highest risk tolerance of anybody i've ever met in my life and um like you were saying earlier like

If nothing's going on, if there's no chaos in my life, I create it. I like to create chaos. I love stress. I don't even consider it stress. I like to solve problems. It's how you're wired. And I like to try to, I like to win. And when you fucking tell me

This is horrible and this isn't going to work. I love it even more. That's what really gets me going. So haters are my favorite fucking people on earth. I love the haters, man. They – you can either – if you don't like haters, you better stay the fuck off social media. You know what I mean? Yeah.

I love that shit. Yeah. It's, it's, it's, it fuels you. It's my favorite. I remember that when we were backstage, I think it was Lorenzo there. I think he was also at the slap fight. Yeah. Yeah. And, and, and he was, he was just like, oh yeah, Dana just called and said, I want to do this. And I was less like, okay, sounds whatever you want to do. If I called the Fertittas right now, I said, Hey, I want to get in the business where we make these fucking chains that hang off the lights and

They're in. They're in. Yeah, they're in. That's awesome, man. Jesus Christ. So I called those guys to invest with me. And I said, listen, I fucking like the slap fighting shit. I think I want to do it. You in? Renzo's like, we're in. When he says we, him and Frank are in, him and his brother. And so we invest a couple million bucks each. At the time, Ari, you know, from WME, my partner now in UFC, he

He's not feeling it. So he could have came in for as much as he wanted. Ari comes in for 12%. Okay. So Ari's in for 12%. And so everybody kicks their money in. Let me put it to you this way. Ari has 12%. They've already made like nine to $10 million off that 12% investment on, on, on power slap. You know what I mean? And, um,

he's kicking himself in the ass of course he's going to be all in next time yeah the next phone call for sure is that a boston mentality that that is like because i'm obsessed i was telling tom earlier we're both florida guys

And there's a thing about when you're a Florida guy and you're this guy that rips his shirt off and talks shit and you're very confident. You think you're the funniest guy in the room. And then you look at like different states. A Texas guy's got a strong handshake, you know. But there's a thing about you Boston guys. It's like sneaky smart, you know, like Bill Burr, you, Rogan. Like you guys, is that a Boston thing? Well, I'll tell you what I think, in my opinion, that I was really lucky is that

When I was in fifth grade, my mom packed me and my sister together.

and our dog up and we drove to Las Vegas because my mom was a nurse and they were paying nurses more in Las Vegas than anywhere else in the country. That's why we moved out here. So I was very lucky in that I got to bounce back and forth between the East Coast and the West Coast. I think having both of those experiences and the people that I knew and the people that I met being around casinos at that age and the way Vegas was and the way Boston was back then, like we were talking about earlier,

It was, it was, it was really good. And me and my fucking sister were talking the other day and this is crazy. So from fifth grade, so I went to fourth grade there, came to fifth grade to Vegas, uh,

I did fifth grade and sixth grade here, right? Went to two different schools. I went to Jean Ward Elementary. Then I went to Kit Carson Sixth Grade Center. Seventh grade, I went back to Maine where my grandparents lived. I went to school in Maine, seventh grade. Eighth grade, I came back here and went to St. Vietor's. Ninth grade, Gorman.

went to like four different high schools in Vegas. Then my senior year, I graduated from Maine. So I literally went to fucking a million different schools, had to meet a million different people, had to, you know, I had all these incredible experiences with lots of different people, which I think was huge for me at a young age back then too. Because back then,

When you're talking about in the 70s, 80s, and early 90s, kids didn't move around a lot and travel. I was fucking everywhere. Everywhere. Meeting all different types of people. And I think that was a huge experience for me. You'd never wish it on your child. You'd never go like, yo, this will be good for my kid. I'll move them around. You'd be like, lock down, make friends. But you know what was badass? My daughter again, bringing up my daughter. We were on vacation in Italy. Yeah.

last year around Christmas. And she tells me, you know what? I want to leave Las Vegas and I want to move to San Diego and I want to go to Cathedral High School. I'm like, what the fuck? She's like, yeah, I want to surf every day when I wake up. And my kids have been surfing since they were little. They're all really good surfers, snowboarders, all that shit. She's like, I want to surf every day before and after school. And I just want to change. And I'm like, that's fucking badass. Okay, done. We'll make it happen.

Get her into cathedral. She loves the fucking school. Surf's all the time. So yeah, it's just – because of my experiences, I'm not like one of those. No, you're not going to leave your fucking – you're going to – okay. You little badass. You want to go change schools and start all over in the middle of your high school fucking career? That's a bold choice. Done. Yeah.

And she loves it. She's kicking ass down there and she fucking loves it. You seem like a really good dad. And it's crazy. That's the greatest compliment you can give me. Can I tell you, man, like, I don't look at you as like a dad and I look at Joe as a dad. I absolutely don't look at Joe as a dad. I really don't. I look at Joe. I don't look at Joe as the way anyone else looks at Joe. Why is that? I look at him as a moron.

Like I really do. I honestly do. My favorite thing Joe Rogan's ever said to me in the world is he goes, he said one time he goes, can you imagine if we could throw fish 10 feet in the air and they started flying? How many fish do you think we'd have? And I could not stop laughing. And that is my, that is who Joe Rogan is for me for the rest of my life. That's what makes Rogan a genius. You know what I mean? That's Joe Rogan for the rest of my life. What makes Rogan a genius is that Rogan comes up with this shit that you're like,

Yeah, I never really fucking thought about that. He thinks about shit that – He likes to go deep. Yeah. Let's celebrate him for one second because I don't think anyone knows him. And it's the number one question that gets asked to me is like, yo, what's Joe Rogan like? And I go, yo, no, I can't explain it to you. He's the sweetest guy in the world, and he's very curious.

He's one of the most curious guys, and you met him at a very young age. I'm curious to know the transformation, because we could talk about the different outfits he wears since you've known him from the fucking... He wore the... What was the fighting outfit? Affliction. And now he dresses like Cam Ains. Unfortunately, we all went through that affliction phase. I wish we could erase that fucking period from the internet. So when we first bought the UFC...

The company was based in New York. So I had to fly out there and clean out the offices. So I had to determine what I was going to ship back to Vegas and what I was going to throw away. So I'm literally, there's a fucking room of just tapes everywhere. So I'm popping all these tapes in the VCR, right? And I pop in the Keenan Ivory Wayans show. He had his own talk show. And he has Joe Rogan on. The Fear Factor guy. I know this clip. Keep going. So Joe Rogan is talking about

He gets into UA. He says, and you're into this UFC stuff, huh? Like UFC wasn't a fucking thing. Right. It was a cult following, you know, and all this shit. Everybody saw one and then it sort of disappeared. So Rogan starts talking and he's fucking, you know, he knows everything about the sport. And then he starts talking about how,

UFC fighters would beat the fuck out of all these celebrities that do martial arts movies and shit. And he's breaking down what they would fucking do to him. And I'm like, this guy's fucking great. And this is exactly what I need. I need somebody that knows the sport but is in that fucking Hollywood world. And at that time, Fear Factor was a massive show. It was massive on network television.

And I'm like, this is the fucking guy. This is the guy I need. And I don't remember how we ended up reaching out, but I reached out to him somehow. We started to talk. We hit it off. And I wanted him to come in and commentate. And we're fucking bleeding money, bleeding money. So Rogan comes in and Rogan says, so let me get this straight.

You want me to cover the sport that I love the most in the world, sit in the best seats in the house and talk about, yeah, I'll do it for fucking free. Rogan came in and did like the first 13 events for free. Wow. Right. Wow. And he and I have had this fucking, you know, amazing relationship. Rogan and I don't have this relationship where we talk every fucking day. You know, we talk when we need to talk. Yeah. And,

Anytime that I've ever needed him to do something, he's done it and been there. Anytime he's ever needed anything from me, I've done it and been there. And if you look at how the UFC has grown and how Rogan has grown together at the same time, it's been an incredible relationship. And I consider him...

The greatest to ever do it. Fuck all these guys that have ever done any type of commentating on combat sports before this. Yeah, no, he's... Rogan is by far... And this is the other thing that I loved about Rogan.

Every time you would see him on camera, right? And he would be talking about the fights that night. You knew. You felt it in your fucking soul. This guy was not a paid talking head. This motherfucker loves this shit. And this is 100%. It came through in every event that we did. He's clearly, clearly, clearly...

a massive, genuine, authentic fight fan, period. Like he loves fights when he works out at home. If, if he's caught up on UFC, he's watching Muay Thai. He's watching like, it's just fights, fights, fight. You know, he, he, he lives fights.

And the crazy – one of the craziest things I've seen, like I'm a sports fan. I also – as somebody who like – I love football too. Like I – you grow up kind of with an affection for certain broadcasters, right? Like how they call the game. And then with the way that things have evolved –

You sometimes learn about how these guys prepare to call a game. You know, you'll see like in football, they'll land earlier in the week. They have media day. They hang out with the players and they prep and they have to, you know, to call a game. There's a lot of moving parts, right? And so I'm working with Joe a few times that we're doing shows that are basically attached to UFC fights, you know? So we go in and, you know, he's with...

another guy was going to call the fight. I think back then it was a green, was it Goldie? Goldie? Yeah. So, and you're seeing Goldie with like his binder, you know, like preparing, doing all this stuff. And I'm with Joe and I'm like, where's like, where's your stuff? And he's like, Oh, I don't, I don't have that. I'm like, what do you mean?

He's like, it's all up here. And Rogan knows people that aren't even in the fucking UFC. He's doing this thing where he goes, I go, I don't understand. You're about to call, you're doing a professional commentating thing.

Like, don't you have to, he goes, he goes, here's the thing. The only thing I like, that's just fascinating to me. It was like, the only sport I like is fighting. He goes, so there's nothing cluttering up here with like baseball stats or golf. He's like, it's just fights. But then you do, he's doing like the talking head, like promo stuff. And they're like, okay, this fight. And he's referencing from memory. Well, in UFC, uh, two 21 when he, and I'm like, wait, you're just off your dome doing this. I,

I couldn't believe it goes in there, calls the whole fight, nails everything. And I'm like, I can't believe as a broadcaster that you're able to do that just off the top of your head. And here's the other brilliant thing. Like to go in and call fights is not, not easy to do. No, it's very hard to do. Rogan came in right off the, off the bat and started doing it. And, and what was brilliant about Joe and why he was so instrumental in, in helping us build the sport is,

Nobody was ever going to fucking understand the ground game. It was just, you know, Rogan would walk you through in detail while it was happening. He would be one step ahead of the fighter, actually, you know, as it was taking place, walking you through. And this is what's going to happen if he can get over here and tip that arm and he's going to get him in. And Rogan would fucking lay it out. We couldn't have hired anybody else. You know what I mean? It was just.

When there's these weird things in life, and I'm sure you guys could lay out a hundred things that played out in a weird way in your life. Yes. That have you sitting here on this fucking couch today. Yeah. And Rogan and I, I was supposed to pop that fucking tape in. I was supposed to see Rogan. Sure. Rogan was supposed to be on Fear Factor. At all. And then I would see it.

What are the odds that he's on ivory Keenan Wayans? And what's the odd that, that, that Keenan would ask him these questions. I mean, when you start breaking life down in these little, little things, you know what I mean? It's just like a magic moment. Fucking crazy. And it was meant to be this relationship with me and Rogan and all the other things that have come together and,

in my life and his life and other people's lives. It's just fucking crazy when you think about it. But Rogan is the best to ever do it. Oh, the best to ever do it. Buddy. He's I'll say this.

I'm going to say this. He's the best guy that I've ever met in my entire life. And I've met a lot of great guys. Here's my next question. I name drop him a lot. I do. I obviously do. I'm a name dropper. I'm a regular human being. I'm a regular guy, right? If I get on a private jet, I take a picture. I show everyone. Who do you name drop?

Who do I name drop? Who's the last person that you saw yourself as Dana White? Just the kid that grew up in Boston. Well, I don't know if it's name dropping, but when we're talking about the sphere, I've been doing- Oh, shut the fuck up. Let's talk about the sphere. I've been doing PR for the sphere. I leave tomorrow and go to New York. I'm doing media in New York, and then I fly straight to LA, do media there. Then I come back home Tuesday, and we start rehearsing for the sphere. But, I mean-

If you want to call it name drop and my last name drop was I wouldn't have gone. This is again, like we just talked about the Rogan thing. Yeah. So Tom Brady hits me up. So Tom Brady hits me up and says, you want to go to you too this weekend at the sphere? And I'm like, yeah. All right, let's do it. I'll go. So we go to the sphere. It's like the first, you know, they probably done a week worth of shows the second week.

And we get inside the sphere and, you know, Jim Dolan, the owner of the sphere, we're in his box and we're watching this fucking thing. And I'm sitting there going, holy shit.

And I realize the sphere is the star of the show. Not you too. Right? Yeah. So when you go up, so as soon as we leave the sphere, the Eagles move in. So I'm going to the fucking Eagles after we, after we do this. But what happens when you're in there is you're, you're looking at this fucking screen and these images and you've never seen anything like this before. Nothing. And you're listening to this music, the fucking YouTube's greatest songs, you know, and you're listening to music. Yeah.

And I'm like, the sphere is the star of this fucking show. And every once in a while, I'll peek over the thing and I'll look down at you two. I'm watching the show. I go... And everybody's saying, you can never hold a sporting event here. It just doesn't work. Yeah. So I'm like, I'm going to fucking do a sporting event here. Yeah. I literally called my head of production, Craig Borsari, and I said, I don't know what you're doing next weekend, but cancel it. You're coming to the sphere with the team. I want to do an event here. I want you to walk this place and fucking... Figure it out. How do you do this? So...

I leave that night. I get into it. I've been with MGM since the beginning of doing fights in Vegas. They own all the big arenas. They fucked me so many fucking times. The guys who run the arena just fuck me and fuck me and can't stop fucking me. And they fuck me again. Okay? Huge. I fucking freak out. Someone bring ice in. We're supposed to sign an extension with them. I'm not going to sign the extension and all this shit. So Bill Hornbuckle, who is...

The head of all of MGM. Yeah. You know, gets in the middle of this. This is between me and the arena guys, right? Right. Gets in the middle of this thing to try to fix it. So he comes over to my office and I tell him,

He's like, what can we do? I want Mexican Independence Day. They fucked me. I had it last year. They fucked me and gave it to Heyman without even talking to me, asking me, telling me to go fuck myself, whatever. No call, no nothing, right? So I tell Bill Hornbuckle, I want the sphere. I want the sphere. Give me the sphere. Give me the sphere the same night. So

he says yes so you know i'm under contract with them they they could just say you're not getting the sphere i get the sphere so i go with brady i get in a beef with mgm i want the sphere they give me this just the way this whole thing this is why the best is telling these stories this was meant to happen imagine roger goodell telling a story like this well i mean

We've got a lot of trash players. We had some challenges. Keep going. Keep going. My dick's hard. Keep going. So this was supposed to happen. This event was supposed to happen. As usual, we're going to be first. We're going to go in and show the world how this is done. I'm fascinated to see how you do this. Have you not seen? So have you not been to the Sphere? No. You said something very prolific and that the Sphere is the event. Mm-hmm.

I could have just had them play a U2 CD and been very cool with it. I don't need U2, and I also... But when you think about it,

The fact that while you're sitting in there and you're listening to this, you're listening to you too live. It's just a different fucking experience. For what you do, will you reconfigure the layout of this thing? Wait, hold on. Have you not seen these soccer guys? These soccer guys. I know what you're doing, and I don't know what you're doing, but I know what you're doing, and I know how prolific this is going to be. You know, Leanne is, my wife Leanne is obsessed with Michael Chandler.

Oh, really? She touched his body a couple times, and now she's like fucking wet for Michael Chandler. And she was like, are we going to go see Michael Chandler fight? I was like, baby, no, we're not. But I know what you're going to do. I know what you're going to do. And I know that you can't sell what you're going to do, kind of, right?

So here's the thing. So when I tell you that when you go into these things, right? Like the fucking... I love the Eagles, man. Fucking big Eagles fan, right? So I'm so excited to see what they're going to... But you're listening to the fucking Eagles play. And I fucking love Joe Walsh. Joe Walsh still delivers. He still delivers. Anyway, you're going to listen to the fucking Eagles play. And whatever they're going to do on the screen, it's fucking... I love it, right? So I get it and I love it. So...

The night the Eagles play, which is one of my favorite bands of all time, the Sphere will be the star. But you're going to be listening to the fucking Eagles live. So what I have to do is I have to go in and the Sphere can be the star of the show, but not during the fight.

So how do you fucking have this fear? That is the star yet. You, everybody has to pay attention to the fight. And then everything that we do that night, production wise, it's, it's when sports and entertainment will truly come together. Cause we're going to run a movie. There's going to be a movie that is going to be what I call the love letter to Mexico, right? I'm fascinated by Mexico and Mexicans as a people. When you think about, um,

Mexicans, right? First of all, their flag, do you realize this? They're the only national flag that depicts a fight on their flag. It's an eagle and a serpent fighting on the Mexican flag, right? And when you think about

Things that are said about Mexican people. What's the first thing that pops up is they're all hard workers. Mexicans are hardworking people, right? They're proud people. They're very fucking proud of who they are and where they come from. They're proud of their heritage. They're all about family and they're all about family traditions that they have. And the grandmother is usually the patriarch of the family and everybody talks about her food and learns to cook the way that she did.

And the one thing about Mexicans is they are incredibly loyal people to their own people. So they will work their ass off all week and they'll take that paycheck and they'll go buy the Mexican beer that they love and drink. They'll go out and support other Mexican. If it's a concert, a sporting event, a fight, you know, they support their own people. And this night and this movie is going to start at the beginning of time.

And it's going to end in the future of Mexico. And it's a movie that is this love letter to the Mexican people. Who they are, where they came from, their traditions, who they are as a people. And again, you're having to produce this whole film. Yeah, there's going to be a film that will, this is going to be a fucking epic event. And you have this already. It's sold out. It's sold out. It's sold out. I made sure that this was so authentic.

We have a guy that's actually authenticates everything we do to make sure it's on with tradition, everything else. And everybody involved is Mexican, first generation Mexican. Even we have nine octagon girls and they're all first generation Mexican that will go that night. The clothing that they will wear, the scenes that will be in the –

The authenticity of their heritage, their traditions, their history, all of that shit. It's 100% authentic.

Can I ask you a weird question? What's your gate on something like this? You don't have to answer, but this is a comedian. I know what we make when we do a show. I've always been curious. How much money do you make? When you do a show, when you do an event, we know as a comic we roll in. Sometimes we bring a stage with us. Maybe 1.3 for three months. I know what we make per night.

like how much money do you make yeah we know going into what the gate's going to be for real yeah

Yeah. So this fight for Mexican Independence Day, biggest gate in UFC history. It's going to be a $23 million gate. Jesus Christ. And it already broke the record for most pre-buys ever for any event we've ever had, meaning more people have already bought the pay-per-view the week before the fight than any other fight we've ever done. Jesus. Yeah. And you're the one who actually has real knowledge when it comes to – because so many people –

uh talk about their pay-per-views you're the one who always goes that's a pay-per-view you know like because you know what it looks like 100 yeah everybody everybody's full of man yeah yeah really everybody's a expert nobody nobody out there anywhere knows anything about our business how it's done you know why

Because things we're doing have never been done before. Everything that I have done in the fight business has never been done before. It's amazing. It's incredible, dude. Watching you operate is a fun thing. And I love that.

That you're so candid that you talk about this stuff because it's also – it's like it's inspiring. It's also fun to learn. It's like it's fun to learn about how these things work and you – like I said, you can't have this conversation with the fucking – with Silver, the NBA. They just give you like –

Well, thank you. I appreciate it. I got to ask one more dad question. Yeah, love it. So my boys are little. You have two boys that are in their 20s now. As a dad to boys, do you have to fucking raise them a little different? Yeah. Totally different. So I have two boys and a daughter. The way my sons were raised is the complete opposite of the way my daughter was raised. Girls are different, especially when you're a father of a girl. And I love the fact that –

That both my boys were older than my daughter. So she's the baby of the family. Yeah. My dad raised me differently than my sisters. So a hundred percent. Yeah. But the first thing, the first thing you got to do, no matter what your kids, I thought as a dad, especially with me being your dad was to teach him how to fight. So my kids got into jujitsu and boxing and Muay Thai and all that shit when they were young. Um,

And, yeah, I was definitely different with – my boys could do shit that my daughter couldn't do. And, of course, my boys think that the daughter gets away with fucking everything. Of course. And my daughter thinks that they got to do everything and she doesn't get to do what they – and I say, well, that's a fact. Some things that give a shit what your brothers did. Yeah. And what I used to tell my boys every fucking weekend when they went out, right?

You're going to meet some nameless, faceless girls tonight, right? You don't know. But what I want you to remember is they have fucking a father. Hopefully they have a father, brothers, uncles. I don't know who somebody that really fucking cares about them. So remember that when you fucking meet some girls tonight, you be respectful. If some fucking dude shows up here looking to kill one of you, you know what I mean?

I will determine whether or not I help you. That's old school 1987 parenting right there. That is fucking great. So some shit went down last night with my daughter at a football game.

And modern day played Gorman. Yeah. Big, big time fucking high school football game. And I hadn't fucking my son's calling me saying somebody did something with savvy and blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, your daughter's going to Savannah. My daughter's name is Savannah. So we call her savvy and we're going to fucking do it. I said, relax, everybody fucking calm down, whatever. So,

Told everybody to relax. This is like one o'clock in the morning. So I, I'm getting into the cold plunge this morning. I get my daughter on speakerphone. What happened last night? Walk me through what happened with this kid. Uh, you know, some, apparently some kid was getting aggressive with her or whatever. I don't know. So I want to hear the story from her. So she starts to walk me through the story and, uh,

What it sounds like, sounds like flirting gone bad. You know what I mean? You know, at that age, this kid was, you know, she was with her friends from San Diego and, you know, this and that. And, you know, I said, yeah, this isn't, this isn't, this isn't a, a death con. You know what I mean? We're not going to raise this. So wait, before we lose you, because I just, your health is, is impressive. Yeah.

And I'm curious, two questions. I want to know what your day looks like. I want to know how busy you are. Do you wake up with your hair on fire? And the one thing that I know that I seem to wake up and the second I put my feet on the ground, it's like my day starts. I don't have any moments for myself or to be creative. But I'm dying to know what your day looks like. And a little bit of put your health in there stuff. So I'm at a point now where in building this business,

I fucking threw everything at the business. I didn't miss a fight for like fucking something crazy, like 17 years. I don't remember what the number was, but I didn't miss one fucking fight anywhere in the world. Do you have any regrets as a dad about that? Huh? Do you have any regrets? No, no, no. It was awesome. Me either. Fuck them. No, no, I, I, I'll tell you what I was lucky with as technology got better.

I had the biggest production facility in Las Vegas. So if I was going to miss a game,

or a play or something like that, I watched it live. I'd have my team show up and they'd film it. They were filming football games for me. That's pretty cool. I watched it live. Yeah. So I would literally interact with the kids after the thing. Wow. Game or play or whatever it was. I didn't miss a fucking thing. I saw everything. That's awesome. And I have this, you know, like at UFC, if you work for UFC, right?

So I worked in the hotel business when I was young. Fucking shittiest business to work for. These guys, you know, you get these fucking kids that just got out of college that are your supervisor or boss or whatever. And they got that bullshit. If you're fucking five minutes late, you get written up. Yeah, yeah. Three of them and you get a fucking this, that. So many and you get fired. When you treat people...

I don't even want to say something stupid like slaves, like some victim bullshit. But, you know, when you treat people that way, right, at a fucking job, it's just, it's disgusting. Yeah. And it makes people fucking, so let me get this. And the company that I used to work for used to tell us all the time, if you don't like it,

There's 100 people waiting for your fucking job. Sure. Yeah. Wow. I'm that replaceable, huh? Yeah. That's a great fucking feeling to go to work and every day and say, yeah, you don't even really matter here. We don't even need you. Yeah. So at the UFC, if your fucking kid has a play or your kid has a game or a practice, you better fucking be there. You know what I mean? That's cool. We're all grownups, man. And my team, they're as passionate as I am about the sport. Yeah.

You're a grown-up. You know what you need to do. You know what your fucking job is. You know what needs to get done. It's fight week or whatever. But don't not be a part of your family. Don't not be a part of your kid. I throw parties.

uh, in the summertime and I'll, I'll turn the whole, you know, we have this beautiful fucking, uh, backyard at UFC headquarters and we turn it into a carnival and bring your fucking kids and your family and let your wife and kids be a part of what you do. You know, I want when, when my employees go to work, I want their family to love what they do and, and be a part of this thing. I've built like the best fucking strongest team ever.

That's awesome. In business, in my opinion. What's your day look like? I'm dying to know what your day looks like. I don't know how we ended up on that whole fucking... By the way, we are totally welcome to be invited to one of those parties. Anytime. We'll take pictures and all that shit. We do concerts back there. I have an amphitheater in the back of the... You guys could do comedy back there. You could do anything. And we got the Apex next door. We have the amphitheater in the backyard and we have the Apex next door.

But when I throw Christmas parties, like fucking Kid Rock, Snoop, we had... Oh, we would love to do those. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have played. Okay. We've had... That's pretty cool. We'll fly ourselves out. Nelly played last year. He fucking killed it. Anyway, it's fun to be a UFC employee. Let me just say that. I bet it is.

So when I get up in the morning, Dana wakes up. I focus on my health. Now, the first two hours of my day, no matter what the fuck is going on, is that is dedicated to my health. Describe that. What time are you waking up? So I get I get to the gym every day between 830 and 930 in the morning like that. And I do an hour of workout and an hour of recovery. And then I start my day.

So, but it's there. I built this whole fucking thing in my office. It's in my office. Cold plunge, steam sauna, red light therapy, oxygen therapy, baddest fucking gym you've ever seen with every piece of equipment. An assistant in there running questions by you or no? Yeah. So everybody comes. So shit's happening as soon as we wake up. Like you said, shit's going on. They all just come to the gym. This, that, what do we want to do? Yeah.

I tell them, you know. And food-wise, are you a protein-centric guy? Well, that's the other thing. I have a full kitchen with two chefs that cook, you know, food for me. And, yeah, it's keto. I eat keto. You're keto. Okay. Yeah. Love keto. Yeah, we're all keto. We're all keto bros.

That's awesome, man. Yeah. And no matter where – so I have to fly to – I fly to New York tomorrow to start doing PR for the Sphere. There will be a fucking cold plunge in my room, in my hotel room in New York. But –

So I fucking wake up in the morning, jump right in the cold plunge. What temp do you like? What's your temp? 50. 45, 50 in that ballpark. Nice. Look, man, we could talk to you forever. Yeah, I'm sorry, man. You're fucking amazing. You are fucking amazing. We'd love to see you at a fight, but more importantly, next time I come to Vegas, I would love to hit the baccarat table with you. Done. I'm going to text you and I would love to do it. September 27th and 28th, I'm at the...

Where am I? I don't know. Where am I? September 27th and 28th. I'm at Resorts World Theater. Dude, I would love to play Baccarat with you. Let's do it. I love the gamble feeling. I love the tickle. That's the thing I want. You're the best brother. So let me ask you a question before we wrap this up. So you love the tickle. So what's your number per hand? What do you want to bet per hand?

I had John Mayer asked me this, and it's the number that makes you uncomfortable. Yeah, yeah, name drop. Name drop. The number that makes you uncomfortable is the number that is your tickle. Right. $250,000. That's a hand. A hand. A gamble on a hand? Yeah. Per hand. Oh, not per hand. That's my marker. That's my marker. Okay. That's your marker. Way more than I thought you were going to say. So you'll take a $250,000 marker.

I would imagine. So your limit is probably $10,000 a hand, right? I don't know how it works. I've never gambled like this. But I had to come up with a number that makes me excited. I would not want to spend it on a watch, but I'd spend it on a watch. You know Taylor LeJuan, right? Yes, I do. Do you know that story? I know a lot of stories. No, no, no. Tell it real quick. Tell it real quick. We text all the time. No, tell it real quick. Go, go. Taylor LeJuan started gambling with me.

probably around Power Slap 1, which was almost two years ago. Yeah. He's never fucking lost. Yes. He's up – he's got to be next to two million bucks now. He sends me photos of cash that he's like, I just left the casino with Dana. He's never lost. The only time he's lost is when he plays fucking without me. Then I got to go back and we got to get him out of the hole and get him back on – and there was one night that he was leaving –

At like 6 in the morning, we were still there. We were fucking grinding one night. We were getting beat that night. And he lost. And I want to say it was like it might have been $100,000 or $150,000. But he lost that night. But he's never – meaning he's never lost. Meaning he's up $2 fucking million. He's never, ever paid the casino ever. It's insane. In his entire fucking career of gambling the last few years. I'm in for $250,000. I'll tell you what. Let's make a clean three.

September 27th. But here's the thing, and this is what I do with Taylor. What's your number?

That we quit. How much do you want to win? You're going to get a marker for $250,000. Yes. Right? And let's assume, I'm assuming they're going to let you play $10,000 a hand at $250,000. Okay. Because they have like $450,000 hands. You have to have a $10 million fucking credit line. Okay? I got that, I think, right? I'm assuming they're going to let you pay $10,000 a hand. What is the number that you want to walk away with? What do you want to win that night?

I'm going to say a ridiculous number because I don't know money. Like a million dollars? A million dollars. That's a big fuck. You have a $250,000 credit line. You can play $10,000 and you want a million dollars? I don't know. How about if you were to win? If I was to win? $100,000? If I won $100,000, I could pay Bobby Lee and I'd be good. Pay Bobby Lee? I can pay him $10,000. Oh, okay. Yeah, but like $100,000. Is that a lot? Yeah, but we'll do it. Okay. Okay.

I'm going to be at Resorts World September 27th, 28th. I got a $250,000 marker. We'll go to your casino. We're going to play Baccarat. And I'm cool at $100,000. Okay.

All right. Did you ever see the video with Dave Portnoy? Yes. Yes, I did. Yes, I did. I won the entire fucking staff that was there with him that night. Incredible. I said, what do you want to win? They told me we won it. What do you want to win? I can't wait. I can't wait. I'm going to book a separate trip to do this. Just come out when I'm here. I don't think I'm probably working that night. No, you're not. You don't know that I'm... Dave can make you $100,000. Okay.

We'll come up with a number. We'll come up with a number. Dude, you're a special dude. I'm so glad that you're healthy. And I mean that for real. Like a guy like you needs to last forever. Oh, thank you. For real. I mean, it's here. Once you start to feel this way, it becomes addictive. It's because you're not drinking, bro. It's like you're, it's that the booze is the thing. Not, not drinking definitely helps, but even, even when I was drinking, I wasn't a big drinker. You know, when I would drink,

I would get fucking shit-faced. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. When I would drink, I'd say, all right, I'm going to drink tonight. And then I wouldn't drink again for a month. Yeah. I was never that guy. Hey, what are you doing with your wine collection? Because I'm here. What do you mean? I know you are a wine guy, right? Yeah, well, I like wine, but I went through a wine phase. Yeah. But not anymore. Way too many carbs in wine. But I have a shitload of really good wine. So I actually...

Sheikh Taknoon from Abu Dhabi. I love that fucking guy. We couldn't have gone through COVID without him and Fight Island and all that stuff. And one time I was out there, he gave me like this collection of fucking badass wine. That's still sitting in my wine cellar. Can I just say, what a cool life to happen to a regular guy. Thank you. I couldn't agree with you more, but thank you. Like you're a regular dude.

I talk about this all the time. I love my life so fucking much that I hate to go to sleep. I don't even like to fucking sleep, man. I sleep this much. That's how much I love my fucking life. That's awesome. We'll wrap up on that. Thanks, Dana. Thanks so much for your time. See you guys. ... ... ... ... ... ...

Two bears, one cave.