My Mom's Basement - EPISODE 89 - DANA WHITE TALKS CONOR/POIRIER II, KHABIB'S "RETIREMENT", AND MORE

Episode Date: November 19, 2020

Uncle Dana is back, at long last! Robbie discusses this weekend's upcoming UFC 255 pay-per-view with the UFC President, grills him about Conor/Poirier II and Khabib Nurmagomedov's "retirement", and more. 3Chi: Use code ROBBIE at checkout to receive 5% off at 3Chi.comYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or YouTube. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/mymomsbasement

Hey My Mom's Basement listeners, you can find our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube, and Prime members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. This was a great interview. It was a short one. I only had him for 10 minutes, so I tried to get to everything as quickly as I possibly could. And I'll get to the interview very quickly as well, but first, let me remind you about 3Chi and their Delta-8 THC. What is Delta-8 THC? It's a federally legal version of thc derived from hemp this is usa grown hemp you're supporting an american small business by supporting 3g so go support them in the pandemic especially with these lockdowns coming like clem said on the podcast last week listen if they come again you're going to want to be stocked up on your 3g so it's federally legal thc like i said and it's federally legal THC, like I said,

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Valentina Shevchenko versus Jennifer Maya. Davis and Figueredo versus Alex Brez. Our girl Caitlin Chukagian is on the card. Shogun Rue is on the card. It is a fantastic under-the-radar card, I'll call it. Dana, we've got you here to talk about it. How are you? I'm good, man.

Yeah, I'm excited for this card. And I was just telling Jim Rome this is one of those cards me and Rogan got on the phone started geeking out about we haven't done that in a minute so uh that was fun it's one of those cards that may not have the biggest mainstream names on it but I feel that these are the cards that always kind of outperform and like the um Tiago Santos card recently is a great example of one where we had like finish after finish after finish after finish. Do you give these guys better speeches on these cards? What is it, Dale?

Throughout this pandemic, when haven't we really delivered? I mean, these kids have been fighting like maniacs through this whole pandemic. And, you know, we've been on a great roll. And then with this card, I mean, you got Figueredo and Shevchenko, the main event and co-main event, two absolute killers. Then you got Mike Perry and Tim Means. There's no way that fight isn't awesome, right? That's like in the PMS division.

You got that right. Chukagian versus Calvillo. Shogun versus Paul Craig. Brandon Moreno versus Roy Roy Ball I mean it just Joaquin Buckley who's coming off you know one of the greatest knockouts you'll ever see Shoshenko versus Lipsky it just it just keeps going and going it's a great card for hardcore MMA fans I would definitely recommend everyone check it out let me ask you this we're nearing the end of the year now you've been dealing with pandemic fights for a few months.

Has it gotten easier since say March, April, or is it still super chaotic day to day? Yeah, it's super chaotic. It's, it's it hasn't gotten better. It's getting worse. You know, I kept wishing for 2020 to go away and now 2021 looks like a total shit show too. You know, it's going to be an interesting year. Wow.

So one of the first fights that I guess may be confirmed for 2021 is Conor McGregor versus Dustin Poirier. We heard today from the MacLife that Conor McGregor signed his end of the agreement. Is that true? Have you heard that as well? No, no, it's true. Yeah, he signed. It was never a concern. It's never like I was like, uh-oh, Conor hasn't signed his bout agreement.

Yeah, once it got there. He says he wants to fight. Conor McGregor shows up. Totally. So you announced on this very podcast on September 30th that you had offered these guys the fight. And now here we are on November 19th. It's finally signed on both ends on a scale of one to ten how challenging was this one to put together not at all really wasn't challenging at all yeah no there's so much more challenging shit going on right now and and and

this business and in this world that isn't one of them so another one of the things about this fight that was kind of in question, people said, hey, if Khabib is retiring, isn't the title going to be up for grabs? And maybe you put it on this fight. Maybe you put it on a different fight. Maybe this is the number one contenders fight. You have said, I believe Khabib will come back and fight eventually for 30-0. I saw today this quote from him. He disputes that. He says, next year, I will graduate. I'd like to build on my thesis, do a master's course more time to studying I've bought sheep tend to my farm I'd like to develop this field a little I have bull calves uh calves to feed I have cows he doesn't seem too interested in it he said you could fight until you're 40 but there should be a goal and

he's reached his how do you feel about that yeah I think that uh those are definitely all things that he's looking at and excited to do but I think that doesn't mean that he doesn't want to fight either I give you a laundry list of shit that I got going on personally that I'm looking forward to too but uh doesn't mean I'm not going to be doing what I do here have you gone back on your mentality of like trying to get fighters not to retire then? No, no, no. In terms of like reaching out to them? But there's been a couple, no, I haven't reached out to Habib since the fight. We talked after the fight. And that's it. I, the only two guys that I've off the top of my head, I don't want to say these are the only two guys,

but I can think of right now that I've ever done that with was Cormier and, and Habib. I mean, look at Habib's last fight against Gaethje with all the shit that was going on with him, you know, physically, emotionally, mentally, look what he did. I mean, he is the best in the world right now period I think he's the pound for pound best fighter in the world and uh you know I think he he wants one more and I think he's got one more and I know you've mentioned that you have something special for him I assume you have a name in mind that you can't say on this podcast is that fair to say well back when i said i had something special for him

that that was uh that was something different i mean listen if the world was still the way that it was we weren't in this pandemic when i said that to him the world was still the way it was it was something totally different okay not important anymore one more thing on the connor dustin poirier fight can we expect that on Fight Island for sure? I mean, nothing's for sure, but yeah. I mean, that's where I'm thinking. What I'm hoping to do is Fight Island. I'm looking to make it International Fight Week.

The new Eddie Had Arena will be open, and that thing was designed with us in mind. Concerts, pool parties, all kinds of cool stuff. And yes, I hope to bring fans back. So imagine this, all the stuff that went on, all the things that people have seen all over the world with Fight Island, now you'll finally get the opportunity to come there, be a part of it and make it International Fight Week.

Mingle with everybody. And that's what I'm shooting for. That's massive. Can I go? Sure. Of course you can go. I'll be there. You better go.

I'll stay there, Uncle Dan. What the hell are you going to do if you don't go? I know. Sit in my mom's basement? Come on. Yeah. You live in New York, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I live in New York. The place is all shut down. What the the hell you're gonna do there nothing i mean i'd be watching the fight in my tiny little shoebox apartment go to fight island i'll go to fight island you and me sit next to each other maybe we'll wrap the the belt around we'll get like a belt just for con and we'll do it like the boxing like they just throw belts on everything we'll wrap the belt around after the fight together well what i would love to do is go there and do like we'll get there um and do a saturday wednesday saturday fights yeah do three fights in a week pool parties concerts all kinds of other fun stuff everybody

gets to kick around and tour around fight island and uh and, and Abu Dhabi. And, uh, you know, we kill it. We go out there and kill it. It'd be good to have fans. And the thing is from, and fight Island, we can get fans from all over the world there. So it's an easy destination to get to a fun destination to go to. And we can just fucking blow the doors off this thing. That sounds absolutely amazing. I'll be there. Uncle Dana and Robbie take Abu Dhabi. It sounds amazing. It looks amazing. It's a, it's a thing. All right. So before I get you out of here,

I'm ready for some fights with fans. I'm ready to go to a live concert. I'm ready to have some parties and I'm going to go to all this shit. Call up some of your buddies for concerts? Well, I want to mingle with the fans again. I want the fans back, you know? So we'll figure out. We figured this whole thing out up to now. We'll figure out how to do this safely and pull this thing off in Abu Dhabi.

Yeah, I don't doubt it. Before I get you out of here, I would love to just touch on Paul Felder. I think this is an amazing narrative we had this past week, where he stepped into the main event against Rafael Dos Anjos, a former champion, on like five, six days notice. He takes the fight at 155 pounds. He takes the fight at five rounds. He cuts the weight. He gets down to 155. He's fine. He puts on a phenomenal performance. Didn't win, but obviously, you know, he was not a cakewalk for RDA by any means. And then he, three days later, goes and commentates the Tuesday Night Contender series. Do you want to just comment on how badass that was?

Yeah, he's awesome, man. Not only is he an incredible fighter, he's an incredible human being. He's an incredible commentator. I mean, the guy can do it all. I have a ton of respect for him. I like him very much, and it couldn't happen to a better guy. Yeah, the commentary teams that you guys have right now, every combination, I feel, I have a ton of respect for him. I like him very much and it couldn't happen to a better guy. Yeah. The commentary teams that you guys have right now,

every combination I feel is like so, so good. You've got a good group of broadcasters for sure. Thanks, man. I appreciate it. We, we, you know, it's something that we've been building on for a long time. And one of the coolest things about this sport is how many of these fighters can actually do it. Cause it's not easy to do. It's a very tough fighters can actually do it because it's not easy to do it's a very tough thing to do and whether it's sitting in on the ESPN desk or calling the fights or whatever it is I love how many opportunities we have for them you know outside of the octagon are you always receptive to that if a fighter comes up to you and is like

hey I'm interested in that. Do you like putting them into those scenarios? I love it. It's my favorite thing. How many other sports? You'll see a couple of guys from certain sports be able to do that. Not many get to do it. We actually get a lot of our athletes through there

that get to do it. And especially active ones. We had DC doing it actively. We've had Paul Felder doing it. I feel like that adds a neat component to the whole thing. DC's killing it. Yeah. Because DC's not only doing all the stuff that he's doing for us,

he's doing a lot of stuff for ESPN too. His detail show is great, yeah. DC's making a real living doing that. Yeah. All right, Uncle Dana, this has been a pleasure. Don't forget UFC 255 this weekend. We've got two title fights, Valentina Shevchenko and Davis Infigurado, both defending their belts.

We've got some friends of the show fighting. Check it out on pay-per-view Saturday, ESPN Plus, All That Jazz. Later, brother. Thanks, Dana. Appreciate it.