My Mom's Basement - FRIDAY BONUS EPISODE 3 - DANA WHITE RETURNS!

Episode Date: May 10, 2019

UFC President Dana White returns to the show to discuss this weekend's upcoming card, UFC 237, Donald "Cowboy" Cerrone's dad strength, Tony Ferguson's return to the octagon, and his decked out office.You 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. I think me and Dana are honestly becoming best friends as this relationship develops. Before we get into that, I want to remind you to rate, review, and subscribe to this podcast if you haven't already. It really does help us out a lot, And tease Monday's episode a little bit. I've got Clem back on to discuss how Operation Terminate Cameron is going. We'll break down the Spider-Man Far From Home trailer. And then later on the pod, Ken Napsock, the host of Force Center and the author of Why We Love Star Wars, joins me and we break down our top five most underrated Star Wars moments. It is a blast of a show if you're a nerd.

And hopefully if you're not a nerd, you could listen and appreciate the passion at the very least. Now let's get right into our interview with the UFC president, Dana White. Dana, how are you? I'm great. How are you? I am fantastic. And I am fantastic because I'm looking forward to some fights this weekend. UFC 237, Rose Namajunas versus Jessica Andrade takes place this Saturday on May 11th in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This card is so stacked to the gills that I've been thinking about it all week. I'm so excited. It's got Anderson Silva. We've got Jose Aldo, Thiago Alves.

BJ Penn is on this card. People aren't even talking about that. BJ Penn is on this card. Dana, how excited are you for 237? I'm excited, too. It's got Little Nog, Irene Aldana. Yeah, this card dana how excited are you for 237 i'm excited too it's got little nog irene aldana um yeah this card is stacked and uh i'm obviously the main event you know the main event is always the main event so you got to be excited about that and androge is a beast uh and i think a lot

of people are overlooking rose even though she's the champion. And she beat Ioannou and Jacek twice, plus everybody it took to get to the title. So you can't overlook it. But the fight that I'm really pumped about is Jose Aldo, who has looked incredible lately, against Volkanovski. 19-1, 11 knockouts. I think that fight's going to be a war. Well, that fight's actually, it's interesting you bring that up because I was going to bring it up as the fight that intrigues me the most as a fan. Jose hasn't lost a non-title fight in 14 years. And we've got this kid, Alexander Volkanovsky, who I feel like a lot of fans don't realize his background is one of the most interesting backgrounds in the UFC to me.

He was a wrestler as a kid. He switched his focus to rugby when he was 14. He gets invested in wrestling to keep him in shape for rugby. And he weighed 210 pounds at 5'6", and is now fighting at 145 pounds in the UFC, and is one of the biggest killers the featherweight division has seen in years. True. And he hits like a truck, and he's fun to watch fight. And so is Jose Aldo. And I feel like Jose Aldo has been reinvigorated or something, man. He's looked so good in his last couple fights, so I'm excited. Do you think a win here for Volkanovski would line him up for title contention? Yeah, definitely. Absolutely.

And then on the flip side, Jose expressed some concern about an infected knee and knee injury leading into this fight that kind of delayed his training or restricted him from training. As far as I know, he's good and he's ready to go. No, and this fight was never in jeopardy. Glad to hear that, obviously. What can we expect energy-wise in this arena, do you think, with Jose Aldo, not only Jose Aldo, but Anderson Silva as well? Maybe two of the greatest Brazilians in mixed martial arts history, both on the same card? It's true, and a Brazilian fighting for a world title. This is our 10th fight down in Rio,

and it's electric down there. The crowd will be there early. The event is sold out, so it's going to be packed. Every time you go down to Brazil, it's Brazil versus the world. You know, they cheer their Brazilians on and they boo the rest of the people. And I love that you guys structure the cards so it will be that the entire night. You'll get the chance from the Brazilians for their fighters versus the world, like you said. I think it's a great card, top to bottom. That main event, like you mentioned, both girls are on killer streaks right now. And I think it's going to be a war. And I'm glad you brought up people doubting Rose, even after two wins against Ioana, because I feel the same way, and Rose is someone that definitely shouldn't be doubted right now.

No, she shouldn't, and a lot of people are doing it. Media fans and fighters, so she is a very unique individual and i'm really excited to see how this fight plays out cannot wait thug rose defensor strawweight title this saturday of course now moving on last weekend we saw a main event for the ages cowboy versus ayahuasca this was a fucking savage fight dana how ridiculous was that fight was so good man how about first of all, let's start with Al Iaquinta. Leg busted up on the inside, leg busted up on the outside, nose, orbital bones, you know, bleeding all over the place. Not even limping, walking,

coming forward, and trying to knock Cerrone out the entire fight. Right? Then Cerrone just absolutely picking apart and dissecting, you know, and ate some big shots from Maya Quinta too. Huge shots. That fight was incredible. Cerrone looks unbelievable right now. He does look unbelievable right now. I think it might have to be attributed to him becoming a father.

We gotta start taking this very seriously. He has a kid, and all of a sudden he's the biggest killer there. And what happens to these guys? A guy like Cerrone, you know, has been fucking around his whole career. I'll look, and he's riding a bull on Instagram, or he's fucking, you know, riding his motorcycle somewhere, or he's, you know, climbing the mountains. Diving off cliffs or some shit. And then doing all this stuff.

Well, then, you know, as he starts to get older and you see the window starting to close, and he's like, man, I wonder what I could have done if I really focused on fighting and really took this stuff seriously. Like, it'll be the week of a fight, and he was going into a fight. I can't remember if it was a title fight. It was a top-five contender fight.

And I look on, it's Thursday, the day before the weigh-ins, and he's fucking wakeboarding out at Lake Mead. Right? Why are you wakeboarding at Lake Mead two days before your fight? You know, things like that. And I think, personally, he's taking it more serious now and focusing because he sees the window closing and he wants to make some of that big, big money. Absolutely. I love Dad Cowboy pointing to his son in the crowd as he's charging forward and Iaquinta.

There's nothing more terrifying than dad strength. And cowboy basically is embodying that right now. What do you do with him from here? What do we do from him here? He just put himself in position. You know, he's one of the top five guys in the world now. Yeah, he couldn't be in a better position. He's one of the top five guys in the world now. Yeah. He couldn't be in a better position. He's one of the top five guys in the world and one of the most exciting and big money divisions in the sport.

And that's the thing with Cowboy. You always know you're going to get an entertaining fight with him. You could basically headline a pay-per-view with Cowboy versus a schlub, and people will tune in because they know that Cowboy will put on a show for him. Another person in the lightweight division, though, Tony Ferguson, who has been on a bit of a hiatus. We got word that he met with you this week. How did that go? Yeah, we met yesterday, and it went really well.

Tony's in a really good place mentally, physically, and emotionally. He's in a good place with his family and in his personal life, and I'm really happy for him. So, yeah, Tony's back. Okay, could we be seeing him on that July card? I don't know. We'll see. We're talking right now. Great meeting yesterday. Uh, I have a matchmaking meeting today and, uh, we're going to talk to Tony again today, so we'll see what's up. Thank you. And I got two more before we get you out of here. Two more fun ones.

One, I've, I've been watching a lot of interviews with you recently, and you have a guitar in your office. And I'm a big music fan. I want to know whose guitar that is. I have four. You have four guitars in your office? Okay. Give me the rundown here. Is it white, the one you see?

Yes. All right. The white one was Fleas from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and he wrote all over it and has all this writing all over it. Then I have two over here on the wall that are fleas also. They're his bass guitars, his actual bass guitars, and they're spun by the artist Damien Hirst. Then my other guitar is signed by all three of the Beastie Boys. I'm a huge Beastie Boys fan, and it's signed by them. Holy shit, that's cool.

Your office looks like the dream office you have like samurai gear and shit in there too people people who come in my office i literally have and people don't see my whole office that's just i have a bar that connects to my office and i also have a full gym that connects to my office i have the baddest office on the planet if anybody out there thinks they have a nicer fucking office than me i'd love i'd love to see it jesus yeah i wouldn't listen i don nicer fucking office than me, I'd love to see it. Jesus. Listen, I don't want to invite myself anywhere. I would love to come to Las Vegas and take the people on a tour of that office because it sounds awesome.

Anytime, brother. Oh, we're going to make it happen. And finally. I promise you this. Your mind will be fucking blown. We got to have my people talk to your people and make that happen because it sounds amazing. It's fucking ridiculous. Yeah. Get the people together. We can do it. We'll get to your people and make that happen because it sounds amazing. It's fucking ridiculous. Yeah. Get the people together.

We can do it. We'll get the people together. One last question for you before we get you out here. A fun one. If you were a fighter, Dana, what would be your walkout music? Rage Against the Machine or Rage Against the Machine or the Beastie Boys. You got a song you got to pick? Any of them.

It doesn't even matter. I feel like Gorilla Radio. You can pick different ones. A bad rage song does not exist. I'm so with you there. I am so with you. I would probably walk out to What You Want. What You Want would be so good. Oh, wow. I hope somebody makes that. They play as you in the UFC video game and they make some kind of What Youyou-want walkout for us. Dana, thank you so much for the time. As always, UFC 237, Nama Yunus versus Indraj,

takes place this Saturday, like I said, May 11th, from Rio de Janeiro. You could get this fight only on ESPN+, and I promise you it will be worth it. This card is awesome. Dana, thank you so much. Thank you, my friend. Take care. You too.