My Mom's Basement - QUARANTINE MINI-POD: DANA WHITE ON UFC 250

Episode Date: June 5, 2020

Robbie is joined by Dana White yet again in the Basement this week to break down UFC 250, why Jorge Masvidal and Jon Jones have been asking for more money to fight on Twitter, how the past few weeks of events have been run, fighter retirements, Suitman(?!?!), and more. Yes, we said Suitman!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. Oh, I can't drink? I can't drink my water here? What? I know what you're up to, Dana. Listen, I know you're shenanigans over there. We got a lot to get to. A lot has happened since we last talked. You didn't put on any events yet in the pandemic, other than the really early card in Brazil before everything shut down. So what has it been like actually having put these events on? It's been awesome. I mean, it's been awesome. I said that we could do it and we could do it

safely. And we've done it. You have and a lot of the media came at you for that. And you got into the dispute with everyone. You got into the dispute with your boy, John Oliver, which again, like another I'm like, Jesus Christ with the guys that look like wimps going at dana you can't give me one muscle head going at you but don't worry listen i'm doing push-ups so the next time you call out the wimps you won't even have to clarify that you're not talking about me but um you put these events on is there anything you learned from putting on the events in florida and nevada now that you'll apply to UFC events going forward? Not like the safety precautions,

not you're getting swabs up the nose every event now, but is there anything you learned like, shit, I'm going to apply this to UFC forever now? No, I think that every event we get better at it and things run smoother. Like I said through this whole thing, safety is something that we think about and worry about every weekend. And I think, uh, you know, this just takes the

whole safety factor up to another level. I mean, it's just another level of safety that we provide for the athletes. Have you seen more outside interest from the world? You know, we expected this because UFC is kind of the only game in town right now. Have you seen more celebrities or more like interest? I know UFC 249 did great numbers for you. So has that been what you anticipated? This weekend is trending really well too. I think what we're seeing is we're seeing, you know, that being the only game in town literally, you know, has definitely raised the profile of the brand, raised the profile of the brand raised the profile of the sport and the athletes and um the numbers are incredible whether they're free tv

espn plus or pay-per-view so it's been good is there any part of you i know you're a gambling man you're a huge sports fan but is there any part of you seeing the mlb the nhl the nba have difficulty coming back being like fuck yeah i put this shit together in three weeks? Yeah, I think it would be crazy to say that, you know, after we went, somebody had to be first. Somebody had to be first. And the other major leagues, with the amount of heat that I was taking, they didn't go first because every one of them would have crumbled under the pressure from the media. I mean, the media, there are just some real dirty, disgusting scumbags out there that work for the media. And, you know, from, you know, they pulled every dirty move out of the book to throw at us during this thing.

And there's a lot of dorks out there that are very upset that we were able to pull off these events, you know. So it isn't over yet. You're going to see more bad stories coming out. You're going to see a lot of nitpicking. You're going to see, you know, guys that would never cover the sport before diving in head first and going after you know uh whatever whatever they can dig

up yeah it feels like they've i mean i'm not i can't speak to this because i'm not you i'm sure you see it more than i do but it feels like they've been taking it easier on you now that you've put on events and proved that you could do it safely but i always laugh at the new york times guy now covering the ufc every article he writes u period f period c period every time he writes that i'm like bro that's the giveaway that you don't watch the sport nobody does that it's hilarious no listen that guy is the typical you know goofball that i'm talking about and listen listen, he stumbled onto this thing. He, uh, he was writing a negative story about, um, endeavor, you know, with the stuff that endeavor is going through right now. And when he added the UFC into it, he pulled crazy traffic. So they did another one and

another one. And they were, they were doing live results he stumbled upon he realizes that you know the UFC pulls traffic for him and let's be honest nobody knew who this fucking guy was until you know he started that you know the shit with me now people are talking about him now you know and and partially to blame on yourself right like you're the a side of this fight and you're kind of giving him a shine get ready that idiot isn't done writing stories that idiot's gonna be around Partially to blame on yourself, right? Like you're the A side of this fight. He loves it. Get ready. That idiot isn't done writing stories. That idiot's going to be around for a minute writing stories for a very long time about the UFC.

So in speaking about Florida versus Nevada and putting these events on, I heard that Florida was a lot stricter, or Nevada, I'm sorry, was a lot stricter than Florida. And it was a lot stricter with the masks. And DC even said he couldn't run to the bathroom without forgetting forgetting were you happy about the way Nevada ran the event there were rumors that you weren't I wouldn't say that that they were stricter than Florida um you know the thing about Florida was Florida just wasn't afraid to be first you know and and and the governor of Florida this guy said we believe we can do it safely too. We'll work with you. We'll work with you and the athletic commission.

You know, they read our document and we'll do everything we can to make this thing safe. Florida happened. Look at what came out of Florida. We found out that Jocko Ray was positive for COVID-19, getting him and his family taken care of. And that was literally the platform for people to say, okay, we can do this. Now we come to Nevada, and Nevada is looked at as the best commission in the world. And, you know, do they have a couple of different things that we need to do here that we, you know, might not have done in Florida? But, yeah, but this is getting better every time we do it, too.

That was our first one. We knocked out three there. Every single time we put on an event, we get better. And this whole ‑‑ I said going into this thing, we worry about health and safety every weekend. This is just another level of the health and safety that we provide for the athletes now. And everybody else could be doing this right now. The NFL, the NBA, everybody could do this. They could all pull it off. What you're seeing from these other organizations is financially, financially, it's tough to pull it off. And it's financially tough for us to pull it off too. You know what I mean? This is no joke, man. This is expensive.

Normally, what we would have done is we'd be at the MGM Grand or one of their properties, right? And we'd have a deal cut with these guys for hotel rooms, convention space, and all this other stuff. We have to rent out our own hotel now we have to make sure that this place is scrubbed clean and sanitized and that the whole place and that those are just two things of a laundry list of things that need to be done now to do it and i mean removing the gate right no gate and the other problem is most of these other sports leagues, right, they depend on gate, concessions, parking, all these other things that aren't there anymore.

Now there's a whole other level of testing and traveling and housing the fighters and quarantining and doing all this stuff. Financially, it doesn't pencil and it doesn't make sense. Yeah, one more thing I want to talk about before we get to UFC 250. I saw some complaints from fans and media, and you've even been outspoken about judging throughout the years. There were some weird judging cards in Florida, right? Is there any steps that the UFC is taking or can take to improve this?

I know people have suggested open scoring, the half point system, widening the mass of judges so we can improve on this. It's been an issue in boxing forever. What can we do to improve on that? I agree with you. And I don't always agree with the refs either. I think fights should be stopped sooner

or that fight would stop too soon. And there's always going to be problems. But as a fan right now, to be bitching about anything, okay, you are out of your mind. If you know the level of things that we're dealing with, think about this. No other sports, the NFL, major league baseball, none of these other guys are going right now. Nobody's going. No other fight promoters are putting on fights right now we're it you know

what i mean so we have so much on our plate right now what what you guys need to be uh complaining to and bitching to is the athletic commissions in these states and saying you know how could this be done give us tell us how how this fight was scored How could you score it for this person or that person? That's the athletic commission. Our commitment is always to make sure that we have the best judges, the best referees, because I don't want to see any of these people get screwed over either that have trained so hard, worked so hard. And unlike other sports, one loss is a big deal in the fight business. Yeah.

So it's always something that's important to us but that is one of the things that is very hard for us to control we are regulated by the athletic commission and i got a lot of fish to fry right now i figured listen i know it's not on you i know it's on the athletic commission we'll put on that on the back burner maybe a year from now when we're not in the middle of a pandemic we'll be like listen how can we step in i'll help this out let's talk ufc 250 we got it on saturday amanda nunez the goat in the main event defending her title against felicia spencer i think it goes without saying at this point if amanda nunez is fighting you should be buying the pay-per-view because the manner in which she finishes her opponents is fucking crazy i know we said it in actually the tour of your office in

that very room you're sitting we were talking about how crazy amanda nunez has been and she's kept up the run until then so if there's anything you want to add there you can you can add it but amanda nunez goes without saying at this point the goat you know i put her at brady status i think that she's gotten to a point where you know she has such an incredible resume who's on it how she she beat him. And she's a double champion. And she just continues to break records and set the bar so high that it's going to be hard for other people to break her record. She will go down as one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. And she will go down as the greatest female fighter ever in all combat sports. I agree with you. Two other guys fighting on this card, two friends of the program that have been on the show that I really like. They kind of look like brothers if they

went down very different paths. Chase Hooper and Sean O'Malley. I love these guys. They're both great prospects. And I've heard you talk about how the UFC pretty much saw pretty early on these guys could be stars and we could build these guys into stars. They've kept up their winning streaks, right? They keep going. What do you think, other than wins on Saturday, they can do to add to their superstardom? Well, it's funny when you say that. So the Contender Series, 5.5 million people watched Hooper's fight. 4.5 million watched Sean O'Malley's fight. So both very popular guys, and both have the ability to become big stars, exciting fighters, and Saturday night's a big night for both of these guys. Alex Caceres is no joke.

This guy is a true veteran who has seen it all, done it all, fought them all, from the backyard Kimbo fighting to the UFC. And the kid did a stint on The Ultimate Fighter, too. He could not be more polished seasoned and have more experience. Same thing for Eddie Weiland with Sean O'Malley. He's done it all, seen it all, been there. And these guys have taken on two true vets. And it's going to be very interesting to see how they come out on Saturday. Wins over these guys is a big step in the right direction uh in their UFC careers yeah and that featherweight division is just absolutely exploding right now for like Sean O'Malley everyone in that division kind of crazy now going on to some kind of rougher subjects rougher today

I guess Masvidal put out this long string of tweets I know you've seen it you've already sort of addressed it in a post fight or not a post fight a scrum you did earlier on today do you have anything more to add to that now that you've kind of sat with it for a few hours he's tweeting about uh not getting paid enough is essentially what his thing is he's saying i'm not getting paid enough espn is screwing me i've never been screwed like this before i fought in backyards what do you have to say to him he's never been screwed like this and he fought do you want me to i could read read you the word for word tweet. I pulled it up here. I don't even listen.

Apparently, he's not a fan of facts. He said that I bought an island. For the zillionth time, I did not buy an island. We cut a deal for us to be able to put on international fights during a pandemic when nobody else is going so that these athletes can continue to perform and make a living. Okay. Number one. Number two, we're in a pandemic. All these other sports right now are negotiating with their athletes to take less pay.

Never have we ever in the history of this company asked a fighter to take less pay. Okay. We're figuring out our end of the deal. We're doing what we got to do. You know, I just told you that there's financial burdens on this company right now too. But you don't hear me bitching about that. You don't hear me going, oh, no, I don't know how I'm going to do this and that. It's my job.

My job is to figure that out. and that's what we're doing we're we're moving forward through this pandemic everybody wants more money that's human nature um and yeah listen at the end of the day if he doesn't want to fight he doesn't have to fight i want i owe him three fights a year for his contract i will continue to offer him fights. And if he wants to turn them down, he's more than welcome to. And it seems like the fight that you want in that division, or everyone would like to see in that division, is him versus Kamaru Usman, right?

Obviously. And I saw Masvidal teasing a Nate Diaz rematch on Twitter. And then Usman came out and Ali Abdelaziz came out and they said, listen, if he gets the Nate Diaz fight, we're going going to request Dana White gives Conor McGregor the title. And it kind of all became this mess, right? It was a dust cloud. How do you feel about it? I think everybody's been sitting at home for too long and everybody's losing their minds right now.

We're going into our fifth event this weekend. And I said this earlier, we told everybody what this pandemic going on. If you're uncomfortable fighting and you don't feel safe, whatever your reason is, you don't have to fight. He doesn't have to fight, but I have to offer him three fights a year. I have to offer all these guys three fights a year. You've been offered. If you don't want to fight for whatever reason it is coronavirus we're not paying you this that whatever your reason is we have a contract together and i owe you three fights a year and you can say yes or no so you you anticipate maybe gilbert

burns then getting that shot against kamaru uzman if jorge masvidal if the deal does not get done gilbert burns wants to fight. Yeah. Gilbert Burns will not stop asking us for the fight. He's chomping at the bit for the fight. Gilbert Burns is going to come out of this thing a frigging superstar. When I say this thing, I mean this pandemic. I mean, this guy, first of all, look at the type of fighter he is.

You know, well-rounded, can take the fight anywhere the fight goes, and is hungry, starving to fight. Those are the guys, listen, lots of people right now, professional athletes are not playing, are not getting paid, are not doing this and that. You know, people are out of work right now. Tons of people

are out of work. People are losing their minds. The whole world's going crazy. A guy like Gilbert Burns will thrive in this environment right now. And people will get behind him and love a guy like that. Yeah, absolutely. Now, before we get you out of here, I know we're short on time. I want to talk about a few retirements really quick. We saw Henry Cejudo retire. We saw Jon Jones basically threatened to retire, relinquish his title, right? Kind of felt like once again, it was a similar contract negotiations and then that Francis Ngannou fight went wrong. And he says, all right, screw it. I'm retiring. We've seen fighters do that before. We've seen Conor McGregor do it, I think, two or three times before. And one of my favorite all-time Dana White moments was you sent that text to Brett Accomodo. Oh yeah, I wish him well in his retirement. You know, he's got enough money. You know he wasn't retiring, Dana, just like you know John Jones isn't retiring. Do you buy that Henry Cejudo is retiring? Listen, I'm going to tell you this. Henry Cejudo had been talking about retirement many times before. Everybody thought that it was a big negotiation stunt the night that he did it.

But he had been talking about retiring before that. Guy's been a professional athlete forever. And I think the thing to really focus on here when you talk about this, he had enough money to retire. Can you retire right now? No, I wish I could. Can you go in and tell Dave, go fuck yourself, Dave, I retire. No.

He can't. I can't say the first part, but he would probably say, go fuck yourself to me too, and it would not be good. Cejudo has the money to retire. John Jones has the money to retire. And I'm here, you know, even Masvidal. Masvidal's made some good money since he's gone on this little run he's on. And I heard he's hooked up with some liquor guys and he's making good money. Listen, I'd like to point out again, we're in a fucking pandemic, okay? All of my guys are doing so well they can retire you're right i mean

people are homeless carless people don't have jobs all this craziness is going on my guys are all talking about retiring so when john jones goes on a bad fucking place to be in a pandemic yeah when john jones goes on these things i also wonder if in your mind like does he lose some of that uh negotiating power and saying he retires when he hasn't really been around much in the first place it's not it's not about negotiating power these guys have contracts right i mean these guys have contracts kamaru uzman has two fights left on his contract right yep and two fights kamaru uzman can can do whatever he wants to and and the thing is that all of these guys have country if you don't like if you don't like you

fight your contract out and do whatever the hell you want to do yeah no it makes sense to me i mean i'm not i'm fighter i'm not a promoter so i don't understand the the intricacies and what gets complicated in that but the way you just laid it out to me makes sense i don't know i don't know how it works for you at barstool i'm assuming you probably signed a contract i mean this is what's going on over there right now with the with the girls with the freaking podcast you know about call her daddy oh my god dana what in the world come on man you know that peter nelson guy you sat next to him at ufc 220 there's pictures of it people were sending me i know peter nelson very well yes do you think he's a goof no he's a great guy i don't believe that i don't believe he's a great guy i think that you think he's a great guy. I don't believe that. I don't believe you. Come on, he's a great guy. I think that you think he's a goof. And I think you just can't say it because HBO or something like that.

He doesn't seem like a great guy. You think that if I thought Peter Nelson was a goof, I wouldn't tell you that he was a goof? Dude, he reads all these Ulysses. Let me quote the Odyssey, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Jesus Christ, Dan. I don't think you would like this guy. I don't think you would like this guy, but listen, I appreciate the time as always UFC 250. We've got tomorrow on Saturday night. Like I said, Amanda Nunez, we've got Sean O'Malley

fighting the sugar show. We've got Chase Hooper fighting. It's a great card, Dana. Thank you very much. Thank you, buddy. Have a great weekend. You too.