The Breakfast Club - INTERVIEW: Dana White Talks UFC Freedom 250, Relationship With Trump, WHCD Shooting, 'Power Slap,' Zuffa Boxing + More

Episode Date: May 8, 2026

Today on The Breakfast Club, Dana White Talks UFC Freedom 250, Relationship With Trump, WHCD Shooting, 'Power Slap,' Zuffa Boxing. Listen For More!YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BreakfastClubPower1051FMSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We are the Breakfast Club. Lawan LaRose is here as well. We got a special guest in the building. Yes, sir. President and CEO of UFC. Ladies and gentlemen, Dana White. Welcome. Good morning, gang.

How are you? How are you feeling this morning? I'm good, I'm good, yeah. You ever get tired of running around and going from city to city and doing handling fight to fight? Do you ever, does it ever get tired? Yeah, it gets, I'm busier this year than I've ever been with all the other things that I've taken on. But yeah, no, it's all good. Sometimes traveling gets, you know, starts to kick in the ass a little bit, but especially as you get older.

It's all good. How long have you been around MMA? 25 years. Well, I mean, I guess you say 28 years, but I've been doing this for 25. Started taking jiu-jitsu in like 97 and fell in love with the sport and that's how we ended up buying the UFC. What made you jump into martial arts? Was it protection board? Well, you know, I was always involved in boxing and then my old partner, Frank Fortita and I were out at the hard rock one night in Vegas and we ran into a guy named John Lewis who fought in the UFC at that time and he had a

jiu-jitsu school in Vegas. Frank's like, I've always wanted to try jiu-jitsu so we went over to him, we talked to him, we set up a lesson on Monday and that was the beginning of all of it. Did you see the UFC explode the way that it is? I was at a pizzeria

the other day, yesterday actually, and he was so excited for the fight this happened in Newark this week. He was like, I'm not the first row, but I'm the third row so I can see people are so hype about it. Did you ever see it exploding the way I think that when we got involved in it, we became so passionate about it. It was so different than boxing.

The fighters were different than boxers, and we believed that it could be big and could work everywhere. I mean, I've always had this philosophy. No matter what color you are, what country you come from, what language you speak, we're all human beings and fighting's in our DNA. We get it and we like it. I mean, even if you say you don't like fighting, if a fight broke out in that room right now, we'd all run over to the glass and watch the fight.

Absolutely. It's just human nature. You don't know somebody got a gun. So you got to stay. You got to back away. We're not like you, Dana. At the White House correspondent, they're like, oh, that was exhilarating.

Hearing those gunshots. You're exactly like me. You would absolutely watch the fight over there. But people give you a lot of credit for building the UFC into a global empire, right? But they also critique you and say you still underpay fighters compared to like boxing or, you know, NBA, NFL, even WWE. how do you justify being worth billions of dollars, but some fighters still need second jobs? Yeah, well, listen, I mean, I'm sure some basketball players

and baseball players still need second jobs, too, until they make it. What we do is we bring guys in and pay them, you know, guys make like 10 and 10 or 15 and 15 to come in and fight. You might last one fight. You might not be great, but as you start to prove yourself and, you know, listen, there's always going to be talk about fighter pay. I'm in boxing now, and all these guys are, All these boxers are signing with us now, too.

So I just think that's, there's always going to be, you're always going to be criticized about something. But how come when the fighters talk about unions of collective bargaining, the UFC acts like it's the enemy? Like, why are you doing that? We don't act like that's the enemy. I mean, if the fighters wanted to unionize, that's up to them.

It's not up to me. Okay. Yeah. So you encourage it? Sure. Listen, we always have to deal with somebody. Got you. It could be a manager, an agent.

You know, everybody's gotten into some of the biggest lawyers and, you know, and the world have gotten into this, agents. Hollywood, I mean, everybody, we always have to deal with somebody. We have to negotiate with somebody. With UFC being so brutal at times, was there ever a concern with them not approving the fighting in certain states or certain places? Because, I mean, like boxing, it seems like, you know, you can, it's round, right? There's a referee.

It's stop. But sometimes UFC is like, they're going to beat the issue out of them until he actually dies. Because you actually what? Until he actually dies, it seems like sometimes. Listen, some of these fights, believe me, there are fights that I sit there and watch when it's over, I go, what do I do for a living? This is insane.

But when you spend the right amount of money on health and safety, before they get in there, during and after, in the 30-year history of the UFC, there's never been a death or serious injury. Even after the craziest fight you've seen, cheerleading can't say that. You said cheerleading can't say it? Can't say that.

Yeah, my daughter's a competitive cheerleader. They get hurt a lot. A lot. Yeah, yeah, fall on their head. My daughter in high school was part of the, you know, the hardcore competitive cheerleading, and she was so busted up in high school, it was crazy. Damn. But 30 years, no death or serious injury in the UFC.

Knock a wood. Not many sports can say that. I mean, no serious injury. Yeah. Damn, they be beating the shit out of each other. Right? That's so true. It's so true.

Now we're talking about the White House corresponders then a little bit. You said it was fucking awesome. Yeah. And a unique experience. And everybody was saying how you didn't get down when the gunshots, you know, went off. Why? Because you know it was staged. I don't know.

I mean, you don't know how you're going to react in those type of situations until you're in them. But, you know, being a guy, first of all, we're sitting there. And they just set the whole thing up. And they said, we're going to eat. And then this thing's going to start. And. What, the shooting? Oh.

No. The show. They were going to serve dinner first. And literally they had just brought the salads out. And I was sitting there talking to Pete Higgsith, and I don't hear well. And my left ear, I'm 100% deaf in my left ear. So I didn't hear the shots.

All I heard was plate smashing and glasses. And these guys, I turn around, and literally 50 guys are coming through the room, and they got their guns out. They get the president and the vice president, and all the media people off the stage. And now the stage is filled with people with guns pointed at us with the lights on the end of them. And everybody's yelling, get the fuck on the ground.

And I just was like, holy shit, this is incredible. If you think about like the greatest movie you've ever seen and you watched the way that these Secret Service guys came into the room and how they were, I was just like this. And to be in a situation like that and nobody gets hurt. and even think about this the media that were in the room that night were mostly women

no screaming no yelling everybody just got on the ground and it was just such a crazy unique hopefully one of one experience that I got to not one woman screamed at all at all that's crazy and then when it was open

how do you know he might have been on your left side that's fucking brilliant that is brilliant you might be right I didn't hear any screaming so many women Yeah It was

And then after it was over And the other thing is when this is happening We don't know what's going on Is there a shooter in there Are bullets about to start flying? Is there a bomb? You know, we don't know what's going on And it's just

My adrenaline was I mean I don't even I can't even explain it For the next four hours I was bouncing off the walls It was just But yeah, it was pretty badass. It was a thrill secret, though.

Like you said used to fight, do UFC. Yeah. Like you liked that type of adrenaline leverage. Probably never used a condom in your life. I do. I do. And I've obviously never been in any type of situation like that in my life. It was a really unique experience.

You know, I know to a lot of people that sounded twisted, but let me tell you what, as a guy that's never been in something like that, it's just, it's all. to explain, but it was pretty badass. Whose idea was it to have a UFC fight on the White House lawn? How did that come about? So the president was at one of the fights. I can't remember if it was in New Jersey or Miami. And he leans over to me and goes, you know what?

We should do a fight at the White House. I said, yes. Yes, we should. I like it. You thought he was bullshit. Literally how it started. No, he doesn't bullshit. So when he says he's going to do something, he does it.

literally Monday people started calling and trying to set it up. And that was Saturday. And Monday, they called and started setting it up. But yeah, I'm not going to say no to doing a fight of the White House. How does that work? Who gets invited?

Do you have to go through protocol? Like, how does that work as far as, you know, celebrities and people coming and some of the fighters? I have 200 tickets. Ari Emanuel has 200 tickets and the president has 1,000 tickets. There'll be like a little over 4,000 people there. Most will be military. Every branch of the military will be there.

And, you know, there's 1,400 tickets between me, R, and the president. Do you understand why some people see that as sports history, while others see it as just like state-sponsored political theater? Oh, yeah. People are, you know, everybody's going to have an opinion about something like this. But, you know, why would I not? If you're offered to do something at the White House, why would you not do it? especially on America's 250th birthday.

Pretty incredible. Great opportunity. I was just going to say there's just so much going on right now that it just seems like, you know, the energy, the focus, the resources, everything could just go somewhere else at this point. Just for the, so we're clear, the U.S. taxpayers aren't paying anything.

We're flipping the whole bill for this thing. That's what they told us about the ballroom too. Yeah, well, this is a fact. I don't know about the ballroom. I'm not involved in that. we're paying for everything, literally everything. And we can't sell a hot dog, a t-shirt, a ticket, nothing. We're flipping the bill for everything. And my thing is always, there's always something going on. There's always going to be something else, always something bad. Plus, we're a global

business. You know, when the Ukraine-Russia war started and people were saying, oh, my God, you can't have Russians. I have Russians under contract. They have to feed their families there. I had Palestinians, I have Jewish fighters, I have, you know, there's always going to be something bad going on in this world and I run a global business. You know, you were on the Katie Miller podcast and you said

in regards to your relationship with Trump and has it cost to UFC business. You said, I don't give a shit, I don't know to answer to that question. I've gotten to a point in my life, especially after COVID and all that nutty shit that went on during that time that I only want to be in business with and talk to people that I'm aligned

with. Well, I don't know about talk to people. that I'm aligned, but I want to do business with people that I'm aligned with, for sure. So you're aligned with Trump on what exactly? Well, Trump is a good friend of mine. I mean, I've been friends with him for 25 years. Friends, I mean, you just happen to become the president of the United States. And he and I have never had a, he had us at the Trump to Hajma Hall. When we first bought this company, the stigma that was attached to this thing, you can imagine, think about this.

It wasn't allowed on pay-per-view. You as a grown adult didn't have the option to buy it on paper-view. Porn was on pay-per-view. The UFC was not allowed on pay. That was the uphill battle we had. So you can imagine venues didn't want us. Because, you know, these guys were like, what kind of people will show up to watch this kind of an event?

And he had us at the Trump to Hajma Hall for the first two fights, you know, 30 and 31, UFC 30 and 31. And then after we did those two, first thing, he showed up, the first fight of the night and stayed till the end for both events. And you think the Trump brand then and the UFC brand. And every good thing that ever happened to me in my career after that, he was always the first guy to reach out. So then when he was running in 16, he called me and asked me,

would you speak for me at the Republican convention? And everybody told me not to do it. Don't do it. This is going to be bad. And he's never going to win and all that kind of stuff. but this was a guy that was always good to me and, you know, always treated me well and I did it.

I can understand that. You know, that's your friend. But when your friend has a disapproval rating of 62% right, record high, people say they don't like his handling up the Iran war, the economy's shitty, cost of living for people that's fucked up. Why can't you tell your friend he's failing to people? As a friend.

Well, he's the president of the United States. Still your friend, though. And, yeah, I know. But, you know, for me to get involved in, It's like if your friend had a... I'm sure people disagree with you that are friends with you and everybody has friends that you just

doesn't mean you're not friends with them anymore. It doesn't mean that you... Oh, no, I didn't say you shouldn't be friends with him. I just said, why can't you tell you a friend he's failing the people? Because these are the same people who make USC a success. Yeah, I don't know if I agree

that he's failing the people. I think that when the president is done in three years, people will look back on and realize a lot of the good things. See, I'm closer to him too, and I see all the good things that he does that a lot of people, you know, either don't see or don't want to see. But tariff inflation has increased the price of household goods, increased utility bills because household electricity costs have gone up 9%. The failure to extend an Affordable Care Act is fucked up people's health care.

Everyday working class people who support your sport. You're never going to have a president. that sits in the White House, that everybody approves 100% of everything they do, and not everything is always going to be perfect. You're going to have some things that work out great and a lot of things that don't. It's no different than running a business or any other thing. Nobody's ever going to be absolutely perfect when they're the president of the United States. Can you tell your friend when he's...

Yeah, we talk about a lot of things, but I don't try to get into... You like everything he's doing? Well, like I just said, you're never going to agree with everything. But, you know, as a friend, I'm not going out there. And he and I have never, other than the first two UFC events, nothing with us is transactional. I'm not trying. He doesn't call me in.

Like, I'll give you an example, the White House fight. Other than Derek Lewis, the Black Beast, other than him, he didn't tell me, hey, put this guy, do this. this. We're sitting at the fight in Miami a couple weeks ago and he says, why is the black beast, Derek Lewis, not on the White House card? Did you go help make sure that's his nickname? I don't want to. He's the president, one of the president's favorite fighters.

Okay. So he says to me, why is he not on the card? I literally got up and walked over to my matchmaker, Mick. I said, get Derek on the phone. Called Derek and I said, hey, the president wants to know why you're not on the White House card. He said, politics. That's the why I'm not. Derek Lewis is incredible. And I said, he wants you on the card.

You want to fight on the card? He said, tell him thank you. I'd love to. We put him on the card. Now we've got to find him opponent. And this crazy fight plays out that night between Curtis Blades and Hockeet. And it was an incredible fight. They're literally putting Hockeet in the ambulance.

And Mick goes back and says, you want to fight Derek Lewis on the White House card. And he said, yeah, the fight was literally made that night during the fight. But my point in this. The story was, you know, he doesn't, it's just we don't have, we don't do that. So your relationship with Trump is big in business is actually personal. Yeah. Absolutely. We have a real friendship, not some type of, you know, he has lots of friends, especially

now that he's the president, we don't have that. We've had a 25-year real friendship and real relationship. But don't be a glazer, though, D. Don't be what? A glazer. Like, just somebody that just tells him he's great, a yes man, basically. Yeah. You got to tell him when he's.

I don't think anybody's ever accused. me of being a yes man um and and i think that's um that that's part but but i listen i'm not an overly political person either you know what i mean and and so are you part of the maga movement culturally what do you mean culturally are you part of the maga movement culturally do you align with their ideologies and their values you know i i consider myself right down the middle or leaning a little liberal to be honest with you um everybody thinks i'm some some far right guy because of our relationship. You know, I'm more about common sense.

I'm a common sense guy. And if it makes sense to me, then I'm probably in. So when you see the Joe Rogan, the Andrew Schultz is actually, you know, calling out Trump and what they don't like, what do you think of that? I think that everybody's entitled to their own opinions. And, you know, yeah, if there's things that you see that you don't, like and you want to be political, call them out. Yeah, because it's interesting.

Most CEOs try to stay politically neutral to protect the brand. You almost seem kind of like proud to be. Proud to be. Political, I guess. Not proud to be political. I mean, I'm just saying that this guy is my friend and nothing is perfect. And, you know, whoever is the next president, right or left isn't going to be perfect either. I just think that I don't base.

my relationship with him on politics. Well, what about when people say that you're the reason why a lot of young male voters because of, you know, you have seen everything that you have voted for Trump? And that was something that like, even if you didn't mean to do, it was widely talked about

and you still leaned into helping his popularity in the space. Yeah. I'm okay with that. But that gets political then. Yeah. I guess. So you're responsible for the high tariffs and the high inflation costs and I guess so. I guess if that's the way you want to look at it.

It's all my fault. No, I'm just saying you're responsible for people's health care getting cut. I'm just saying like that's what you're essentially saying. Okay. I mean, I don't, that's not the way I look at it, but I guess I could see why you would look at it that way. And you could, you know, frame it like that. Yeah.

I've even seen people go as far as like, because I know people say that like Barron put Trump on to like a lot of the podcast, but I've seen people say that you and your relationships also were the reason why he sat down with certain people during the campaign, which was really successful. That's definitely true. I told them if you stay on Fox, you're never going to win. You know, most of the people that are on Fox are already voting for you. And every other network says you're, you know, a fascist and a racist and a, you know, all these other horrible things.

And yeah, I definitely was the one that leaned him into doing podcasts and things like that. And the other thing that I knew is that you can put Trump on a five-hour podcast and he will do just fine. you know he's good um Kamala could not could not do a five-hour podcast Kamala did you ask uh what what else did you tell him to do or not to do did you say hey trump you should stay away from this or maybe you should do this more what what what was none of that um so so what originally happened was he was picking me up in Vegas um and we were flying to a rally down in uh Arizona and this one he was still the president and i called jared kushner and i said hey uh there's this group of kids called the milk boys that they're influencers.

I want to bring them with us to Arizona on the plane. And Jared goes, yeah, you're asking him that. I'm not. So I called him and he said, yeah, yeah, whatever you want to do. And so we flew down there and we were in the back. There's a conference room in the back of Air Force One. And then he called us up to his office and we went in there. And, you know, I don't know if you guys know who the milk boys.

are if you've ever seen him but and uh we're in there taking pictures and stuff and and you know at some point he gives me this look i like you got to be fucking kidding me right now and uh we get to the rally he does his rally and again you know to his brilliance he sees steve will do it out in the crowd he calls steve up on stage when he's walking out leaving you know doing the ymca thing and the whole crowd erupted when steve got up on stage with him and he felt it and he did their podcast right after that I was you know and that was when it did like 8 million views in two or three hours and then YouTube pulled it down and then that started that whole social media thing that started to happen with them pulling him off social media would you feel the same way if like your

political allegiance started costing fighters like opportunities internationally are impacted the business of the UFC I'm sorry ask that again what would you feel the same way about your friendship, if that political allegiance started to cost fighters' opportunities internationally are impacted the business of the USC. In what way? How would it cost fighters' opportunities? I don't know if people just was like, you know, I don't want you all over here because y'all are affiliated with the USC. Yeah.

And Dana White. I don't know. I don't know. I guess I'd have to, I'd have to face it. It would have to happen for me to think of how to deal with it. and what would be the reasons and, yeah, I don't know. I guess when you just look around at everything that's going on in society, and you notice working class people that support the UFC,

and Trump is your friend. You've got a direct line to him. Some points you've got to tell him a lot of the stuff that he's doing wrong that's hurting working class people. Well, I'm not involved in, I'm not part of his cabinet. I'm just one of his friends. It's better. It might be a friend.

But I don't. You know everybody's having it in the cabinet. In the cabinet, but I don't necessarily agree. Politically that, you know, all these bad things are happening. I mean, and I'm not inside enough to sit down and get political with them and talk about this stuff. It'd be like, you know, if you had a buddy that ran a business and, you know, you're going and you're giving him a bunch of advice how to run his business and think he's doing this wrong or that wrong. It's just, I'm just not that guy. You know what I do?

I have my little world and my bubble that I deal with my employees that I have to take care of. Like during COVID, you know, we were looking at a position where we might have to lay people off. People that have been with me 15, 20 years. Me, as the leader of what I do, I have to take care of my people, my family, my friends, and my own little world, my own little bubble. I'm not flying out to Washington to sit down with the president and, you know, walk through all the things that I think are right and wrong with the country. Sure, but you got to get out that bubble and look at the people who support UFC.

Those are the working class people that are hurting. Like, that's who I'm talking about. Like, you got to be concerned about them, right? I can tell you this. No UFC fans have ever come to me and said, hey, listen, we're hurting. We need you to talk to the president. You know, nobody's ever. It's the complete opposite.

I mean, I just went to the derby on Saturday, and literally everybody was coming up to me saying, thank you for supporting the president. Thank you for, you know, I never get the opposite. Never. Never, not one. The newest tracks. Let's go.

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I think we need something new. Discover I heart new music. Always fresh. First. Stream now on the free IHard Radio app. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guide, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Jim Gaffigan to Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman, help make you funnier.

This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an Acapella band with their between songs banter. There's the worst singer in the group. The worst? Yeah. Me. Is there anything to the idea that because you're from Harvard, you only got in because your parents made a huge donation.

The yard birds, right? That's the name. The Harvard Yard. But they're open. Do you have a name suggestion? We're open. Since you guys are middle-aged. One erection.

Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Huber me I need some jokes to make me seem funny A win is a win A win is a win I don't care what you're saying Yep, that's me

Clifford Taylor the 4th You might have seen the skits The reactions, my journey from basketball to college football Or my career in sports media Well, somewhere along the way This platform became bigger than I ever imagined And now I'm bringing all of that excitement

To my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, Unfiltered Conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations,

stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick you here. unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me not just because of crack.

I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black. black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in

American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Once on my children's life has somebody come up to me and said, you know, your buddy's blowing it. He's doing this. You know, you need to do this or that. I've never, ever had that happen. Now you're deaf on one side? I'm just saying, if you stay to one side, you probably only hear one thing. It's never happened. It's never happened. If it did happen, I'd say it. I wouldn't lie about it.

I'd say, listen, I get, you know, some people come up and say that it's never happened to me, ever. And I would say the irony of you being deaf on the left side, but it's not just the left. There's a lot of, you know, seriously. That's fucking brilliant. It's a lot of everybody. That's fucking great. People, I guess, criticize you guys and say that a lot of times you pick fights based off popularity and not necessarily the fight his experience or the fact that the fight is that great.

Is there any reason for that? It's definitely not true. That's definitely not true. Plus, my job is to put on the fights that people want to see. Like, your buddy that you were talking to that can't wait and he's in the second or third row, whatever, this fight this weekend, there's a ton of bad blood between these guys. A lot of shit talking, going back and forth, and, you know, this is a fight that people want to see. That's my job. What's your relationship with Ronda Rousey?

Love her. She had some harsh words for the UFC at one time. What's your thoughts on her words and what she said not paying the fight? Again, I think that everybody is entitled to their opinion

including Rhonda. Rhonda is one of the greatest athletes that I've ever worked with in my entire career and her rise and run was one of the most you know,

the most fun I've had in my career. What's the craziest thing a fighter has asked you for besides money? Is there anything on the side that a fighter said this is weird or this is strange

cocaine no nobody's ever asked me for cocaine he heard that one laugh shit I don't know I mean a lot of it well to go with to go with Charlemagne here

I got a fighter right now whose whose wife got grabbed by ice yeah you see what I'm saying you see what I'm saying

so did you reach out of the Trump and did you Did you reach out to, you're afraid and say, hey. He also admitted that it was their fault that this happened too. You know, it wasn't, you know, ICE just popped up and grabbed his wife. They made a lot of mistakes leading up to that happening and asked me to help with that. Did you? I don't think, I don't know what I can do to help with that.

You talk to your friend. Well, he's fighting. Listen, there's policies. There are policies. If you are not an American citizen and a. especially if you've done something illegal, you're probably going to be in trouble. Did she do something illegal? Yeah. Yeah. So you're probably going to be in trouble.

They admitted they did a lot of things wrong leading up to, you know, this happening. But I mean, that's right up there with. Did you reach, did you at least ask him like, hey, bro, I got a fighter. Does you each, or do you even ask? That's a bro. They don't call each other bro. How you know? Ask them.

What you call you? Mr. President. Now, yeah. Did you reach out to Mr. President and didn't even ask him about it, or you said you're going to fall back on that one? Well, he's not the one that you would ask. There are other people in the cabinet. Other chains, command, go through.

That could help with that, yeah. But he's the one that can fix it. Ultimately. Well, when you say he, it's his administration, too. I mean, the people that are around them. How bad can her husband fight? How bad? I mean, like, how great can he fight?

How good is he? He's retired now. He's retired now. I don't care about that. But he's a great kid. He's a great kid. I like him. That's a question, Dana, if, let's just say hypothetically Kamala Harris was president, right?

Yeah. Or even Barack Obama. They wanted a UFC card on the White House lawn. Would your audience embrace it the same way? Yeah. Here's my thing. It's like that whole, you know, Biden is not my president. Trump is not my president.

I got some bad news for you. If you are American, that is your president. And that's how I am. Whoever the president, United States is I am an American citizen and that is my president. And, you know, um, yeah, I would definitely if, if, if, especially, and it's the 250th anniversary of America and the president of the United States calls me and asks me to do anything, let alone an event at the whites. And, and, and. So what if, what if Kamala wasn't president and just wanted to do it, just wanted to

have an event, a UFC event somewhere? Would you still do it? Well, it depend on. I mean, it would depend on a lot of things. This event on the White House lawn, I'm paying for everything, you know. And again, it's aligned with America's 250th anniversary. So I don't know, it would depend, but yeah. So I was at the inauguration, and my seats were right behind all the ex-presidents. And while it was playing out live, people were posting, look at Dana, mad dog in Obama and and and and all this you know crazy shit that people say on the internet

when in reality Obama was the only one that turned around to me shook my hand and said congratulations on all your success I'm really happy for you and I said thank you Mr. President and yeah nobody else that was our interaction you know right there's nothing negative nothing you know none of that shit and no other president spoke to you at all didn't even look at look at your way. No, well, I mean, they looked and whatever, but no, the only one that acknowledged you. Yeah, was President Obama. So when you say you only want to do business with people you're aligned with,

are you talking about values, politics, and loyalty. I'm talking about sponsorship. I had some fucking crazy shit go on with some sponsors during COVID. And when I was supporting Trump, you know, for election. And my thing is, I get it, you're spending, but don't ever fucking tell me personally who to vote for and who not to vote for.

As an American, it's your right to vote for for whoever you want to vote for. And I'm not going to be, you know, you know, put in a position where I got some sponsor calling me telling me who I can and can't vote for and who I can and can't support. Yeah. Oh, yeah, it happened.

Yeah. But that's what I mean when I say political alignment impacting your business. But you don't care. No. You said you don't give a shit. No. What if all your sponsors are,

That sponsor's gone. Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow. Yeah, yeah. Gone. What if all of them? They don't have enough money to do business with me. Gone. Damn, damn, damn.

What if all of them pulled out? Would you then tell your friend that he got to change some things? Well, you, if you look at how you are in the way that you think, and imagine somebody coming in because they sponsor your show and start telling you who to be and how to act and who to vote for and who to. No, no, I can't do it. It wouldn't happen. Exactly. Yeah, I can't do that. Exactly.

That's not the question. I said if. But what if it impacts your business? And what if it impacts you as a... That's what I got to think about. 100%. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's not much to think about.

You either want to be that person or you're not that person. I don't think you're that person, but, you know, somebody starts... There are lots of sponsors out there, right? When you get somebody that comes in and starts trying to do that to you, yeah. You got to go. Was there a conversation? with your sponsors or anybody on the business side when that video went viral of you and your wife

in the club? Yeah. And the slapping, slapping her and her slapping you? Yeah, yeah. When they reached out to you, what did they, like how did that conversation go? I didn't, we didn't have any sponsor problems

during that. I think that, that, you know, my wife and I jumped on that immediately and, and again, that was more of a, we had to deal with our kids. with that one.

When you embarrass your children on a global level, you know, that's one of the worst things that can ever happen to you. I didn't have any sponsorship problems with that. I was at TMZ at the time when that video went up and like the whole debacle and like, you know, whatever. And one thing I will say is your relationships have afforded you a lot of like empathy and grace. Like the way that they handled that situation with you and allowing you to speak out for yourself like as it was published. I had never seen that in my time being in the newsroom. Oh, that's interesting.

That was my first time ever realizing, like, relationships can change a narrative 100%. And they reported it honestly, but they allowed you to, at the same time that the video is going up, you're speaking for yourself and apologizing. And I was just like, wow, I always told myself ever got a chance to meet you. I would really want to talk to you about that because I'd never seen that before. interesting yeah i and and and we were apologizing to our children my wife and i when that happened i think that a lot of the people that i've been in business with and and and and i'm friends with know me really well and uh yeah it's just one of those you know i it's it it was bad and and and we jumped right on it and and and and and and and and and and and and and and I don't think that when I got back from

mexico yeah it was like it was 64 days of just you know people getting hammered yeah I mean and and and I to I live in Vegas so I was waking up at like three in the morning every morning because the east coast is cracking off at six o'clock with all the you know talk shows and sports shows and you know I had to make the rounds and and and and do all the interviews and and and and and I'm And, you know, I say this all the time. You find out who's who and what's what when the shit hits the fan. And I learned a lot about a lot of people during that time, and mostly a positive way, not negative.

If a UFC fighter was caught on camera. It's happened, don't it? Oh, it's happened? And that's why you always... And I wonder when they have been treated this anyway. You know, what's funny is that it's not funny, but I used to say that you don't recover from those. Those are ones you don't recover from.

But you did? I did. Do you think being the boss protected you from consequences that employees or athletes? No, definitely not. No, definitely, Dana. Come on. Definitely not. You made the choice publicly not to excuse yourself from the brand. You chose publicly to not what?

To excuse yourself or give yourself. Like, 100%. Listen, there's a board of directors. There's other people that are involved that could have pushed for that. But, yeah, I think that, and obviously they think, too, it would have hurt the company more if I did step away. And you've disciplined fighters for public behavior that was unbecoming to the company before, right?

Well, I mean, I'm probably the most lenient, you know, the most lenient guy in sports when it comes to dealing with, you know, whether it's free speech or bad things that happen. and, you know, I'm in a fight business. It's not like I run Microsoft, you know what I mean? So what standard did you hold yourself to in that moment? Listen, obviously, that's not what, it was, yeah, I mean, it's as bad as it could get. I mean, I hold myself to, I would never in a million years think that that was going to happen.

And I say this all the time. Nobody knows you better than your kids do. And, you know, your kids, whoever you really are, your kids see it. They hear it. Everything that goes on at home. And, you know. How did they react to that incident? My oldest son didn't talk to us for like four days.

We had to, you know. How old was he at the time? Huh? How old was your oldest son at the time? He was, he was in college. So, you know, he was. 19 probably Yeah

1920 And you know We The first thing that That her and I did was Handled the situation with the kids And then obviously I had to handle the business side

Of the whole thing But yeah We handled the kids first How did power slaps get started? That's a terrible thing I don't know about the terrible thing We are a great segue I'm conflicted right now

I think it was great though was probably so i think it was great i think it was great power slaps it's in the ring not i thought he was talking about i'm like yo what the fuck just like not y'all just be out here power slap and they give me that was that was good wow well let me tell you so in 1718 i was on instagram i saw these guys slapping and uh it was coming out of russia and poland and i was like Holy shit, this is crazy. But what fascinated me is that I would stay till the end to see who won. And I started to get into it.

And I called my old partners the Fratida brothers. And I said, have you seen this slapping stuff? I'm into it. I think I could do this and I think this could be big. And literally they said, how much money you need? I said, I need a million bucks from both you. So all three of us put in a million dollars. And here we are.

We kind of started that. This was about 30, I'll say 25 years ago. We used to do this thing called Slap Fest. And people would slap each other for tickets. Damn. And we did it for like a good year. Tickets to where? A concert.

Like so you'd stay in it. But there was no referees. It was just us doing it. And it was huge. And then we got a letter from I guess what the FCC back in. One of the sponsors. Yeah, for the sponsor saying, you can't have like, this is like battling, fighting with no refs. But it was huge.

So when I seen it, I was like, wow. Damn. People get hurt with that, though. Yeah. Oh, yeah. People get knocked out. They can knock that out. It's, uh, it does a billion views a month.

Jeez. Power Slap does a billion views a month. And it is a sponsorship machine kills it. We're doing, uh, we're doing our first fight in Serbia, uh, this summer. We'll be doing power slap. So how does that work? You slap each other to somebody gets knocked out, though? Well, you go back and forth.

It's three rounds. Title fights of five rounds. And there's judges just like in the fights. They have a standing eight count if you get dropped. And the rough determines whether you can, it's regulated, just like boxing in the UFC by the athletic commissions. I just got a couple questions. I do want to go back to this slap thing.

What responsibility do you feel knowing that you're a person who a lot of young men idolize as a leader? And for the young men that saw that footage, what responsibility do you feel? Yeah, a lot. It's bad. And, you know, not my finest moment. And I don't want to blame anything other than the fact that it happened. I did it. And, you know, now from probably the worst thing that that can happen to is somebody,

oh, this guy's a wife-beater, you know, but that's the kind of things that I have to hear, you know, for the rest of my life. My kids have to hear that. So, yes, it's a big deal to me. And I take it very serious that that video exists and that young men see that happening. Yeah. And a lot of men only truly face accountability when there are financial consequences, like men in your position, rather.

So since there really weren't any major financial consequences for you, do you feel like you truly experienced the government? Yeah, I don't know if financial consequences are, uh, I mean, how does that affect me in any way, shape, or form financially? If, you know, how it affects me is that I... If you lose sponsorships, you know what I mean, your business thoughts. I don't care about that kind of shit. I don't care about that stuff.

That literally means nothing to me. Damn, you rich. It's not even that. I've been broke. I've had money. I've done it all. Life is, there's so much more to life than just that. Oh, you know, the money or the finance.

answers or the sponsors or this or that. The fact that, you know, I embarrassed my kids and that hangs on my name and on my head forever. It's just, you know, if you are a young, a young man, you don't ever want to do that to you. You don't, you just don't want to do that to yourself. And you get in these positions where I would tell you before that happened, I would have told you there's never. That would never happen to me. And there will never be a scenario that could ever play out where I would be a part of that.

It would just never happen. And it did. And, you know, you have to, I mean, if that's who you are, and that's what you do and that's what you've done, and that's normal to you, then you don't feel the way that I feel about it. I'm trying to explain this to you. and the best way possible.

So as a young man or an older man, if you start to feel yourself in a position where something like that starts to escalate, get the hell out of there. Literally run, run, get out of there and take yourself out of that situation immediately. I wanted to ask, you know, another thing that's been in the news

when it came to Dana White is how much you're in the casino and how much a gambling. People go into your gambling. Is that a problem for you gambling? Do you still go to the casino heavy? I do, I do. I do. Yeah, I love to gamble. I gamble multiple nights a week in Vegas.

And yeah, I love it. What's your game? It's Baccarat now. I was a blackjack guy for a long time. I don't sports bet. I hate sports betting. But Baccarat is my thing now. So Baccarat is a very Chinese.

game. So every night at Caesar's Palace at 7 o'clock, you go to the high limit room and all the Chinese come in and start playing. They played until 10 o'clock in the morning. So when I first started to learn, I always thought Baccarat was boring and stupid. I submerged myself

with the Chinese. They took me in and let me play with them and I learned more from the women actually because the women have more patience than the men do. And to watch them play was fascinating and now I'm a Bacai. Is it true that they said that you sometimes pay your friends to come gamble with you because you gamble all the time by yourself.

Is that true? No. My friends are with me 24-7. Yeah. So look, that's crazy because that's how I learned how to play Baku from a bunch of the Chinese women because the guys, they get upset and they move from table to table. Like you said, they're very patient. The women are more patient.

Like, that is my game right there. So you do. You play. I do. I play back around. I don't know, like, high limit. But, you know, I play. What's the most you ever won?

Well, you have to understand that I live in Vegas, so I play every night. You know, some people come in, like, where do you play? You play in, like, the Indian Reservations? Yeah, I'm from Baltimore, so I play, like, the horseshoe or, like, if I'm traveling anywhere. Like, I played Baccarac in Vegas as well. But I'm a traveling stand-up comedian, so I play wherever I go. Okay, so you know you'll have a board, right? and instead of just sitting there for, you know, eight hours, I'll come in and clip my, so my, this is my game.

Let me bet as much as I can possibly bet, right? And I'll clip you for two hands and I'll go home, right? I play 400,000 a hand. They just gave me a million. Hey, come on. They just gave me a million bucks. I thought the casino said you're in debt, you owe the money still. Is that true or no?

don't believe any of the shit that you hear. First of all, no casino ever came out and said that I'm in debt and I owe them money. Ever, ever, ever, ever. The Hollywood reported it like a deep dive. Yeah, that's some bullshit thing that came out. They do the same thing to Bruno, Bruno Mars, you know. It's that you owe $25 million.

Any shit. Huh? Is that you owe $25 million? $20 to $50. $50 million. But has a casino come out and said that you don't owe them that? It's Red Rock, right? Of course. Yeah, Red Rock.

those are my partners. Damn. Those are the guys they grew up with an only UFC with. And yeah, so anyway, the answer to your story is I'll come in and clip you for two hands

and then I leave him to home. Right? And that's anywhere from 800 to a million. And then I'll come back and play the same board and play the whole board out, you know, over a month. The most I've ever won,

Dana, is $13,000. Incredible. Whatever. That's incredible. Thank you. Playing Bach. Yeah, playing Bach rock. I bought 20, I came in with $2,500, got down, came up, you know, because I bet like

the side do the side bets too. I don't just do player or a banker. I do the side bets. Caught a dragon. You know what I mean? And I got out, but $13,000 is the most. You're talking about $800,000, millions and shit. I ain't there yet.

I ain't there yet. And I will say, to be fair, an anonymous source did tell casino.org that. Exactly. It's probably more. Exactly. Exactly. That's right, yeah. Yeah.

Real quick. An anonymous source. First of all, when I play, I play in private rooms at the Belagio, at Caesars, and at the Venetian. Those are the only three that will really take my action. And, you know, we play in private rooms. And same thing with Bruno Mars. Bruno.

Bruno just got out of that, though. He did. Well, he said that, yeah. He literally just got, that was true, if I'm not mistaken, right? He just got out of debt. I think last week he was performing. But he could have been joking. He said he just got out of that, though.

Oh, okay. He's singing the song and said he just got. He's totally joking. He's totally joking. I fucking see him all the time in Vegas. And so sometimes when I'm playing at Belagio, I'll be in the room here, and Bruno's in the room over here. And we're friends. Nobody goes in fucking his room while he's playing.

I don't go in his room when he's playing. You know what I mean? So any of that stuff. I don't think you helped the room was just now. Huh? Between you on the room. But, you are. of that stuff you hear coming out of Vegas is bullshit.

Just like Vegas is dying right now, and all the casinos are empty and ghost towns and all that bullshit. All bullshit. Which fighters excites you today? Tap five. Give me tap five. Topperera, who's fighting on the White House.

Ilya, who's fighting in the White House. And this weekend, Hamzaa Tcha Mayev and Strickland. That's why everybody's so fired up about this. Tons of bad blood between these guys. Sugar Sean O'Malley is a fun fighter to watch Yeah What's your favorite era of UFC

Is it the Connor era Like what era would you say? Yeah great great question It would have to be the Connor area Yeah I mean the Mayweather McGregor World Tour that we went on

Was So much fun And you know Both of those guys were hilarious And And every stop we did was different. It was the same guys, but everyone was different. And it was a really special time in my career. Yeah, it was awesome. Well, the fight goes down this weekend. Yeah, and I just want to say,

Dan, it was a great conversation. I do believe, though, that powerful men like yourself don't really see what's going on in this country, especially with your own fan base of USC. And I'm realizing there's a bubble that, like, you know, you all exist in, and I want you to come out of that bubble, sometimes and see the pain that your own people are going through. That's why when I look at all of the things that have happened, attack the tariff inflation and the snap benefits being cut and Affordable Care Act not being extended, the tax inequality that exists in this country.

You think about all the federal workers that, you know, got fired because of Doge. That's why Trump got booed in Miami when y'all walked out. He didn't get booed in Miami. Yes, he did get booed in Miami. He did not get booed in Miami. He did not get booed in Miami. He did not get booed in Miami. He did not happen on your other side.

So what was that? Was that AI too? What happened? He did not get booed in Miami. Yeah, yeah, the place erupted in Miami. No, what was the fight were? I saw a video of him getting booed. Maybe it was a, I don't know.

Yeah, he definitely didn't get booed. Next time you all got it and you all got on your right side. If you hear any booze, just know the reason he's getting booed is because of what's happening in this country. And you're his friend. So I just want you to be aware of that so you could maybe tell him like, hey, man, maybe you need to listen to your constituents. If I had the, you know, my fan base. I'm pretty dialed in with my fan base. When you say that I live in my bubble, I live in my UFC bubble,

but nobody, no fans, and people that I interact with all the time has ever come up to me and said, I'm hurting, man. You know, the president isn't doing this or isn't doing that. It's never happened to me. I think that's going to change. It's never happened. Remember we had this conversation. Absolutely.

I would. And I'll tell you this. If it does happen, I'll get with Linnae. We'll reach out and I'll tell you this is what happened. Absolutely. You know, lastly before we got up, you guys signed Edgar Belonga now, Zsafeboxing, right? Zuffa boxing.

Yeah. Explain to people what Zuffa boxing is and why are you jumping to the boxing. Yeah, so, you know, I've been talking about boxing for a long time. It's where I came from. I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for boxing. And timing is everything in life, and it all sort of came together last year, and I decided to pull the trigger. We got involved, and basically, like we were saying earlier,

my job is to put on the fights that people want to see. And I feel like boxing hasn't had middle class in a very long time. You know, you hear about the handful of guys that make all the money, and then there's tons of guys that starve. So what I want to do is try to build it again from the ground up, create new up-and-coming young stars, give everybody the opportunity to fight. But the best fight the best. The one thing that's happened in boxing has become everybody's undefeated

because nobody fights anybody until they, they, you know, get to a world title. We're going to, you know, we're putting on Boe-Chuk versus Mosley Jr. Fight this Sunday on Paramount Plus. That's dope. You know who I don't have a middle class? America.

You know, you're going to tell me. You're afraid, okay? So you need to start having some conversations with your friend. One day you don't need to do. You have made that very clear to know, my goodness. All right. Well, thank you for joining us this weekend.

You can check out the fight in Newark this weekend. There's a fight in Vegas this weekend. Appreciate you for joining. Thanks for having me. Congrats on all your success, guys. You're going to come back? I would love to come back. Okay.

If you'll have me, I'll come back. Okay. It's Day in the White. It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning. Hold on. Every day I wake up. Wake your ass up.

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