Q&A with UFC president Dana White
Irrepressible UFC president Dana White paid a visit to Yahoo! Sports recently and sat down for a talk on a…
Irrepressible UFC president Dana White paid a visit to Yahoo! Sports recently and sat down for a talk on a wide range of subjects, from his opinion on Kimbo Slice to whether he wants his children to become fighters to which WEC fight he most wants to see. Here’s a transcript of the conversation:
Dave Doyle: We heard your video blog was coming back.
Dana White: I’m the Brett Favre of video blogging. I don’t know who’s retired and come back more times, me or him.
I live a pretty crazy lifestyle. You tuned into my video blogs and there’s jets and there’s cars and I’m making big-money bets with guys and [expletive] around with my friends and having fun.
Everyone loved the video blogs, but some people started writing letters like, I’m about to lose my home. I got letters like Me and my daughters are going out on the street, and you’re betting more money on who can last on a treadmill for five minutes than I’ll make in two months. It’s kind of like, Whoa, like a slap to me and slaps me back to reality, that people are hurting out there. It really messed me up for awhile. Three years ago, my video blogs would have been fun because everyone was making money and everything was great, the unemployment rate was down.
DD: So why did you bring it back?
DW: Everyone has been messaging me, everyone wants me to bring the video blogs back, from fans to [UFC co-owner] Lorenzo [Fertitta], these things pull a quarter-million hits just on YouTube. My video blog rates higher than most television shows do.
I’m just going to be more conscious of what goes up there. I’m not trying to run around and flaunt my life, Oh, look at this and look at that, I just want it to be fun.
The reality is, behind the scenes (footage) isn’t all that exciting. I’m not going around 24 hours a day shooting craps on the corner with guys. I’m sitting in my car going to the next [expletive] interview. How much of that can you watch?
There were times when you’d look on my blogs and there would be comments, Hey douchebag, put the fighters on here instead of you. At the end of the day, I’m a fight promoter. My job is to go out, make it interesting and entertaining for the people, do anything I can to promote the fight. People got into the blog and there was this awareness that I was going out and doing all the stuff for the fight on Saturday. But for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, it’s not like all [expletive] excitement and I’m doing [expletive] that you want to watch on YouTube.
DD: You talked a lot of trash about Kimbo Slice. How has your perception of him changed?
DW: Here’s the thing: Everything that I said about Kimbo Slice back then was absolutely true. I don’t take one word of that back. The difference is, I said, The only way he ever gets into the UFC is if he goes through ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ I respect the fact that he stepped up and did it, because there’s a lot of freak-show stuff out there that he could have done for better money. And it shows me that he really wants to give it a shot.
Kimbo Slice the man, you watch the YouTube videos of this guy in backyards, and they start fighting and you think this guy’s a thug. You think he’s a bad guy, you have this perception of him and then you meet him, it isn’t true. It’s the exact opposite. He’s a really good guy. In the negotiations for The Ultimate Fighter, not once ever did he say, Man, you talked some [expletive] about me. He was all business.
DD: Do you ever take a day off, just shut off the phone?
DW: Never. The phone’s never shut off. There’s never a day you don’t work. Just doesn’t happen. Every day, when I get out of bed in the morning and my big toe hits the floor. There’s one thing that’s guaranteed: bad [expletive] is going to happen. It doesn’t matter if it’s Saturday, Sunday, Christmas, Chanukah or [expletive] Easter, bad [expletive] could happen, man. That’s the one guarantee I have in my life.
DD: Do your kids understand that what dad does for a living is different from most fathers?
DW: Our boys are 7 and 8. When we go to the mall, the kids are always like, Dad, people always want to take pictures of you. They love the UFC. They get it. My family is really cool with dealing with it. My wife, we’ll be sitting there at a movie or whatever, you’re trying to do normal [expletive], you’re always interrupted, whether it’s people coming up to you or a phone call you gotta take.
DD: Are the kids training in martial arts yet?
DW: My kids have been training since they were 3. They started with boxing because that’s the easiest thing to grasp. They’re in Muay Thai now. I won’t put them into jiu-jitsu until they’re 12 years old. I’m already the John McCarthy of my house. There’s already fighting going on there. I don’t need them putting submissions on each other at age 8.