YouSaid · the spoken record

Dana White

lines on the record
140
first
2024-03-25
most recent
2024-03-25
sittings or episodes
1
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podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

  1. “He had at his venue two times back to back, showed up for the first fight of the night and stayed till the last fight of the night. Then after that, any good thing that would ever happen to me in my career, Trump would reach out, whether it was we were on the front page of the New York Times at one time, and he said, congratulations, Dana. I always knew you guys were going to do it. Little things like that, but that are big things and mean a lot, especially coming from a guy like him.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  2. “So I first discovered that Trump was a big fight fan. Obviously you saw him a part of all the big, you're talking about how big boxing fans we were. He was a part of all the big fights back then. But when we first bought the UFC, Thing was so bad. Venues didn't even want us. We ended up doing our first event in Atlantic City at the Trump Taj Mahal. Now think about this at that time. Trump ran here, UFC brand. I mean, I can't go low enough.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  3. “Putin was on FaceTime before he even made it to the locker room. Trump, sitting president, ex-president, watching all the fights, calling once to talk about the fights. Valentina Shevchenko, every time she goes home, she meets with the president of the country. The list goes on and on and on. The most powerful Elon Musk Zuckerberg. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. The most powerful people in the world are all obsessed with fighting.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  4. “And the kids are training. Yeah. Her father's the biggest fucking fight fan on the planet calls me all the time to talk about the fights and Don Jr. said that I'm like the only guy on earth that he bros out with. Like, you know, It's funny when you talk about how powerful fighting is, right? This last Miami event, the president of Ecuador and the president of Spain. Both posted about the fights. Beat Connor.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  5. “Through When you have a perfect record in the UFC Holy shit. Right That's what you would when you can have a perfect record in the UFC. You are absolutely one of the most special athletes on planet Earth.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  6. “Have to have them both. Listen, I could line up a bunch of no-name bums that John Jones could run through. That's what they do in all the other organizations. We would have nothing to fucking talk about right now.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  7. “Or they beat John. It's all about giving these other guys the opportunity. St. Denis, right? Poirier gave him the opportunity to come in and beat him. That's how this all works.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  8. “Yeah, listen, the thing that you can't do is avoid matchups. What I mean? This is what we're talking about when you talk about being a legend. Connor McGregor needed Habib. Habib needed Connor McGregor. You can hate each other as much as you want, but you have to fight these other legendary, bad motherfuckers to yourself become a legend. I mean, it's like John Jones needed Cyril Gunn, right? And Cyril Gunn needed John Jones because if Cyril could have beat John, the first guy, if anybody can ever figure it out and beat John Jones, it's a big deal. And it's almost like your obligation as a fighter, right? And when you think about John Jones became who he is today, and the reason I'm sitting here telling you how great he is, because all these other guys gave him the opportunity. Beat”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  9. “But it comes with success. When you're successful, there's always people out there that are going to talk shit. You always have a bunch of no-nothing, do-nothing fucking losers that love to talk shit.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  10. “He literally set Europe, Australia, Canada, and many other parts of the world on fire, man. He was our first legit megastar”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  11. “So, you know, Connor has been incredibly successful. He's made a lot of money and, you know, he's had his ups and downs outside and inside the octagon. But as for a guy who was, you know, on the dole and was a plumber, he's actually a really smart businessman. He's been one of the best partners that I've ever had in the history of the sport.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  12. “I'll do it. Literally, there's actually a scene because we were filming something. I don't know if it was embedded or what we were filming at the time. Me and Lorenzo walk into his house that he rented here in Vegas. And I'm pretty sure it was when Aldo fell out. And we're telling him this, that, and we're looking at some options. He says, I'm going to the gym. When I'm done working out, let me know. He just woke up out of bed. He's in his fucking underwear, and he gets hit with this. And he's like, all right, I'm going to the gym. Let me know when I get out who I'm fighting. Doesn't care, doesn't want to know, doesn't want any more money, nothing. Fucking shows up and he delivers.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  13. “If Connor McGregor showed up to shit on time, and sometimes he does, sometimes he does, he'd be, he'd be, he's been a great partner. If you look at what a huge superstar he became, the fights that he was involved in, let me tell you what Connor McGregor never did. We never walked in a room and said, Connor, this guy just fell out. We want you to fight this guy. And he was like, no way, I'm not taking this fucking risk. I'm at this point in my career where my money, my this, my that he was like, let's do it. You know, you'd always say, let's do it. The other thing that Connor McGregor never did, no matter how big he was or whatever it was, and we were heading into a fight. Oh, Connor, this guy just fell out. Aldo fell out. We were looking for another. Yeah, I'll do it, but I'm going to need another fucking 200,000. I'm going to need another million dollars. Connor McGregor never did that kind. Chicken shit, you know, bullshit kind of stuff. He never did any of that. Connor was solid again.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  14. “If you fucking said put a gun to my head, right? And said, don't lie, motherfucker. Tell me all the bad things about Conor McGregor. I'd say the guy doesn't show up on time. That's it.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  15. “There's literally no ugly. Connor McGregor has been an incredible partner to work with. Everybody thinks that Connor, if Connor showed up to things on time, there wouldn't be one fucking bad thing I could say about Connor. You know what I mean?”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  16. “Think that Habib had the potential to be in the running for that. He just didn't stick around a lot. First of all, he had injuries that, you know, he should have been where he got a lot sooner had he not had the injuries that he had and the setbacks in his career. But there's no doubt Habib is one of the all-time greats.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  17. “That's the thing, too. And I believe that DC doesn't get the credit he deserves because of the John Jones thing. When you look at DC and what he's accomplished, right? And John Jones beat him twice. It's undeniable. You can hate all you want. John Jones is the greatest of all time.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  18. “I don't disagree, but when you've never lost, right? It's this. You've never lost. We've never found somebody. And the other thing is that you have to put a factor in too. Longevity. How long he's, because sometimes with a lot of these guys, the sport passes them by. You get younger guys that are faster, this, that, and the sport evolves. Nobody's been able to beat John Jones. Oh, and the other thing that you measure is, you know, when you said dominance, it's true. If you're this guy that has unbelievable power and you're just going in and you're just fucking knocking everybody out and nobody's ever pulled you into the deep water before. That was when my opinion of John Jones started to change. Gustafen took him into the deep water. Gustafson hit him with some shit he'd never been hit with. Gustafsson tested him and put John Jones in a place where I bet if you sat down and interviewed John Jones.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  19. “He's never been beat. He destroyed everybody at light heavyweight, which at the time was the toughest weight class in the company, in the sport. And then I moved up to heavyweight won easily at heavyweight. You look at a guy And you look at what he was doing outside the octagon at the same time, which shouldn't be part of it, shouldn't be part of the equation. But when you do, wow. There's no debate. Nobody can debate who's the greatest of all time. It's absolutely positively John Jones. He's never lost. He's never been beaten in the octagon ever.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  20. “It. That's exactly right. So when we are aligned, like when you get to the UFC, I mean, you just saw it with MVP. You're going to see it with Kayla Harrison and so many others that have come from other organizations and they get here. They notice immediately the difference between fighting here and fighting wherever they were before. It's not even comparable to the impact it has on you when you leave whatever organization you're with and you come to the UFC. And I think that it gives them a sense of Holy shit, I can really, I mean, MVP when he came, I mean, there were probably more people at the press conference than any fight he'd ever fought in in Bellator, you know what I mean? And you feel that energy and you feel the difference of the impact of being here. And I think it takes a lot of these guys to another level.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  21. “We go into Monday. It's Fight Week. We got a whole list of things that we do fight week, right? And then you get right down to the press conference on Thursday, the weigh-ins on Friday, and then the fights on Saturday. Now, my people fly back home. They go to bed on Sunday night, and it's Groundhog Day. We wake up again on Monday, and it starts all over again. Every weekend, every Saturday for a year. So there's lots of stories that need to be told. There's lots of, when you think about what I compete with, whatever takes your attention on a Saturday night is my competitor.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  22. “Yeah, I mean, at the time, I was incredibly criticized for putting together the spot. That had the scene with the bus in it. You know, yeah, the fucking media is, but they were saying that I was pandering to the violence that happened and trying to, I'm telling you a story. Telling you a story. How we got here and how big this fight is. How bad the blood is between these guys. And I mean, I think that's what we do. The best job at is telling the fucking stories of why I.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  23. “Conor McGregor with a bunch of people in the beginning. People said he couldn't wrestle. People said he wouldn't be able to defend a takedown. Blah, blah, blah. Nate Diaz against Connor McGregor. You know what I mean?”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  24. “And here comes Strickland. And we could go on for days with this, you know what I mean? That is what creates legendary moments, legendary fights, and it's what builds stars and legends.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  25. “Especially when you're a big name and a name that people recognize and a name that people know. And, you know, and they're like, oh man, I remember Israel out of Sanya and Sean Strickland. Hundred out of 100 people knew for a fact that Israel is going to win that fight.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  26. “That helps build the entire thing that Poiria and then Poirier goes out and does what he did that night. That's what makes fucking legends.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  27. “That you think the powers that be here are against you. And you try to. Steer yourself away from certain fights. And that's one of the big things that happens in these other organizations. And these other organizations. The inmates run the asylum. Right, so if they don't want to fight bad enough, these other companies don't push and they don't do this and they don't, we put on the best possible matchups that we can make. In this business, you might be an older fighter, but if you're still ranked in the top ten? There's young guys coming for you, killers. Young killers are coming out and they want your position, right? So you being the veteran that you are have to prepare yourself to go in and, you know, everybody was saying when we made that fight with Saint Denis that Poirier was in big trouble. That's awesome.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  28. “So behind the scenes, the Fighters are a very paranoid bunch of people. They're very paranoid. And there's been this theme with fighters where they're trying to get me beat, right? We don't determine who wins and loses. If we did, we'd be the WWE, okay? You do. I'm the bells and whistles guy. I make sure that as many people that we can possibly let know that you're fighting on Saturday know that you're fighting on Saturday, who you are, who you're going against, and why people should give a shit. That's what I do, right? Then the night you show up I put on the best live event that I possibly can, and I put on the best television show that I possibly can. Once that door shuts, It's all up to you. You determine whether you lose or not. And if you get into a position where you become so paranoid”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  29. “That people all over the world participate in now. Literally, there isn't a place on earth that we can't get a fighter from now.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  30. “What's incredible when you think of the story of the UFC? At the time, the casino business was cranking, right? And station casinos was killing it. And stations, their money from stations is what was funding the UFC. The UFC was killing it in 0809. And, you know, the casino businesses were hurting. So timing on everything, the way that it all worked out, couldn't have worked out better for them. And obviously for all of us. You think about the UFC and how big it is and how far it reaches and how many people it touches, the Fertida's brothers made a two million dollar investment. Then put in like another 44 million. Look at how many lives that investment has changed over the last 25 years. Fascinating”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  31. “I love them. Lorenzo and I work really well together because we have two different personalities, right? I'm the guy that always, I'm going here. Lorenzo was always here, right? You could walk in a room and say, Lorenzo, you just lost $10 million. Lorenzo, he just won $10 million. Burr, it never changes. And I'm a guy that goes like this, right? So we almost balance each other out. There's a lot of things that he's really fucking good at, and there's a lot of things that I'm really fucking good at. And they're both on the opposite sides of the spectrum.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  32. “Anybody who is with me? Has been with me? No. When you're with me, you're with me. It's a two way street. It's not a... It's not a one way street. I'm not one of these guys that is going to roll over and. It's like going through COVID. I wasn't laying any of these people. Some of these people have been with me for 20 years. We're going to lay them off? This motherfucker will burn. B I would do that to my It's just never none of that type of stuff. Is ever going to happen while I'm here Can't say what's going to happen when I leave, but when I'm here. People who are with me and have been with me, they know exactly what's up. And Joe knows what's up. And again, it's a two-way street. Joe Rogan has been very loyal to me, and I am very loyal to Joe Rogan.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  33. “Joe Rogan is one of those guys. I saw that early on when. Why would you go after the fear factor guy? To be such a key component to not only the company, but to the sport. I saw it in the fucking interview on Ivory Keenan Wayans.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  34. “Getting people excited. Two guys that are really into it and passionate about it and love it and can. And it's one of the things about Rogan, too. When early on, nobody understood the ground game. Joe Rogan would walk you through what was happening literally before it would happen. He would tell you the setup, what was going to come next, and everything. Just absolutely articulate it perfectly, brilliantly, and people at home started to understand. And the impact that Joe Rogan has had and continues to have on this sport is immeasurable. He's the biggest podcaster in the world. And he is on the UFC pay-per-views 14 times a year and he's always talking about the sport. It's immeasurable what this guy has done for this company and the sport.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  35. “So I had to buy my way onto radio. So we do these radio tours, right? And they would drop us in, you'd have to get up at 3.30 in the morning in Vegas on the West Coast. And they'd, because they're at 6.30 in the morning in New York and Boston and Florida and all these other places. So they drop you into these markets to do radio. Right. And the fighters were horrible at it. Fighters getting up at 3 30 in the morning, especially leading up to a fight. Never good They sound like they're tired. They act like they're tired, and they definitely act like they don't want to be on there. And it's bad radio. What you can have is bad radio. So the only two people that could pull off these radio tours were me and Joe Rogan. So me and Joe Rogan would alternate doing these radio tours all over the country.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  36. “He was talking about People think that these guys in the martial arts movies are tough and he was talking about what UFC fighters would do to these. These martial arts guys, if they ever got their hands on them, and I was like, this is exactly what I need. A guy who isn't afraid to speak his mind and knows the sport inside and out, but more importantly is super passionate about it and loves it. So when you see Joe Rogan on camera, and I was talking about the paid talking heads that they had in HBO boxing that were terrible. Joe Rogan does not come off as a paid talking head. He comes off as a guy who loves this. And so early on, no media would cover us.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  37. “and he had Joe Rogan, the guy from Fear Factor, on the show. And he was promoting Fear Factor, but all he would talk about was UFC.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  38. “So, and then obviously when we turn things around, we made it up to Joe. But Joe is one of the things that I loved early on about, so I'll tell you the story. So we buy the UFC. They're based in New York. We're moving the corporate offices to Vegas. So I have to fly out to New York, go into the offices, and start going through everything and figuring out what needs to come back to Vegas and what we can just throw away. So they literally had a VHS machine and a TV and there were a million tapes in this place, man. So I didn't know what tapes were. These definitely have to keep or these we don't need. So I had to sit there and go through every single tape. And I popped in a tape and there was an interview on the ivory Keenan Wayan show. The oldest Wayans brother, and he had a talk show at the time.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  39. “A fact. He doesn't care about money. And he did the first 13 shows for free for us. You know what I mean? That was at a time when we were hurting, and he's like, wait a minute, you want me to do the commentary? You're saying that I get to sit in the best seat in the house and watch these fights for free.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  40. “But yeah, there's, I mean, there's challenges. There's a laundry list of challenges for this thing. And not to mention the fact that it's on Mexican Independence Day. And we're going to weave in the whole history of combat in Mexico.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  41. “Yeah, so there's a lot. So you have the octagon, right? And then behind it is the world's biggest screen. Ever, right? So what is the theme? How do you program it? First of all, it's super expensive to shoot and, you know, the format for the sphere angles. We were talking about today. I just had a big meeting today about the sphere this afternoon and making sure that All my departments, all the details that I want All start to come together here in the next two weeks. I want the creative, the commercial. I have some goals. I will tell people as we get closer what I'm looking to achieve with this other than putting on one of the greatest, most unique sporting events of all time and probably the greatest combat sporting event of all time.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  42. “I was doing this when I was broke. And I'm doing this now and I'm not broke. I'm doing this because I love it. Feel like there's so much more to do, and this is truly my passion in life. It's like the sphere. We're doing the sphere. Why? Why would I do this fear? It's going to cost me a bunch of money. It's really challenging. Most people think it can't be pulled off. And you're looking at weird angles, different things going on inside other than the fight and all this other stuff, but yeah, I'm doing it because it's awesome and it's challenging and it's hard. And I think that if Anybody can do it right, it's us, so why not take that challenge?”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  43. “In the early days, when you start your business, you have these people who, when I hear them say, you know what? I want to work for myself. I want to create my own schedule and I want to do all that. If that's your thought process going into it, you're never going to be successful. You have to pay attention to every single detail of the business early on. You're involved in everything. There's no days off. There's no birthdays. There's no fucking Christmas. There's none of that shit. I literally moved the birth of my second son for a chocolate L fight. We had a chocolate L fight coming up and I, and they're like, yeah, your son's going to be born on this date. And I'm like, yeah, that's not going to work. We're going to have to take them earlier.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  44. “100% you literally go through Line by line every fucking number in the company and where did the money go and how can we save costs? How can we do this better? How can we, you know, they are brutal and they're multiple times a week.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  45. “You know, we're losing millions of dollars a year. And I'm in these budget meetings. So I get to pick and choose what I do these days. Back in the early days, you don't get to pick and choose. You have to be involved in everything.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  46. “The secret to success, I would say, first of all, is passion and consistency. You have to love what you do. You have to get up every day. And I get here every day at 9.30 in the morning. When we sold in twenty sixteen, a lot of people in the company made a lot of money and they all took off and they retired. Other than the Fertitas, I made the most money. I'm still here. I get here at 9.30 every morning. Last night I left here at 8 30. And I don't know how late I'm going to be here tonight I love what I do. We get up every day and grind. I work just as hard now as I did back then. The difference between back then and now is I don't have to do a bunch of the shit that I don't really like to do, like budget meetings. I don't like budget meetings. I sat through enough fucking budget meetings horrible Budget meetings. Horrible.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  47. “Well, you have to have the vision. Without the vision, there's nothing. So that's sort of what I do. I am the vision part of this thing. We're going to open a PI in Mexico. We're going to do this. We're going to do that, you know, and then you build the team to come in and help execute.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  48. “So we had to dive in and we had to learn it. We had to figure it out. And we knew what we wanted. We knew what we liked. We knew what we were looking for. It's just about building a good team. And I think that's one of the things if you want to. Talk about what I've accomplished in the last 25 years of my life. I've been really good at building teams.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  49. “Getting it in the early days, there was two employees, me and another girl that worked for me, for my company before I started doing this. And then we slowly started to bring people on and you start to build a team. Then before you know it, we had 10 people. There'd be eight to ten people at our Christmas party, you know. But a lot of it is you learn as you go. You know what me and the Fertitas knew about production when we bought this UFC? We had like, I want to say we had two or three weeks to pull off an event. This is what we knew about production.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source

  50. “I literally went, got up from my fucking seat, went back there, kicked the fucking door of the truck open, and I said, you motherfuckers, you ever do that again and I'll fire every fucking one of you. Let's just put it this way. I ended up firing every one of them anyway and going with a whole new crew. But these were the type of things that early on, you know, there's so much stuff. I mean, I could sit here for fucking three days and walk you through all the stuff that used to go on back in those days. But it was the wow, wow, west, man.”

    2024-03-25 · Lex Fridman Podcast · #421 – Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source