Dana White ESPN 1100 radio interview – I can’t control Brock Lesnar
Published by Zach Arnold on July 18th, 2009 in Current Events

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Steve Cofield, who writes MMA articles at Yahoo Sports, posted an audio interview he and Smokin’ Dave Cokin of ESPN 1100 radio in Las Vegas did earlier in the week with UFC President Dana White. Earlier this week, we transcribed comments from various ESPN personalities about UFC 100 and posted them on MMA Memories. During his interview with Cofield, the UFC President alluded to the coverage ESPN gave to UFC 100 and also addressed the realities of what it is like handling Brock Lesnar.

TRANSCRIPT

Steve Cofield: “I thought it was the greatest night I’ve ever seen in the Octagon. Aside from the Bud Light/Coors Light thing, the Brock Lesnar deal I wrote a story yesterday on Yahoo and I said, “I hope you only ripped him for the Bud Light/Coors Light comment because I thought everything else he did, maybe the middle fingers a little over the line, but I thought everything else Brock Lesnar did in the cage was great.”

Dana White: “Yeah, listen, I don’t tell people how to talk or what to say but you know two things, two things that I don’t like: you know, obviously, going after the sponsor was out of left field and the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard. I don’t know what that was all about. The second thing is you know going up and getting in Frank Mir’s face after you already you know decimated the guy, it’s just you know it’s not what we’re about. You know, I don’t ever tell anybody how to act or how to be but you know that’s out of line.”

Steve Cofield: “On the Mir thing, I kind of chalked it up to Frank talked a lot of trash.”

Dana White: “He did!”

Steve Cofield: “Brock is a lunatic. I mean, Dana, your personality after competing and being all revved up, couldn’t you see yourself going off and talking a little trash?”

Dana: “100%, I don’t disagree with you at all. I Absolutely agree with you. And yeah, yes, I do.”

Steve Cofield: “All right, so you go into the locker room and you talked about it a little bit, we heard a little more about it, that you went in there and you go into the bathroom with the guy and you’re just laying into him. What’s it like because your the boss, you’ve got an aggressive personality but you’re also screaming at a guy who is 6’4″ and 285 pounds.”

Dana: “Right.”

Steve Cofield: “What is that like?”

Dana: “I hear you know. I don’t know. You know it’s just the way that it is, I’ve been doing this for 10 years and you know when you deal with the baddest guys in the world, you know, listen, they do things that are wrong sometimes and he wasn’t the only guy that night. I mean, listen it was supposed to be the greatest night ever for us, a big milestone for the company and everything else and it’s like there was a full moon inside the Mandalay Bay that night, it was just… I tell you what it wasn’t fun for me and it wasn’t a fun weekend for me at all. Last week kicked my ass.”

Steve Cofield: “Then there’s no fear when you go up to a guy as big as Lesnar that he might just punch you right in the face as you’re screaming at him?”

Dana: “No.”

Steve Cofield: “No.”

Dana: “No.”

Steve Cofield: “Because you commanded the respect. You don’t think that there positives that came out of it? You were all over ESPN yesterday, it may not be for the right reasons but I mean you got more mainstream media attention I think as much for the fights as for Lesnar’s stuff.”

Dana: “Yesterday I’m watching Pardon the Interruption and they’re going back and forth with this awesome argument yesterday that I have all the time with people about you know the possibilities for the UFC and how big this thing can get and these guys were dead on, saying everything that I always say and completely agreeing with me and it was a little surreal.”

Steve Cofield: “So it was a great weekend in the end?”

Dana: “It was, it was, but you know you’ve been to a million events you know you know I have these nights that go off without a hitch and everything’s perfect and everything is smooth sailing and it was far from smooth sailing for me on this weekend.”

Smokin’ Dave Cokin: “I understand that the publicity and the fact that everybody’s buzzing about what took place after the fight with Lesnar is pretty big I mean that’s good that you’re getting attention but they weren’t talking about the fight as much as they were talking about the aftermath. I don’t know, I don’t know if that’s good or not.”

Dana White: “What they were doing on ESPN is they were every time they talked about Brock Lesnar, they were breaking down the stats on how many UFC wins he’s had, who he beat since he’s been here and his collegiate record in wrestling. It really did play up the sports side of it.”

Smokin’ Dave Cokin’: “Good.”

Dana White: “But, you know what, I’ll give you another example: Opie and Anthony, I was on Opie and Anthony you know a couple of nights ago and those guys were like, you know what man this guy’s your Mike Tyson, this guy is the guy people are going to tune in and go, “Oh my God, what’s this guy going to do next?” you know.”

Steve Cofield: “Dana, if those guys are watching, I mean and I listen to that and in the past Opie and Anthony’s a satellite show, it’s a really good show, probably the best FM show in the country. Those guys in the past the host knew nothing about the UFC. Norton and the guy Patrice there and the guy Bob Kelly, they love it, but now I mean you can see those are the casual you know 30-to-45-year old guys now they’re on board and I think a lot of those because of Lesnar and some of the garbage after.”

Dana White: “Yeah. Sure. Listen, it is what it is, I don’t tell anybody how to act but you know some of the stuff that Lesnar did after the fight you know deserved a visit to the locker room you know.”

Steve Cofield: “Are you going to get on him? So that means he’s never going to flip out, maybe give the finger to the crowd, I mean do you take that act…”

Dana White: “I don’t care about that. Listen, if you don’t want any of the fans to like you, I could care less you know what I mean. But listen, you want to be a bad guy, be a bad guy, I don’t care, don’t be the type of bad guy that’s you know doing what you did to Bud Light out of the blue for no reason.”

Steve Cofield: “Of course, what did Bud Light say to you? Like did someone call you right away?”

Dana White: “They were like, “What the hell?” You want to hear the crazier part of this whole thing? His people have never even talked to or approached Bud Light, ever, that’s the crazier part. Saying that Bud Light has disrespected him in some way and he went nuts and flipped out, he just …”

Steve Cofield: “What was the first thought that went through your head when he did that?”

Dana White: “I uh, my brain was spinning, I honestly couldn’t believe I was standing there and that was happening, it took me a minute, it literally took me a minute.”

Steve Cofield: “And then I could see your face on the video blog where you put the belt around his waist and you point to him but like I could just see the wheels turning like, “I’m going to kill this guy.” ”

Dana White: *laughs* *sigh* “You know what the crazy part is? The crazier part is when I’m you know I just flew up there a couple of weeks ago and sat down with him and hung out, we went to dinner, you know, he’s such a good guy, he’s a good guy you know he’s a good guy but I’ll give you this you know even the week of the event I have a hard time dealing with him, he gets miserable man, he’s a grouchy guy who can snap at any time and that’s for real. That is true.”