Transcript of Dana White September 2009 interview with Sherdog
Published by Zach Arnold on September 30th, 2009 in Current Events

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ESPN placed a 5 1/2 minute clip on their Youtube channel on Wednesday of a recent interview Greg Savage of Sherdog.com did with UFC President Dana White. Here are quotes from that interview:

On the create vision driving UFC: “The great thing is is that I believe that we have the right road map and you know I think we have the right vision on where we want to take this thing and since day one we’ve never veered off, as bad as it got there’s crazy shit we could have done and we never did it, we stayed true to the sport, knew what we wanted to do, and we were really going to make it the right way or not at all.”

On getting into PR wars: “There’s times when we, you know, I get into verbal beefs with guys whether it’s Floyd Mayweather or (Bob) Arum or whoever it may be, you know, we go back and forth and take digs at each other but yeah I mean I think part of the reason that we done what we’ve done and everything’s happened the way it is is that I do believe in this shit. I believe in Mixed Martial Arts, I believe in the UFC, I believe in all the athletes and yeah, that’s why, you know, I say what I say. I call it like I see it. If I fucking think Anderson (Silva) didn’t fight up to his potential, I’ll say it. You know, um, I just, I don’t believe in bullshit.”

What made the UFC explode in popularity? “The Ultimate Fighter saved the sport and it’s not even like, seriously, it’s not even really The Ultimate Fighter, I say this all the time, it was Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar. We didn’t have a deal going into that fight. And then Diego (Sanchez) goes in and blows right through Kenny (Florian) in two seconds and then Forrest and Stephan come out and put on that performance that they put on, it was literally that fight, I don’t even know if I’d say The Ultimate Fighter as much as I’d say that fight saved everything.”

On talent relations and fighter salaries: “Everybody wants more money, it’s human nature, and we can handle all that stuff behind closed doors. It doesn’t need to be dragged out into the public because I truly believe, I used to say this five fucking years ago, now today in the economic situation we’re in where people are losing their homes, their cars, and this and that and you’re going to hear some fucking athlete crying about, “I only made 5 millon bucks last year and I only made this and that,” not good. You know what I mean? Part of the reason I stopped doing my video blogs, too. And the reality is these guys get paid a lot of money. These fighters make a lot of money and some of these guys make more money than guys do in other sports and one of the reasons I’ve tried to keep it private, too, is because I had a lot of competition coming at me, trying to figure out this model and how I do it and how I make it work and even at times Lorenzo (Fertitta) said, “Dude, let’s make this public, let’s stop doing this,” and hmm, nope, keep it quiet, it’s nobody’s fucking business what these guys are making.”

On having to scramble to book main events for so many fight cards: “It’s a business, it’s just a business. You’re going to have the one thing that we’re lucky is that as many shows as we do that we have so many people that can headline fights. And, no, it’s just, it’s part of running a business.”

“Absolutely, you know how many fucking fights that we put on a year? But that’s the business, it’s been like that since day one, it was like that when I was putting on five fights a year, you know? It’s always going to be a problem, You’re going to have guys that are injured, you know, it’s always an issue.”

On being a manager versus being a promoter: “Well, I don’t know if when I was a manager I was confrontational, I’m way more confrontational now than I was then, I think that you know back then I was just I was trying to get what I thought my guys deserved.”

On when White would ever consider leaving the MMA business: “People say that to me all the time, you know, there’s no way you could fucking leave this, there’s no way you can do it. Trust me, whatever I set my mind to do, I can do and when the day comes when I know that I’m done doing this, I’ll walk away. You know, I see people say, people think I’m a fucking egomaniac and you know I want to be in the front of this and I want to do this and that, the reality is that it’s my job. I’m a fucking fight promoter. What am I supposed to do, hide? Hide in a fucking office somewhere and not talk to anybody ever? No, I’m the one constant guy that’s always out there telling you what’s next and what’s happening and I’m the President of the company that’s telling you what’s going to happen next with this business. But when the day, when I feel like I’ve done everything that I set out to do, I will walk away happily, believe me.”

On the size of UFC as a company in comparison to other promoters and their operations: “It’s grown, you know, it’s gotten so much bigger and it’s so much more than what it was. You know, we’re more than just a fight company, we’re not like you know, most of these boxing promoters, when you think of a traditional boxing promoter, they’re a fucking secretary and a FAX machine, you know? This thing is, we’re more like a media company, you know, we own tons of content, we have the biggest fight library in the world, we’re the biggest fight promoters in the history of the fucking fight game, and you know this thing, we have huge global plans for this thing and yeah, it’s a different role than it was back in 2003.”

What motivates Dana White to continue doing what he does: “The reality is that I fucking love it, I get up every day and go at it like it’s you know there’s nothing else in the world, I love this sport, I love the UFC, and most of the guys in it.”