Dana White on McGregor’s Future, Defeating $40-Million Debt, & How he BEATS the Casino

Watch: youtube.com/watch?v=9AT9Q7SWm1k

💸 From $40M in debt to a $13B empire! 💥 #UFC

A few years in, I got the phone call one day, and he's like, "I don't know if we can keep doing this, man. You're upside down $40 million." But a month and a half later, we owned the UFC for $2 million. And now, it's worth what, 12, 13 billion? Speaking of mental warfare and marketing strategies, Ali and Connor are both on the same level when it comes to mental warfare. And about Jake Paul, did I help set that up? God, no.

Regarding the Whitey Bulger situation, one of his guys said that I owed him money. No, I didn’t owe money, I didn’t even know him. So I literally hung up the phone, picked it back up, and called Delta to get a one-way ticket to Vegas, and that was a wrap. When you look at how everything played out in my life, including the purchase of the UFC, had that not happened, I wouldn’t have been in Vegas at the time that all this was going on.

I had this blanket policy—I didn’t go to anybody’s wedding. But I went to this one wedding, and who do I run into? The Fertita brothers. He came and trained with me on Monday, and we’ve been together ever since. In the early days in Vegas, there was a gym called United Champions. It was me, this guy named Nick One Kick who was a Muay Thai trainer, and Roger Mayweather. I liked Floyd; he was a charismatic, good-looking kid and very talented.

The dynamic in the gym was interesting. I was training businessmen and housewives, while Roger Mayweather was a maniac. I remember one notable gym fight: Roger had jeans on and a shirt, takes his shirt off, and we're fighting. The bell rings, Tracy stops punching, and Roger blasts him and says, "No rounds."

"💪 Passion fuels success: From gym brawls to UFC glory! 🥊✨"

Floyd lived in an apartment that Top Rank used to put a lot of their fighters in. I remember him showing me all the sweaters he bought and all the things he loved to shop for. Floyd's always been that guy—he likes to shop and buy clothes, and it started the minute he made his first dollar. Switching to the gym environment, I was training businessmen and housewives, and fights would break out in this gym. I'll never forget, there was this heavyweight named Tracy who got into it with Roger Mayweather one day. Roger had jeans on and a shirt, took his shirt off, and they started fighting. They got into the ring, put gloves on, and Roger just beat the hell out of Tracy to the point where everyone had to jump in and break it up.

I've always liked fighting since I was a kid; I love everything about it. When it comes to Joe Rogan's involvement in the UFC, I reached out to him, and we started going back and forth. I told him I would love for him to come in and be one of the commentators. Rogan's attitude was, "So wait a minute, you're saying I can come over there, sit in the best seats in the house, and watch the sport I love for free? Yeah, I'm in." Rogan did the first 12 or 13 shows for free. I'll quit this job and leave before anyone tries to cancel Joe Rogan. I remember popping in this tape of the Keenan Ivory Wayans show, and the way Joe talked and how passionate he was made me realize he was the guy I needed. Without a doubt, that was the most valuable tape I watched that day.

People would come to me and ask for help with managing fighters. You should see my office now—every day is like Shark Tank, with people building businesses and wanting me to be a part of them. The biggest deal I did before the UFC was getting Derek Harmon a fight with Roy Jones Jr. I told Derek, "Roy Jones is going to get all the money; you're going to make a couple of million bucks and get in there and try to beat him."

"📞 One call, $2M investment, now $13B empire! 💸🔥"

It's like Shark Tank at my office every day with people pitching me their business ideas. Before I had ever really done anything significant, I owned gyms and was in the training business. People have always come to me asking for help with various ventures, and it happened in the fight world too. I got Derek Harmon a fight with Roy Jones Jr., which was the biggest thing I had ever done before we bought the UFC. We took up Jiu-Jitsu and fell in love with it. Me, Frank, and Lorenzo all became addicted, training four or five days a week. We saw John Lewis, who was the only guy in Vegas with a Jiu-Jitsu studio at the time, and started training with him, becoming completely obsessed.

We went to a UFC event and saw a lot of opportunities. They didn’t sell merchandise, didn’t have programs, didn’t do anything. The boxing guys had the same old stories, but if you looked at someone like Chuck Liddell at the time, he had graduated with honors from Cal Poly with an accounting degree. You didn’t have any of those stories in boxing. I literally hung up the phone, picked it back up, called the Fertitta brothers, and said, "I think the UFC is in trouble, and I think we should buy it." A month and a half later, we owned the UFC for $2 million. Now, it’s worth 12-13 billion.

The perception of the UFC is immediate success—people think you buy it, Chuck Liddell and Tito start fighting, then Conor McGregor comes along, and suddenly everyone’s a billionaire. But by 2004, we were upside down $40 million and only doing five events a year. We were losing money on the shows, losing money on overhead. We basically bought those three letters and an old wooden octagon. We had like 13-14 contracts, and that was it.

"📈 From losing millions to dominating YouTube in 15 months! 🚀💥"

By 2004, we were upside down $40 million and only doing five events a year. We were losing money on the shows, losing money on overhead—you know, the expenses for the office and employees. Every way you could possibly lose money in a business, we were losing it. We basically bought those three letters and an old wooden octagon, and we had like 13-14 contracts, that’s it. The old owner had sold away the home video rights, the video game rights, and all that; Lion's Gate Entertainment owned all that. When we walked out of that office, they were probably like, "These poor jerk-offs are going to pay us $3 million over the next four years for these rights back." The first checks we started to get were from DVDs.

I was always just on the grind. I go into work every day, keep my head down, and keep going for it. One day, I got the phone call from Lorenzo, and he's like, "I don't know if we can keep doing this, man. Get out there and see what you could sell this thing for." I called him back at the end of the day and said, "Six or seven million." The next morning, I'm driving to work, and he calls me and says, "Let's keep going." We started working really hard on trying to figure out how to get on television because we thought that was the key to success. Spike hated it; they didn’t like it. We called them back three days later and said, "Well, what if we put up the $10 million ourselves? We retain 100% of all the rights." Nobody believed in this thing, and nobody thought it was going to be big.

Switching to the topic of Power Slap, this thing’s been around for 15 months, and it’s a $750 million business, crushing it. Right now on YouTube, we have more subscribers than the NHL, MLS, NASCAR, PGA, and Barstool Sports. We have over a billion YouTube views. Eight of the top 12 largest YouTube shorts against other major sports are Power Slap, and four of the top five largest YouTube shorts on UFC's channel. We have more followers than every single professional sport and every professional sports team in just 15 months.

"Started with barnyard videos, now we have more followers than NHL, NASCAR, and PGA combined! 📹🔥"

In 2018, I started looking at certain content coming out of Russia and Poland, and I was like, "What the fuck is this?" It looked like it was filmed on a flip phone in a barn somewhere, with people literally slapping over a barrel, and it had 350 million views on YouTube. That led me to the idea, "What if I made this an actual sport?" Billions of views globally, and it destroys. We have more subscribers than the NHL, MLS, NASCAR, PGA, and Barstool Sports. We have over a billion YouTube views, and four of the top five largest YouTube shorts on UFC's channel are ours. We have more followers than every single professional sport and every professional sports team in just 15 months.

When asked if we acquired existing intellectual property, I clarified, "No, we created our own and started from scratch. There were a couple of leagues out of Poland and Russia, but we just started our own." Reflecting on the UFC acquisition, I shared, "The UFC fell into my lap. We could buy the thing for $2 million—why would you not buy the UFC? It was worse back then." On the topic of safety compared to boxing, I noted, "On average, 10 to 12 boxers die a year. In boxing, this is what I've tried to explain for years: there's never been a death or serious injury in our sport. As long as you spend the money medically, you make it as safe as you possibly can."

"From napkin deals to pay-per-view stars, we turned fights into must-watch TV! 🥊📺"

Discussing The Ultimate Fighter's performance on Spike TV, I recounted, "The Ultimate Fighter took off immediately. By episode five, we were pulling such massive numbers that the Spike executives literally pulled us out into the alley at the arena, and we did our television deal on a napkin in the alley. Floran like was nothing, all the fights have been, then Forest and Stefan Boner come out in the main event and just start going toe to toe. The people are stomping their feet in the arena, it sounds like a train's going through the place. The crowd is chanting 'one more round, one more round.' People are picking up their phones, calling their friends, going, 'Are you watching this fight right now on Spike TV?' We had more people watching than the Masters on CBS at like 3 minutes during that fight." The impact of the fight was immediate and profound, leading to a spontaneous deal with Spike Executives. "We just knew something special had just happened here. Forest Griffin obviously became a huge pay-per-view star. Nobody knew who he was going into season one, and now he's our biggest pay-per-view star."

The financial turnaround for the UFC began to take shape. "So six or seven, we started to climb out of the hole and out of the $40 million. We built a business where every weekend you see the fight that you want to see because you're investing in both fighters that are fighting. Two fighters come in, and somebody's going to win and somebody's going to lose, but if you lose, both of them are signed; it doesn't mean you're dead." The UFC's approach to incentivizing fighters was crucial. "We built an incentive to go out and perform, and that's how you build a brand, and that's how you build a sport. Fighters are the most paranoid people in the world, all of them completely paranoid."

"Big rewards push fighters to give their all in the octagon! 💰🔥"

In our journey to build the UFC, we realized that a reward system was crucial to induce the most exciting product. When fighters know they're going to make $30 million guaranteed, they'll do everything they can to avoid a fight and just make it to the next payday. So, we built an incentive to go out and perform. Fighters are the most paranoid people in the world, all of them completely paranoid. I remember Porier kind of freaked out a little bit, but then he goes in there and wins the fight. You can't judge anything until it happens. If it were boxing, the mentality would be like, "Oh, they're saying that Porier is done, now he's going to be a gatekeeper." We do the exact opposite. I literally just drown out all that noise from people who think they know what they're talking about because none of them do.

"Win UFC 303 tickets and see McGregor vs. Chandler live! 🥊🎟️"

Transitioning to our upcoming event, nobody's ever done a live broadcast out of the Sphere. I'm $4 million in on this show, and it's not until September. It's going to be the greatest love letter to the Mexican people of all time. Regarding the fight card, I'm not saying anything about it until we get there. On another note, Bespoke Post makes it so easy to discover new products and elevate your everyday life, and our friends over at Morgan and Morgan are the official injury law firm partner of the UFC. Speaking of which, Morgan and Morgan has a proven track record of fighting to get you full and fair compensation. They are giving away one lucky winner two tickets to UFC 303 to see McGregor versus Chandler in Las Vegas. Just text flagrant to 484 373 6753 for your chance to win two tickets to UFC 303.

Now, let’s talk about the UFC and boxing comparisons. When you get to the top five, top three in the UFC, you've been through the Gauntlet. If you make it into the UFC, you're not fighting easy fights. Yeah, there is no feeding the Golden Goose. Everybody thinks they're an expert; fighting, everybody has an opinion. A perfect example is the buzz around Tyson vs. Jake Paul. An almost 60-year-old man shouldn't be fighting a 27-year-old guy under any circumstances, even if it's Mike Tyson. Nobody wants to see Mike get beat by this jerk off, you know what I mean. And about Tyson's Shark Week appearance, I got him a show on Shark Week. So, wait a minute, let me get this straight: I've been fighting my whole life, this is what I do, you're worried about me, so you throw me in the ocean?

By the way, for those interested in discovering new products, subscribe to boxofawesome.com to personalize your subscription, and they'll handpick the perfect box for you every month. You only pay for what you want each month, and you get 50% off your first monthly shipment when you sign up at boxofawesome.com and enter the code flagrant 24.

"McGregor's charisma makes every fight unforgettable! 🥊✨"

I love Mike Tyson. Mike Tyson was one of the guys that I idolized growing up and one of the guys that made me love boxing as much as I do. I got him a show on Shark Week, and apparently, the day they shot that episode, everybody on set was terrified because he was so freaked out by the whole shark thing that he was literally ready to beat the shit out of everybody on set. When it comes to making an interesting fight, a couple of things matter: styles make fights, so stylistically, you try to put together the best fights you possibly can. You have to test them, look at a guy's age, and once you get these kids that are undefeated, you see how they play out. A perfect example of this is how unpredictability makes UFC fights so great. You don't know who's going to win, no matter what the odds are or who they are.

Regarding fighters with boring but effective styles, it depends on what that style is, and that style is usually wrestling. So, what you do is try to match them up with a guy who's got really good takedown defense. Storytelling is also crucial in promoting fights; it's one of the things we tried to do early on. You always have to create a reason for somebody to care to watch something. If you look at what we do with the Contender Series, which is the best show on TV, the best unsigned fighters in the world come in. It's not about winning; I don't give a shit if you win or lose. I want to see who you are. I don't give a shit if you're a deaf mute, are you a bad motherfucker? If you get someone with the Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, or Sugar Sean type of personality, that's just a home run, a plus. As for Conor McGregor's recent behavior, I honestly don't know.

"Jon Jones is the ultimate fighter—undefeated and unstoppable! 💪🔥"

If you're the baddest in the world, people don't give a damn about your personality; they want to see you fight. Ali and Conor are both on another level when it comes to mental warfare, really the two best of all time in that aspect. Ali would get in there, predict rounds, and come up with incredible poems and sayings leading up to the fight. Conor McGregor's approach was to make these guys play into his game, get into their heads, embarrass them, and outwit them in every way, shape, and form.

When it comes to the current perception of fighters like McGregor and Jon Jones, they've made a ton of money, and now it's just fun when they show up and fight. The greatest fighter to ever live is Jon Jones. Jon Jones has never lost a fight. When you really think about fighting, put two guys in a room, and Jon Jones walks out of that room every time. The fact that Jon Jones is number two on the pound-for-pound list just shows how stupid the media votes on that. Jon Jones moved up and absolutely decimated the greatest heavyweight out there right now.

Jon Jones is one of those guys who isn't going to be fully appreciated until he's gone, and then everybody's going to go, "Holy shit." Jon Jones has a very dark side to him, and when you talk about who the baddest in the world is, his fight with Gustafsson took him into deep waters. He was partying and doing God knows what throughout his entire camps. That's when I really started to say, "This dude might be something special." Handling fighters with challenging lifestyles is tough because you're dealing with grown men that are wired completely differently than everybody else.

"Jon Jones parties hard but still dominates the ring! 🎉🥊"

Then came the fight with Alexander Gustafsson, a Swedish kid who took Jon Jones into deep waters. Gustafsson was hitting Jon with everything he had, and Jon was partying and doing all sorts of things throughout his entire camps that most people couldn't even recover from, let alone get into a five-round title fight with the baddest people in the world. You can't babysit these guys; it's like, how can you keep them from spending their money? You can't. How can you keep them from doing this or that? You can't. You're dealing with grown men that are wired completely differently than the rest of the world. So many people say to me, especially those who aren't real fight fans, that they feel sorry for these guys. Most guys think they can fight, but they can't. They walk around thinking they know how to fight, but they really don't.

I remember when it started to fall apart at an amateur level; I was involved back then, and it was really dirty and corrupt. Joe Rogan was instrumental in commentary because he would start telling you what was happening before it actually started to happen. Then Jiu-Jitsu took off like wildfire; everybody started taking Jiu-Jitsu, and now there's an education about what's happening on the ground. These days, social media and the Internet have changed everything. You really blew up during COVID; you were doing those videos when there was no other content, and you did that yourself. I remember when streaming first became a thing. They showed me a video and said, "This is called streaming; you're going to be able to stream videos on the Internet." And I thought, okay, but then it was buffering, buffering, buffering, play three seconds, buffering again. I was like, yeah, this is going to be huge—this sucks.

"Tech changed the game! Now anyone can blow up online. 💥📲"

Growing up in the 80s and 90s, it was like all old money, and trying to be bigger than established companies was impossible. That's not the case these days because of social media and the Internet. You really blew up during COVID; you didn't need a network or an agent. You were innovative, you were talented, and you figured out how to get on there and do it. That couldn't happen back then. I remember people coming into my office saying, "This is called streaming," and it was buffering, buffering, buffering. I was like, "Oh yeah, this is going to be real huge, uh, this sucks." Look at how fast technology caught up. Twenty years ago, this didn't exist. Rogan hits me up and says, "Hey, would you be on my podcast?" I was like, "What the is a podcast?" Now it's all podcasts. This is the new media.

There has never been more opportunity in this world than there is right now because of technology. If you had told me 20 years ago taxi cabs were going to go away, I'd be like, "You're out of your mind." The list goes on and on. If you look at all the disruptors that have emerged in the last 20 years, our dream and goal for me and the Fertita brothers was that we dreamed of a day where everybody could watch the same fight at the same time on the same channel. Now there's 8 billion people in the world. What's the ceiling on this? It's massive.

When you talk about Power Slap, I don't give a there's eight billion people in the world and lots of other people like it. In 16 months, this thing has become a global business, streaming absolutely and the internet. We've been trying to get India the UFC for a long time. Power Slap is massive in India, Southeast Asia, China. Brazil already has like two knockoff leagues. It started in Russia and Poland. Everybody knows what's slapping someone in the face; it is the 100-meter dash of fight sports. I just went in and bought up all the leagues that were already happening, brought those guys into Power Slap. Once real money is in it, guys buying houses and cars and boats, there's real money. I got 27 sponsors in Power Slap.

"Power Slap: From backyard brawls to buying boats and houses! 💪🏠🚤"

Everybody knows what's slapping someone in the face; it is the 100-meter dash of fight sports. Everybody's been slapped in the face. Everybody gets it. Originally, what happened was, this did exist at a lower level. I just went in and bought up all the leagues that were already happening, brought those guys into Power Slap. Now that there's money in it, like there's real money in this, guys buying houses and cars and boats. I got 27 sponsors in Power Slap. We have an announcement coming out soon actually, in the next couple of days, you're going to start to see other athletes from other sports getting involved. If you watch the reality show that we have on it, our reality show's done 40 million views online. The guys that we have that coach when we do the reality show, we have guys that are coaches. The idea is you're just allowing yourself to get hit. You can't do anything in defense. I like taking niche sports that people don't think work and making them work. That's what I like to do. The only business I've ever failed at was, we bought a car dealership. Let me tell you what, it was a shit show.

"Turning negativity into my morning fuel! ☕🔥"

Making them work, that's what I like to do. The only business I've ever failed at was when we bought a used car dealership. It was a nightmare; people were taking the cars and not paying for them, so we had to go repossess them. By the time we got the cars back, they were destroyed. The only reason I didn't lose money was because I bought the land it was on.

Yeah, there were investment opportunities I missed too. They first came to me and said, "Hey, we're bringing hockey to Vegas," and I thought, "Hockey in Vegas? That ain't going to work." Now, look at the Golden Knights—they're massive, winning championships and everything else.

When it comes to evaluating pitches, nothing really stands out; it just depends on the product. I remember this one guy who figured out how to make wood that’s just as durable and looks exactly the same as good wood. Unbelievable what a business that turned out to be.

I love negativity. I thrive on it. Go in the comments section and [expletive] on me, tell me what can't happen. That kind of stuff wakes me up in the morning.

And then there's my passion for gambling. What I love about Caesars is how they treat big players right. I literally go in there, and they built me a room. The dealers want you to win because I take care of all of them. It's a good vibe and a good energy.

"Winning big at Caesars, living the high life! 💸✨"

You know, this is the room you see in a lot of my videos—they literally built it for me at Caesars. Caesars is old school; they didn't have TVs initially, but they embedded one in the wall for me. They even got me one of those gaming chairs and put a dining room table in there. They treat their players right and never sweat the money. Unlike other casinos where the vibe turns negative if you win, Caesars is different. Every dealer wants you to win because I take care of all of them. It's just a good vibe and good energy. The Chinese gamblers have great vibes too; they'll sit and play baccarat from 6 PM to 10 AM.

Every Christmas, Caesars opens up all their ballrooms, packed with snowmobiles, motorcycles, electronics, jewelry, and clothes, so you can shop for Christmas. They have 44 casinos, and since January 1st, I've been in this war with them, playing baccarat. I've beaten them for $16.5 million, only losing twice. When you mess up and stick around longer than you should, it happens. But I love it; the Corano family that owns Caesars couldn't be classier—just good, classy people.

2024 is a war for me, with little battles fought inside it. I keep my daily winnings at a million bucks, clipping them from $800,000 to a million a night since January 1st. When I lose, I go all in, burning through my six-million credit line, then go home and sleep. I'm up $16.5 million on them, and if I keep winning, it just gets worse. It's 50/50; you can bet $300,000 a hand in blackjack.

"Keep the high rolling vibes, but remember: what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! 🎲💤"

When I lose, I go home and go to bed—no milkshake, no nothing, no sugar high to make me feel better. It's just another day; I shake it right off, go home, go to bed, get up, go to work the next day, and then figure out what the next game plan is. Baccarat is a 50/50 game, even closer statistically than Blackjack. You can bet $300,000 a hand, and what's the justification from them? In blackjack, it's only $75,000. You know how many multiple nights you're going to walk into a blackjack game and win a million? Zero.

When people see that I'm winning, they'll run over. The other night, I saw somebody winning, and so every time I play, no matter what I play, I tip the dealers $10,000. And about those casinos outside of Vegas—like the ones in Niagara Falls—don't ever play at those places. They're all dirty, shady, shitty places. Jump on a plane and fly to Vegas. Vegas has a shitload of competition with casinos up and down the strip. They're going to treat you right and give you the best deals. If you lose, they give you a percentage of your money back; you can negotiate all kinds of things.

If you win too much, they'll drop your credit limit. You're not banned, but you can't gamble the way you want. They're basically saying, "beat it, get lost." They drop your limits, so it's harder to win if you can only bet smaller amounts. If you lose a million at $100,000 a hand, you got to win ten hands in a row, and that's not going to happen statistically. There's only a couple of guys in the world, here in the United States and in Vegas, that play like I play.

"Only a few can play like me, but loyalty is everything. 🎰✨"

Who knows if the guy owns something in politics we could work out a deal? If I'm clipping you for a million a night, you guys just give me 250 and I won't come. They don't literally kick you out unless they catch you cheating. What they do is they drop your limits, making it harder to win if you can only bet smaller amounts. If you can bet $300,000 a hand and you go in and win three hands and leave consistently, then it's a different story. Really, there's only a couple of guys in the world, here in the United States and in Vegas, that play like I play. Charles Barkley's a gambler too; he beat them for like $650,000. Aiden Ross comes to Power Slap, and Aiden Ross will play—he's up a million, he's down $750,000, he's up a million and a half.

First of all, what's he worth, you know what I mean, right? Bruno Mars prints money. The guy makes shitloads of money, and of course, he gambles. But to say that the guy is down this much and he owes the casino—you hear a lot of rumors. Yes, you get some guys that walk in, and you just get that vibe from them—this is mush. My biggest superstition is when you get a shitty dealer that has a bad attitude, and you're like, this wants me to lose. Loyalty is very important to me; it's huge, it's everything to me. Yeah, I mean, I'm still hanging out with people that I went to high school with. My circle's very small.

If you have a board of directors—no, it's just like I've dealt with that. Yeah, and your board of directors. I don't know, listen, I get up every day, and I work hard. I mean, that's it—work hard, man. I just built a team of can-do, not can't-do.