Dana White: UFC, Fighting, Khabib, Conor, Tyson, Ali, Rogan, Elon & Zuck

Khabib beat Conor. Putin was on FaceTime before he even made it to the locker room. Trump sitting president, ex-president, watching all the fights calling, wants 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. 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. The following is a conversation with Dana White, the president of the UFC, a mixed martial arts organization that revolutionized the art, the sport, and the business of fighting. And Dana is truly the mastermind behind the UFC. This is the Lex Fridman Podcast. To support it, please check out our sponsors in the description. And now, dear friends, here's Dana White. Do you remember when you saw your first fight?

I think so. I remember being at my grandmother's house and I think it was an Ali fight, and all my uncles were going crazy during the fight, and there was just this buzz and this energy in the house that I liked at a very young age, and I'm pretty sure that was my first fight. Ali was something special.

What did you think when you saw UFC 1 with Hoist? I remember everybody talking that this fight was going to happen and there was going to be no rules and all this other stuff. And we're like, "There's no way. That's bullshit." And then we ended up at some guy's house that night in Boston and watching it and it was happening and it was fun and it was exciting and everything else. And then I fell off after that. The first one I watched, but I was too big of a boxing fan. Plus once grappling started taking over, and by grappling meaning the wrestling and the jiu-jitsu guys had just laid there, I completely lost interest. It's funny that I'm having this conversation with you right now because I was out last night with my friends and we were talking about, because one of my buddies who's a host here in town, just did jiu-jitsu for the first time.

What's the origin story of the UFC as it is today as you've created it and you and Lorenzo and Fertitta brothers built it? It started with John Lewis and seeing him. Frank and I were out one night at the Hard Rock and John Lewis was there and he's like, "Oh, that's that ultimate fighting guy." And I was like, " I know him." And Frank's like, "I've always wanted to learn ground fighting." And I said, "Yeah, I'm interested in it too." So we went over, we talked to John Lewis and we made an appointment to wrestle with him on Monday. And we told Lorenzo and Lorenzo came with us. And that was the beginning of the end. I mean, we started doing jiu-jitsu and started to meet a lot of the fighters.

Thank you. Another guy that I feel like could care less about the money is Joe Rogan. How important is he to the UFC, to the rise of the UFC, and what in general do you love about Joe?

Lorenzo, another guy you have close friendship with, you seem to have been extremely effective together as business partners. What's the magic behind that? How can you explain that? I love him. Lorenzo and I work really well together because we have two different personalities. I'm the guy that always... I'm going here. Lorenzo was always here. You could walk in a room and say, "Lorenzo, you just lost $10 million. Lorenzo, you just won $10 million." 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 good at, and they're both on the opposite sides of the spectrum.

You said in the UFC 299 post-fight press conference that sometimes fighters might complain that they get matched up, uneven odds, but that's actually when legends are made. I think you gave Dustin Poirier as an example. Can you elaborate on that a little bit? What makes a legend, what makes greatness in a fight? So behind the scenes, 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.

It could have been. What do you think about that matchup? It's one of the greats, one of the great matchups that you've made, Conor McGregor versus Khabib. Yeah. At the time, I was incredibly criticized for putting together the spot that had the scene with the bus in it. The fucking medias, 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 of how we got here and how big this fight is, and 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.

So you better fucking work for it. Ridiculous question, but who's in the conversation for the greatest of all time? Jon Jones.

What's the good, the bad, and the ugly of your relationship with Conor? There's literally no ugly. Conor McGregor has been an incredible partner to work with. If Conor showed up to things on time, there wouldn't be one fucking bad thing I could say about Conor. You know what I mean?

You and Trump are friends. I just talked to Ivanka last night about her experience in the Miami event. She loves it. She's training too. You're talking about getting girls to train. She's trained. 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 the only guy on earth that he bros out with. It's funny when you talk about how powerful fighting is. This last Miami event, the President of Ecuador and the President of Spain both posted about the fights. Habib beat Conor. Putin was on FaceTime before he even made it to the locker room. Trump, sitting President, ex-President, watching all the fights, calling, wants 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. Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, the list goes on and on and on, the most powerful people in the world are all obsessed with fighting.

I just wanted to get that on record. Another guy who doesn't seem to be phased by the fire, I've gotten to know him, is Elon. I have to ask you, it's a bit of fun. You were a part of thinking about putting together Zuck versus Elon. I trained with both. I did a phone call with Elon and you when we were training on the mat. I remember, yeah.

What do you think about Tyson, Tyson fighting Jake Paul? I love Mike Tyson, and I'm not a fan of anybody fighting at our age. But he's a grown man, obviously, and he's going to do what he's going to do. But at least I know, I talked to his wife a couple of days ago, and he's taken this serious and he's training for it. So we'll see how it plays out.

That was a special fight. It really was.

You love gambling. I do.

Do you think about your death? Man, I'm not afraid of death. Not even a little bit. I'm not afraid of it. I don't know if that'll be the case when I'm facing it, when I'm looking down the barrel of it, laying in a hospital bed somewhere.