Why would that be?
If your parents put you in martial arts when you were young, your parents had money. Martial-arts training isn’t cheap. And a lot of these guys were college wrestlers, so they all went to college. Like Chuck Liddell. Do you know who Chuck Liddell is?
Sure—tell everybody.
The stereotypical ultimate fighter. He’s got a Mohawk, big, mean-looking guy with a Fu Manchu. He looks like an axe murderer, if you saw the guy. He graduated from Cal Poly with a degree in accounting. [Laughs.] So these were the type of guys that were fighting in the U.F.C., and I thought that their stories were very interesting. And the truth is, if you’ve ever been to a U.F.C. fight, it is the most exciting live sporting event you’ll ever see. There’s so many different ways to win and lose, and just the energy and the buzz inside the building is amazing.
What do you mean there’s so many ways to win and lose?
So, in boxing, I punch you to the head or body more times than you punch me to the head or body, and I win, or I knock you out. In the U.F.C., you can do all of that, too, but you can also kick, knee, elbow. It can go to the ground where you fight for submissions. So it’s non-stop action.
I wrote a book about Muhammad Ali long ago. I think we both agree he might be the greatest athlete who ever lived—
Or human!
Who’s the Muhammad Ali of the U.F.C. in your estimation, and why?
Well, we have a guy named Conor McGregor, who I would say is like our Muhammad Ali. But, if you’re looking for your Michael Jordan, it would be Jon Jones, who is the greatest.
And why is that?
Jon Jones has never been beat, and he’s moved up and down weight classes. It’s very, very unique and hard to be undefeated in the U.F.C.
How did you buy U.F.C.? Because you seem to, in retrospect, have bought it for a song.
Yeah, two million dollars. When we were training in jujitsu, and we started to meet a lot of the fighters, I started to manage some of the guys. And I got into a contract dispute with the old owner, Bob Meyrowitz, and Bob said, “You know what? There is no more money, O.K.? I don’t even know if I can afford to put on the next event.” We hung up and I said, “Wow, that’s interesting.” I called my partners, Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, and said, “I just got off the phone with the owner of the U.F.C. I think they’re going bankrupt. They’re in trouble, and we should buy them.”
Wasn’t it kind of risky? You had Senator John McCain—who’s nobody’s idea of a wimp, God knows—call M.M.A. “human cockfighting.”
Right.
How do you respond to that?
I think that without Senator John McCain I probably wouldn’t be sitting here having this conversation with you right now.
Tell me why.
His stance on the U.F.C. drove them toward—and not only them, but us, when we bought it—toward regulation and being regulated by the athletic commissions in each state. [He holds his hands close together.] This many people want to see a freak show. [He holds his hands far apart.] This many people want to see a real sport.
It used to be banned in thirty-six states. What were the regulations put into place so that it was no longer a freak show?
What sort of tripped them up early was them sensationalizing it, like, “Two men enter the octagon, one man leaves: the most brutal, bloody, violent sport in the world. There are no rules!”
That’s just hype. You hear that in boxing, too.
When the first one was coming, nobody believed it was true. They’re, like, “There’s no way this could be real, that this is going to happen.” And it was real. It did happen. And everybody tuned in because of the sensationalism, but that eventually ended up biting [Meyrowitz] in the end.
How so?
Because Senator John McCain went after it and said it was disgusting. Think about, at this time—again, when you and I grew up, right?—John Wayne movie. John Wayne would hit a guy, right? Guy would go down. John Wayne didn’t jump on top of him and start pounding him. He’d stand him back up and he’d hit him again. You didn’t do that. You didn’t jump on a guy when he was down.
Ref: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-new-yorker-interview/dana-white-thinks-everyones-a-fighter
