here with much more is the president of
the ufc dana
white well okay that's why i love you
because you don't hold back you never
hold back
you know use it it's always you know uh
uh hard-hitting all right uh by the way
what a card this weekend
what what a round of applause you had
going on you didn't let a single person
off during this entire pandemic
you created fight island tell everybody
your thought process throughout
yeah i i just listen my this is always
my thought process
there's always a way to figure things
out
no is never the answer and uh you know
you just have to be willing to work hard
spend the money and uh you know there's
going to be some trial and error but we
knew we could do it
yeah all right so you don't let them off
explain how fight island came around
because i thought that was a genius idea
and it kept the sport going you kept
your employees employed
tell us how you did that well thanks
well
let's let's start with florida first of
all here in the united states
we needed to be able to uh to put on
fights we have our own arena here in las
vegas but we couldn't use it we couldn't
use our own arena in our own hometown
so we had to go to florida and
you know the the mayor uh mayor curry in
jacksonville
uh opened the doors to us and obviously
uh
governor desantis was incredible you
have to have government officials that
you can work with
people that are and the florida state
athletic commission that were willing to
work with us
um and figure out ways so that the show
could go on
once we got that figured out we were
putting on shows here in america
you know this is a global sport we're an
international business
so we had to figure out how could we get
people in from
all over the world from all these
different countries these fighters and
their camps
and you know we started talking about
islands and places where we could uh
build a real bubble and i've had a great
relationship with the royal family
in abu dhabi for over 12 years we
started talking to them
and uh we literally built the best
bubble
on earth when we when we went to fight
island in abu dhabi
i want to talk about the growth of ufc
over the years and you're a big part of
its success
uh from the get-go but i want to talk
about it through this idea
so you you watch lebron james what he
had said last week then you look at the
ratings of the finals in the nba
5.6 million viewers is a disaster
that you know just a few years ago they
had 50 million people watching
the oscars every year now we're down
below 10 million
you look at what happened in georgia
with major league baseball
when they have far more accessible
voting laws than
joe biden's state of delaware i'm not
trying to drag you into politics
but at major league baseball kaepernick
nfl
lebron with the nba all of these
you know i if you look around an
athletic stadium i don't care what the
sport is
i see people of all backgrounds all
races
all coming together because they love
and have a shared passion
for that sport right right
well one of the things that i've that
i've really tried to do through this
whole thing
is stay out of politics when people tune
in to watch sports
they don't want to hear that crap they
don't want to hear
what your opinions are who you're voting
for or what you're doing
they want to get away from everything in
their life and they want to focus on
whether you know two three four hours
however long the sport is
throughout this pandemic when you turned
on the ufc you know we never talked
about covid we never talked about
politics
and obviously there are certain fighters
um you know male and female who have
their own
religious beliefs their own political
beliefs or whatever we don't muzzle
anybody either
so if somebody comes out at the press
conference and they want to talk about
this or that or whatever it might be
it's their god-given right to do it
um we don't muzzle anybody but we we
keep politics
out of the sport you want you want to
listen to that stuff turn on any other
station
you got it you'll hear all the coveted
and political stuff you want to hear
when you turn into the ufc you're there
to see fights
do you see the growth of the ufc
and then when you you look at the
precipitous decline
in a lot of other sports because of
you know woke politics canceled culture
and do you see a direct correlation
i mean it'd be hard to say no that that
that
that they don't go hand in hand i truly
do believe
that people are fed up i just put on an
event we were the first major sport to
have an
indoor live event at full capacity
during this pandemic we
just saturday night we had 15 259 fans
there
if you wanted to wear a mask wear a mask
you didn't want to wear a mask you
didn't have to
um everybody was there the crowd was
was explosive all night it was a great
show we broke the arena record
and what that tells me i sold out
jacksonville
going to houston next then vegas 50
000 seats sold out in under under five
minutes total for all three
people are done people are done they're
done being told where they can go what
they can do
they're ready to get back out there and
start enjoying their lives again
hey dana everybody knows everybody's
heard about the masks
everybody's heard about social
distancing everybody knows there are
three vaccines
out there and available if people
and i'd advise you to consult with your
doctor do a lot of research on your own
they know that the vaccines are
available now americans if we're going
to live free we've got to live up to
that model they can't just be words
you know i wrote a book live free or die
right so
americans now are informed and they're
voting
by buying out 50 000 seats in five
minutes by the way
i might hit you up for i want to pay for
them i always pay for my tickets
uh but if you know anybody selling i may
have to buy them on stubhub
i got you whatever you need i got you
i'm not taking anything for free i
promise
uh but seriously everybody knows dana
they know
and they showed up in droves i think it
speaks volumes i'll give you the last
word
yeah i i agree listen it's i'm
i told you the three states that i'm
going into next we're sold out on all
three events
and as things start to open the next
state that opens it's looking like
arizona might work and whoever comes
after that i'm coming to your town
i'm going to your arena and we're going
to sell out well i wish you'd make it
that means in new york where i need to
get the hell out of
uh i'd probably see in 15 years but
anyway
congratulations on uh a great event uh
our prayers to to wideman and and his
family we want him hoping
hopefully he can recover from this and
make a return to the octagon to the
cage and uh looking forward to watching
dana white
he got up and walked today he's doing
better thank you did he really he got up
and walked today yeah he walked today
you know
um wow they're saying he'll he'll be in
much better shape in the next couple of
weeks
it's it's it's one of those horrible
injuries to watch as human beings we
can't wrap
our brain around that shin breaking but
it's the broken bone
he'll he's going to make a great
recovery and he'll be fine
all right great news our best to him and
uh but our best team hey sean hannity
here hey
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