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Nov. 14, 2023 - This Past Weekend - Theo Von

01:14:47

E470 Dana White

Dana White is a businessman and entrepreneur who serves as the CEO and President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Theo Von joins Dana White at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas for this episode of This Past Weekend. They chat about his rise as a business mogul, building up the UFC, how to pick the right walk-up music, standing up to pressure from critics, the emergence of Power Slap, his friendship with President Trump, the retirements that hit him the hardest, and more. Dana White: https://www.instagram.com/danawhite/ ------------------------------------------------ Tour Dates! https://theovon.com/tour New Merch: https://www.theovonstore.com ------------------------------------------------- Sponsored By: Celsius: Go to the Celsius Amazon store to check out all of their flavors. #CELSIUSBrandPartner #CELSIUSLiveFit https://amzn.to/3HbAtPJ Manscaped: Go to http://manscaped.com and use code THEO to get 20% off and free shipping. ShipStation: Go to http://shipstation.com/theo to get a free 60-day trial. Thanks to ShipStation for sponsoring the show! BetterHelp: This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp — go to http://betterhelp.com/theo to get 10% off your first month. Gametime: Download the Gametime app, create an account, and use code WEEKEND for $20 off your first purchase. Ibotta: Download the Ibotta app now and use code THEO to get 100% cash back on your Thanksgiving dinner starting November 1st. Morgan and Morgan: If you believe your privacy has been violated while using Google’s Incognito Mode, you can check out Morgan & Morgan. Their fee is free unless they win. For more information go to https://www.forthepeople.com/THISPASTWEEKEND ------------------------------------------------- Music: "Shine" by Bishop Gunn https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3A_coTcUek ------------------------------------------------ Submit your funny videos, TikToks, questions and topics you'd like to hear on the podcast to: tpwproducer@gmail.com Hit the Hotline: 985-664-9503 Video Hotline for Theo Upload here: https://www.theovon.com/fan-upload Send mail to: This Past Weekend 1906 Glen Echo Rd PO Box #159359 Nashville, TN 37215 ------------------------------------------------ Find Theo: Website: https://theovon.com Instagram: https://instagram.com/theovon Facebook: https://facebook.com/theovon Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thispastweekend Twitter: https://twitter.com/theovon YouTube: https://youtube.com/theovon Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheoVonClips Shorts Channel: https://bit.ly/3ClUj8z ------------------------------------------------ Producer: Zach https://www.instagram.com/zachdpowers/ Producer: Nick https://www.instagram.com/realnickdavis/ Producer: Colin https://instagram.com/colin_reiner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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	Today's guest is an entrepreneur.
	He's a renegade.
	He's a business model.
	And he is the head of the UFC.
	He's from Massachusetts, and I couldn't be more excited to go a couple rounds with someone.
	Today's guest is Mr. Dana White.
	Shine that light on me I'll sit and tell you my stories Shine on me And I will find a song I've been singing Almost there!
	Shine on me You feel handsomer as you've gotten more in shape?
	You guys got to deal with Celsius?
	Yeah, it's pretty good.
	Yeah, it's awesome, man.
	So it's good, man.
	We've had a really great year.
	It's been fascinating, man.
	All types of just interesting people, rappers, Robert F. Kennedy.
	We just had Wayne Gretzky.
	I don't know who else we did.
	You got to do Trump.
	Yeah.
	You get closer.
	I'll get you Trump if you want to do him.
	Yeah.
	Well, we had Sexy Red on and she's from the hood, right?
	She has some pretty ratchet stuff.
	She sings about like her vagina stuff, but people love her, right?
	But that's her?
	Yeah, Sexy Red is wild.
	She, yeah.
	And she is actually pregnant as well.
	The best part of it was at the end, I was like, hey, I'm going to invite you to UFC fight sometimes.
	She's like, I'd love to go.
	That would be awesome.
	So the hood would really show up for that.
	What did you think about Slap?
	Well, it's a great question, brother.
	First of all, I didn't know.
	I didn't know what being there makes it.
	You're like, oh my God, this is amazing.
	I like how it's bite size in the way that if you want to like hang out with friends and chat, you can be talking to your buddy and you know exactly when the action is going to happen.
	So as whereas UFC, you don't want to miss any of any of the dance.
	That's a really good point.
	So I loved how it was like very digestible.
	Like in, okay, it's like, hold on, dude, chill.
	Let's focus.
	This is it.
	I like the people that were there.
	I thought was really interesting.
	I can't tell when I'm there.
	There's moments where I'm supporting and then there's moments where I'm heckling almost.
	There's respect for sure, but I could like, I don't know, it was weird.
	Like Cowboy Cerrone's there and he's like, knock them out them slides.
	Like the only guy's wearing sandals, you know?
	So I think there's a little bit of a peanut gallery aspect.
	There is.
	There is at UFC too, though.
	I mean, there's a lot of yelling and shit talking at UFC.
	I think UFC has become a lot more sophisticated over the like the last 10 years.
	Yeah.
	But before that, it was quite a slap crowd.
	Yeah.
	Oh, well, dude, I remember when I first heard about UFC, it was like the kids who were not going to finish school were watching it.
	Right.
	It was like they had a VHS.
	It would like cover the mail.
	That dude.
	Exactly.
	Yeah, dude.
	Yeah, that dude.
	Talking about a guy that's become famous just off fucking one picture of sitting in the crowd.
	Just bleed.
	He works with blood drives now, too, which is crazy, huh?
	Are you serious?
	No, I'm not, but that would be, yeah.
	But that would be actually, it's not a bad partnership.
	Dude, I'm fucking, I'd pour a 12-ounce O-negative for that guy if you asked me to.
	I'll tell you something fascinating about the Slap content.
	So there's a woman named Amy Kaplan, and she's a media member, right?
	And I don't know who she writes for, but she comes to everything, UFC, Slap, she supports whatever, right?
	So when she showed up to Slap on Wednesday, she had 20 followers on TikTok.
	So she posted the video of Sheena, the women's one, knocking her out.
	Right now it's at 1.6 million views and she has 3,600 followers off one post from Slap.
	How crazy is that?
	This is the one right here.
	Yeah, you should have cut that up and put it out.
	All the influencers that come, they love it because the content's so powerful.
	Listen to me.
	If you take the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, the NHL, UFC, WWE, NASCAR, Formula One, PGA, and a couple other ones, you combine all their numbers together on social, multiply them by four, they don't do what PowerSlap does.
	No way.
	Fucking fact.
	And when you post this content, it is unbelievably powerful, man.
	Yeah, other things that I thought really about it, I liked how I wish I knew some of the fighters better.
	I know some of that takes time and getting to know them, right?
	100%.
	This is only our fifth ever event.
	It's been around for eight months.
	And yeah, no, this thing's a fucking juggernaut, though, man.
	But I dug it, dude.
	I'm sitting there with my buddy Sheldon Sore and we're like, holy shit, dude, this is so much fun.
	Like, I was like, I was excited to come back.
	I'm not going to say it surprised me, but it did when the guy almost got a haircut off of his, he has that beard and you don't even know if he has a chin.
	You're like, what if that dude doesn't even have a chin?
	And he's just fucking out here.
	That's one of the things we've been talking about.
	You know, some of these beards are so big.
	Somewhere the hell their face is.
	I agree.
	That's hilarious.
	But I kind of love that aspect of it.
	It's a little bit camouflaged, dude.
	Where some guy rolls out there with a naked chin, some little fucking nudist, you know?
	You're like, this guy's got to calm down this pervert.
	Put to grow a beard, man.
	Did you make it up to Red Rock after?
	No, I didn't.
	It was fucking mayhem up there, man.
	Really?
	Yeah, we go to the high limit room after and big party up there at Red Rock after the thing.
	And everybody's gambling and all this shit, but we had done this thing.
	We did a sweepstakes where somebody would get the opportunity to come in and gamble with me and Steve.
	We'll do it.
	Right.
	So we sit down at the table.
	You couldn't fucking write this.
	You couldn't write this.
	Sit down at the table.
	I give the guy five grand.
	We start gambling.
	And he just leaves with it?
	We start gambling.
	And me and Hunter were just talking about it.
	Hunter was his coach.
	Hunter was kind of coaching him over there on the side.
	And Hunter said the guy was so nervous.
	He's like, you know, at one point, he got up to what, Hunter, eight grand?
	Wow.
	He was up to $8,000.
	He had won.
	He was in the fucking perfect seat at the table.
	Up to eight grand.
	He's up to nine grand now.
	And I said, listen, you don't have to stay here.
	You can leave whenever you want, whatever.
	And he's asking Hunter a question.
	Hunter's like, Dana doesn't care.
	If you want to leave, you can quit when you want to.
	So he says, okay, this is my last bet then.
	Win, lose, or draw.
	This is my last bet.
	He puts it up.
	Steve will do it, throws $1,000 up on it underneath.
	The guy put up like $400 or $500.
	Steve puts $1,000 under it.
	He hits a fucking blackjack.
	I mean, you couldn't write a better fucking story than that.
	So the kid leaves there with almost 10 Gs.
	And, you know, he won the sweepstakes, come gamble with us and actually got the experience, slap, got the go to the party after, and actually won 10 grand.
	And win.
	Wow.
	Yeah, that's incredible.
	I love doing fun shit like that.
	Yeah.
	Dude, you know what?
	You do a great job with that, I'll say.
	Like, I tune, like, and even now just being in the facility and seeing, like, the kitchen where you guys shoot the fuck it Fridays and stuff.
	I'm like, man, that's pretty brave.
	Were you concerned about it at all at first?
	Like, just putting yourself out there like that?
	Because I think there's always this wall between, like, is it, you know, when people step into like putting themselves out into social media?
	Yeah, no, I don't care.
	I've been doing it for so long.
	I mean, I mean, I was doing these video blogs before this whole influencing thing was a thing.
	You know what I mean?
	I used to do video blogs on YouTube.
	They would follow us around in the plane, going to events and all the behind the scenes type stuff.
	So I've been doing this for a long time.
	It doesn't bother me.
	Yeah.
	What kind of tunes do you listen to?
	What kind of music do you listen to?
	I'm into so many different types of music.
	I like, I mean, my all-time favorite bands are Rage Against the Machine, The Beastie Boys, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
	But I listen to everything.
	I listen to 80s music.
	I listen to 70s music.
	I listen to rap.
	I listen to.
	You remember your first concert you ever went to?
	First concert I ever went to is kind of weird.
	It was Berlin.
	I went to Berlin.
	It's a band?
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	80s man.
	I'm familiar with them.
	Okay.
	No more words.
	Oh, yeah.
	Wait, no more words.
	Play a beat of it.
	No more words.
	No more words.
	I'm thinking of it.
	More than words.
	I'm actually going to the cult tonight.
	The cult's in town.
	I'm going to the cult.
	And they're British, huh?
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	You know the cult.
	Yeah, kind of.
	You know who I know?
	Who'd you go with?
	Okay, I get a little bit of energy now for what's going on there.
	Will you stop it?
	Was Michael Bisping the DJ?
	You know, he used to be a DJ?
	I didn't know that.
	Dude, he has a great story about somebody stole his records one night.
	Isn't this right?
	Isn't it Michael Bisping?
	Somebody stole his records, right?
	He's the fucking DJ, right?
	Like the last guy you want to steal from, right?
	Some one guy, some one-eyed fucking, you know, music maniac running Skrillix, you know?
	So he fucking, he finds out who the dude is, right?
	The guy denies it.
	He pops the trunk and the records are in the fucking trunk, dude.
	And I think he put the dude in the trunk.
	Did he really?
	I think that's how it ended.
	But yeah, anyway, he was a DJ.
	But no, I wasn't familiar with them.
	My first, I did see Duran Duran recently, though.
	I did too.
	Did you?
	Great.
	Yeah, I thought it was pretty good, man.
	They were great.
	Yeah, I was very impressed with how good they were.
	I love live music, so I go to lots of concerts.
	There's this kid.
	So funny, we say the cult.
	I'm going to the cult tonight.
	I see the cult all the time.
	Big cult fan, too.
	Cult's one of my favorite bands of all time.
	So I go to the cult and some band called Des Rocks is opening for him.
	I never heard of them.
	And so I said, let's just go walk around.
	We'll come back later.
	I come back and they have a couple songs left.
	I was blown away by how good they were.
	Des Rocks.
	I was so blown away that I jumped on a plane the next day and saw him again in San Diego.
	Yeah.
	And I saw him in Utah.
	Now, most of the music that you see for UFC and PowerSlap is Des Rocks.
	No way.
	When we do the commercials, like the commercials and all the hype pieces, I use his music.
	Oh, it's amazing, man.
	Yeah, he's incredible.
	He's playing the Troubadour in L.A. next Sunday.
	Oh, sweet.
	I think I'll be out there then.
	Let's go.
	You're going to go?
	I'm going to fly in for it.
	You are?
	Yeah, you want to go?
	Yeah, I have to go now, but yeah, I'll go.
	Fuck yeah, let's go.
	I'll go.
	And I'm going.
	I think you guys are going to the motocross on Sunday.
	No.
	With John Shahidi, are you guys doing that thing?
	Nitro Circus.
	I'm doing Nitro Circus tomorrow.
	I'm going to go.
	Oh, it's tomorrow.
	It's tomorrow in Anaheim.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I actually, I'm meeting Trump tomorrow morning for breakfast on his plane.
	Wow.
	His plane is landing here.
	We're going to have breakfast on his plane.
	Then I'm jumping on our plane and going to Nitro Circus.
	Oh, that's going to be fun.
	Yeah, I wanted to be over there.
	What does Trump have for breakfast, you think?
	If you have breakfast?
	I'll tell you tomorrow.
	Okay.
	I'll tell you tomorrow.
	What would your walkout song be, you think, if you were a fighter?
	Oh, shit.
	There's so many good ones to choose from.
	I sort of lived vicariously through the athletes over the last however many years because I picked a lot of the songs for a lot of these guys to walk out to.
	Do some of them just not want to pick it?
	Some don't even give a fuck.
	Quad.
	Could care less.
	They could die.
	They're not even going to know what music's on the way there.
	Nope.
	Oh, damn.
	Yeah, most of them didn't even care in the early days.
	You can't die with Hillary Duff when you're going to the fucking war.
	Yeah.
	No, most of the music that was picked back in the day was done by me.
	But the walkout song is important.
	It's a big deal.
	It's one of the things that if you're not a big star already and the song comes on and people connect with the song and like it, they're like, oh, who's this guy?
	It's a big deal.
	Yeah, Bobby Green, I think, does it pretty well.
	I noticed he'll kind of changes up and he brings so much energy, you know, but I think you can feel his energy when he's coming in.
	Poor has that James Brown.
	You know, some of these fighters come up with songs that I would never dream of could be a cool walk-in song.
	And yeah, the walk-in song is a fun but very important part of the live event.
	Yeah, I think so.
	Man, I want to, yeah, and I want to say too, man, just your bravery in doing and keeping things going during the pandemic, it changed everything.
	It gave a lot of people a feeling like that there was still somebody that could do something different.
	It gave a lot of people a feeling that like everybody wasn't subject to kind of like the privatized tyranny that's kind of going on.
	Yeah.
	You know, and I agree with you.
	And man, it made, it made me so much more of an involved fan, dude.
	That's awesome.
	Well, I appreciate it.
	Listen, the pandemic never made sense to me.
	And again, because of my close relationship with Abu Dhabi, you know, I knew over there they were doing testing and they were doing all this stuff.
	I'm like, if they can do it, why can't we do it over here?
	Yeah.
	And why couldn't we create, you know, this space, you know, they ended up calling them the bubble, but this space where, you know, everybody was testing.
	You knew everybody was clean and we couldn't put on an event.
	We did it in Jacksonville.
	We did it in Abu Dhabi.
	And, you know, I'm one of these guys.
	I love this country.
	I love America.
	This country has obviously been very good to me, my family, and a lot of my friends and employees.
	We don't just fucking roll over and hide in this country, man.
	This whole pussification of America and everybody, you know, fucking scared of everything and whatever.
	I was like, if this is as bad as they think it is, or they're saying it is, we're fucking dead anyway.
	Yeah, we're going to die.
	You don't want to die.
	Yeah, just wearing a mask.
	They can't even see your face.
	Yeah.
	Die in a mask, hiding in your house.
	Oh.
	Hell no.
	So what do you think your walkout song would be?
	Look, can it just be the cult?
	Sure.
	I do the cult.
	I do the cult she sells sanctuary.
	Listen, you know when you can never go wrong with a walkout song?
	ACDC.
	Yeah.
	You never go wrong with ACDC.
	I'm trying to think of an ACDC song.
	I'm a little bit.
	Black and black.
	Yeah.
	For those about the rock.
	Oh, that's the shit.
	My brother used to beat the shit out of me and all that music.
	Exactly.
	Oh, dude.
	That's some good ass whooping music.
	Oh, I still, I have a floating rib that was originally not floating because of half of Allison Change's second album.
	Big Allison Change fan.
	Bro, we would lose.
	Bro, one time I go over to Perry Farrell's house, right?
	I relapsed.
	First of all, I relapsed at a one-year-old's birthday party.
	So obviously I've had some tough times.
	But a friend of mine who's in jail now, I think, but at the time he had a child, a friend of mine had a party at Perry Farrell's house because he had a nice home.
	And it was a one-year-old's birthday.
	And I go in and I didn't know who Perry Farrell was.
	I'd listen to him.
	You know, I just couldn't recognize him.
	And then I'm just, there's this dude kind of just mumbling around by this big bookcase.
	And I go there, I'm fucking talking to the dude about these different books.
	And it ended up being him.
	Anyway, the story is anticlimactic, but yeah, I met him at a one-year-old's birthday party, and neither one of us knew the child, which I think also made it weird.
	And we talked about that a little.
	It's weird to be at a really small kid's birthday and pretend that he's bigger or something.
	Right.
	You know?
	What is that, Nick?
	Sinead.
	Oh, that's Sinead.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, that's a good one.
	You know, it was fascinating, too, because I was a big Sinead fan.
	And I actually didn't go to my high school 10-year reunion because Sinead O'Connor was playing at the Hard Rock.
	I went to see Sinead O'Connor instead.
	And then to meet her and go through this whole thing with Connor.
	And she was such an incredible performer and had such a great voice.
	And I think this kind of goes to what you were talking about, about putting yourself out there.
	You know, she ripped up that picture of the Pope on Saturday Night Live that night.
	And she got fucking just attacked by everybody.
	I mean, everybody just started coming after her.
	And she got beat on for so long that she actually got to the point where she would have terrible anxiety when she would go out and try to perform.
	So leading up to that Connor walkout, it was, we didn't know if it was going to happen or not happen live, even though she was there and we had done the deal with her to come.
	But yeah, I adored her.
	She was a really good person.
	I liked her a lot.
	And it's sad to see her go, but I was a huge Sinead fan.
	Did you like give her a pep talk before?
	Was there any kind of communication like that?
	100%.
	I absolutely did.
	Yeah, I can imagine.
	I can totally relate to what you're saying is if you think the media especially or people, some people are on your side and how they would be so scary, especially if you're a singer to go out there.
	Yeah, it's listen when you're out in the public and whatever, the thing is with me is I don't give a fuck.
	I don't give a fuck.
	I don't give a shit what anybody says or what anybody thinks.
	I have this mindset.
	I know exactly who the fuck I am.
	I have my circle of people that I hang around with who know me and know what I'm about and whatever.
	And anybody else who doesn't like it or doesn't want to, too fucking bad.
	Were you always like that, DJ?
	Always like that.
	Wow.
	I was always like that.
	Because that's the part that I think these days, it gets a little bit harder to create.
	Like, I mean, I work for myself, right?
	And so it's nice to have your own space where you don't have to answer anybody.
	You have to answer advertisers sometimes.
	But at this point, you can also sell direct to consumers.
	You can say fucking cyanard advertisers if you need to.
	I will never, ever answer to a fucking advertiser.
	Never.
	Yeah.
	I've been through it.
	Believe me.
	Yeah.
	Listen, this is really easy fucking solution.
	Pay me what you owe me and you go your way and I'll go mine.
	Pretty easy fucking solution.
	That's it.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	You can't ever let these fucking people hold you hostage or try to, you know, try to change who you are or what you stand for or try to determine how you're going to run your business.
	Yeah.
	Fuck that shit.
	Do you think that that is becoming more the commonplace or that it got to be the commonplace and now we're getting out of that?
	I think it needs to be the commonplace.
	You cannot be held hostage by advertisers.
	I mean, Dave Chappelle has this great comedy thing that he was doing and he says, you know, everybody asked me why I don't have a tennis shoe.
	And, you know, I've been offered tennis shoe deals.
	You know, I don't have a tennis shoe because as soon as you do something they don't like, they take the tennis shoe and it's gone and all that shit.
	And you know what I mean?
	He's right.
	That's why I don't fuck with Hollywood a lot, man.
	I don't do a lot of shit.
	They say, come do this, come be in the movie.
	The guy calls me fucking Ricky Furley or whatever calls me.
	Hey, you want to be in the, you know, dope sick 11 or whatever the fucking movie is.
	I don't give a dude.
	No.
	I don't want to fuck.
	I don't want if they, I don't want them to be able to write an article to be say, hey, we took this away from this guy because he said this.
	I don't fucking need any of that shit.
	100%.
	And they only came to ask me once I started doing my own thing anyway.
	So fuck them.
	Sorry, man.
	I'm obviously angry about that.
	But thanks for some of the fuck.
	You're not wrong.
	You're right.
	There's a lot of that energy in the world.
	100%.
	That's the way it's got to be.
	100%, man.
	You let these people come in and these people are paying to be a partner with you, to put their logos with you and be with you until something goes.
	You find out who's with you and who's not when the shit hits the fan.
	You know what I mean?
	I say this all the time.
	It happened with me and my employees during COVID.
	In COVID, they're laying people off and whatever.
	We didn't fucking lay anybody off.
	Didn't you negate some of your salary or something?
	What'd you guys do?
	No, I said I would.
	Okay.
	I said, we're going to go through this.
	We're not laying anybody off.
	We're going through this.
	And, you know, every Christmas party, I get up on stage and tell my fucking team how much I love them and how important they are to me.
	And then the scariest time in our lifetime hits and I'm like, hey, I love you guys so much.
	I'm going to fucking lay you off.
	Some of you have been with me 10, 15, 20 years.
	I'm one of these guys.
	The whole fucking ship goes down together.
	We're not at all.
	We're all fucking sinking, me included.
	Or we don't at all, you know, and that doesn't exist in this world that we live in today.
	Everybody's just so easy to pull the trigger and let go of some of their people.
	It's something good.
	I need to hear that too.
	You know, I'm just, as my business grows, I'm become more of a boss.
	I never wanted to be a boss.
	How do you do this?
	How do you do this without these two?
	I don't.
	Right.
	But yeah.
	And now that you say these two do this without you.
	Right.
	You're a fucking team.
	I think we've realized that more this year, I think.
	But it's become a learning lesson for me as a boss.
	You know, it's like you think like I need to just hold on, but you really need to let go and let others help.
	You're a team.
	What you do is when you run a successful fucking business, you do it by building a really good team around you.
	And I have a lot of great employees, man.
	I got the best team in the world, man.
	I really did.
	250 unfucking believable people.
	When I said we're fucking storming the beach, we're going.
	Definitely, dude.
	Nobody fucking said no.
	There is no experience, man.
	When I go to the UFC fights, it's like whether it's the assistants or your directors or the guys who are opening the cage door, you look over and there's like some hero of yours.
	There's David Spade or there's Mel Gibson or there's Joe Burrow.
	It's like you have all of just like, and it just feels like you're in this fun fucking family that's a little bit mentally unhinged, right?
	I'm not going to say that, okay?
	Well, no, you're not wrong.
	Yeah, this family's had some fucking domestic disputes.
	All right.
	But they, but it just, dude, it feels so much fun.
	When I leave the event, I miss the people that you work with just as much as I miss the action.
	That's awesome.
	I love hearing that.
	And thank you.
	And you're not the first one to tell me that.
	Everybody tells me that.
	Anybody who interacts with anyone on my team and everybody here is smart, hardworking, the best at what they do.
	And there's none of that bullshit at the office where there's all this backstabbing and fucking all this bullshit.
	Those type of people we get rid of immediately.
	You don't last here being that kind of a person.
	This is a team.
	This is a family.
	And we throw parties here all the time for all of our employees.
	We throw different types of parties, like parties for the employees where they can bring their spouse or their wife or whatever.
	Then we throw parties where you can bring your kids because we want their kids to come and see the place where their parents work.
	And they want them to feel, you know, your parents are gone at work all the time.
	We want the kids to look at where they go to work as a fun place, as a place that's cool.
	Oh, mom and dad are at work.
	We love going to their work.
	You know what I mean?
	Oh, fucking start a 37-pound weight class, dude.
	You know what I'm saying?
	Yeah.
	That's out of line because that's children fighting.
	But was it hard for you to learn to be a boss as your business grew?
	Like, what was some of the, because, man, even you just saying this in front of us, man, it's important for us to hear because I need to do a better job of it.
	You know, and some of that is just stuff I'm learning as my business has grown and my responsibilities and not feeling like I need to really try to do everything myself.
	You know, I can be a better boss and employ and coworker a lot of times.
	So it's just powerful you're saying that in front of us.
	Delegating.
	Yeah.
	And respecting people's ability to do stuff.
	I'm just, I was always so used to doing things myself growing up.
	100%.
	You know, I get it.
	Listen, I'm still as successful as this thing has been and all the stuff that we do, I get here every day at nine o'clock and I'm one of the last guys to leave this building every night.
	Was it hard to learn to be a boss?
	Like, how, did you like have like a role model with that?
	I had my own business before this, but I obviously wasn't the difference.
	The only difference in coming to the UFC was the size, you know, being a global company and obviously the finance side.
	I mean, you know, I went from dealing with hundreds of thousands of dollars to dealing with hundreds of millions of dollars.
	So that's the difference.
	But, you know, finance is not my fucking thing.
	We have a very strong finance team.
	One of the things I hated the most in being in this business was fucking budget meetings, man.
	We used to be in budget meetings.
	You know, when we were getting murdered and we were losing money, we were in budget meetings for fucking, it felt like days.
	And that was the only not fun part of the business for me.
	And now, where we are now, I only do the fun shit.
	I only do the shit that I really love to do.
	And I stay completely focused on, which is making sure the production, the live and in-house production is fucking perfect.
	Finding new talent, putting on the best fights we can possibly put on and star building.
	Those are the things that I really focus on.
	So more marketing.
	I don't fuck with finances at all.
	Yeah, good.
	I mean, just because you like to gamble, you know, and because fucking I do too, man.
	So, you know, I fucking, I'm on some site now.
	I can't even get my money out of the fucking thing.
	Like, Jesus, dude.
	Online gaming is a little bit.
	It's a little strange, isn't it?
	Yeah.
	I respect them and we're happy that they advertise, but it's also, it's a little obtuse sometimes.
	I'm an old school brick and mortar, you know, sit at the table and play kind of guy.
	Oh, yeah, I'd rather not be able to pay my tab and have two fucking Italians beat the shit out of me, you know?
	Because at least it fucking evens out, you know.
	At least in the morning I wake up and like, oh, fuck, I deserve it.
	You know, it's like you, you know, it's physically part of you feel like it makes sense.
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	Make ship happen.
	Is it hard for you guys to pick sponsors?
	I know you guys have a new sponsorship.
	You guys have a new sponsorship with Bud Light, right?
	Yep.
	But is it, do people like, do companies come and do like Shark Tank for you kind of to present the brands?
	Yeah, kind of.
	So, you know, the UFC is at a point now where, you know, guys come to us and want to pitch their brands or whatever it is to advertise with us.
	And recently, you know, I've become very involved on the sponsorship side.
	So, you know, I meet with these guys and, you know, I just did an interview the other day with the media at the Scrum at Slap.
	And it's just, I'm at a point now where in my life and my career, I want to be with people that I'm aligned with, people that, you know, it's not just about the money.
	It is about the money because it's a sponsorship deal, but it's not just the money.
	Not going to go for, not going to take a bigger offer if it isn't something that I am aligned with and don't 100% believe it.
	Fuck yeah, dude.
	Good for you.
	It's nice to be in that space, you know?
	And I bet we can probably all be there, but I think some of it's fear.
	But yeah, I had a business guy.
	You're just talking about this.
	Were y'all?
	About in life.
	You have to have no fear.
	You have to have no fear.
	You have to believe in who you are and what you do and just go fucking get it.
	Don't be afraid to tell somebody no.
	Fucking water guy wants to do a deal with you and the money looks good, but there's certain things about that you're not into.
	Fuck them.
	Fuck them.
	Don't do it.
	You're the right thing to do.
	Be another one.
	Exactly.
	And somebody that you're more aligned with.
	When you look at these type of things, no different than a relationship.
	If you're going to get into a relationship with somebody, right?
	Imagine if you had to drop a contract with some woman.
	Aqua Fee.
	You say, some woman.
	We're going to be in a relationship for six years.
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	You have to be aligned and it has to be somebody that you can be in a relationship with for six years.
	Yeah, you don't want to be three years in and be like, oh, I'm still drinking Rhonda, you know?
	Or you don't want to be three years in and be like, oh, I'm still drinking Brittany.
	What happens to it?
	I didn't mean to say Rhonda.
	Because I know she's a fighter here.
	I just don't want there to be any weird energy.
	Okay.
	There won't be.
	Anyway, good.
	Rhonda was amazing, actually.
	I know she's one of your favorites.
	I know that's what Nicole said.
	She said that.
	Of all time.
	She named somebody else's favorites.
	But go on.
	I'm sorry.
	I fucked us up.
	Fuck, man.
	Sorry.
	No, you don't want to be in a relationship with Cole for a long time.
	It's like the COVID thing.
	It's like, you know, you think you're in this business with, you know, whatever product it is, and the shit hits the fan like that.
	That's when you find out who everybody really is, including some of your sponsors.
	Oh, yeah.
	You know what I mean?
	So you get, you know, you're in the sponsorship deal and the phone's ringing every day.
	You're picking it up and, you know, they don't like that you're doing this.
	They don't like that you're going through COVID.
	This is irresponsible.
	Man, get the fuck out of here.
	Get the fuck out of here.
	You know what I mean?
	You just, it just, when you do a sponsorship deal with somebody, you have to look deep into who they are and, you know, who's running the company, who's making the decisions.
	And are you aligned?
	Yeah.
	I love that, man.
	Yeah, because we had Robert Kennedy Jr. on and we had a company call or a couple companies call after that and say, yeah, just stuff about him.
	We're not advertising on this episode.
	My advertisers like, you guys need to take the episode down, you know?
	And we ended up.
	And what's wrong with him?
	Nothing.
	Nothing.
	Guy's fucking brilliant.
	And I've known him.
	He's a smart fucking guy.
	I've known him for seven years.
	Great guy.
	I mean, a neat man.
	Right.
	I've never met him.
	Yeah.
	I've only watched his stuff.
	And you got this whole Democrat, Republican, fucking all this crazy bullshit.
	He's a fucking Democrat.
	Yeah.
	Right?
	But now they hate him just because he doesn't believe.
	He's a Democrat with common sense.
	Yeah.
	Right?
	He's like an old school Democrat.
	Yeah.
	And smart guy, whatever.
	Let me tell you this.
	Let me fucking tell you this.
	This is America.
	You can fucking have whoever you want on your podcast.
	You can do whatever the fuck you want to do.
	Imagine a sponsor that's sponsoring you, calling you and telling you that you can't have this guy.
	What sponsor did it?
	Let me think.
	And I'm not afraid to name him.
	I don't know if I remember.
	I really don't.
	I don't know if I believe you, but okay.
	That's fair.
	But I really don't know if I remember.
	Imagine.
	And this happened to me too.
	This happened to me.
	I posted a video for Trump, right?
	On my personal social media.
	And one of our big sponsors called and said, take that down.
	You know what I said?
	Go fuck yourself.
	Yeah.
	You vote for whoever you want to vote for, and I'll vote for whoever I want to vote for.
	That's how this works.
	I don't even care who you're voting for.
	It's none of my fucking business.
	But fuck you.
	Don't ever fucking call me and tell me who to vote for.
	Yeah.
	I think a lot of people feel in fear these days, you know?
	A lot of people feel in fear that if they don't vote for certain people, they're going to lose their jobs.
	I mean, it's Hollywood, for example.
	Think about how fucking crazy that is.
	It sounds insane.
	It sounds just like.
	Well, it'll keep happening unless more people stand up for themselves and give them the fuck you response.
	Well, I'm going to tell my sponsors right now, if you don't like what I fucking have on, I'll tell you exactly what I'll do.
	I'll end my deals and I'll just sell direct to consumer for a lower price because the people will support you, you know?
	Well, listen, man, you can't, it's like this whole Bud Light deal.
	You know, people are talking shit now, sellout and all the shit that they'll fucking say.
	Believe me, I'm the furthest fucking thing from a sellout.
	Yeah.
	Bud Light is the right move for me.
	They're exactly who I want to be with right now.
	And we are very aligned as far as core values go.
	You know what I mean?
	65,000 Americans they employ.
	Yeah.
	That right there should be enough.
	65,000 Americans are employed there.
	Why would you want to put a bullet in that brand off of one fucking thing?
	How about you go back and look at all the good things they've done?
	Yeah.
	Right.
	That's a good point.
	And where they really stand and what they really believe in.
	They take care of veterans.
	They take care of veterans' families and first responders' families who have fallen.
	And the list just goes on and on.
	Almost a billion dollars a year with U.S. farmers.
	Wow.
	That alone is the reason you should be drinking fucking Bud Light.
	Yeah.
	So I look deeper than just fucking, you know, oh, they did this fucking can with whoever.
	I don't give a shit about that.
	They've already, they're showing right now that they're coming with me and they want to be aligned with me.
	Those of you that are hardcore, some of you guys are fanatical on this shit.
	That should be your, you know, and you guys think you're all looking for an apology.
	I ain't going to fucking apologize to you.
	Yeah, fuck you.
	Just get some risky fellas.
	You know, just get some, you know.
	They had 2,500 influencers that day.
	They gave everybody their own.
	I knew they did.
	I knew that shit.
	I'm like, they just gave a can to everybody.
	Nobody's paying attention.
	Everybody, dude, if I don't know where I'm at sexually, I could probably use a drink.
	You know?
	That's honestly how I feel, dude.
	That guy's having the toughest day.
	You can't decide what union to fucking be in, bro.
	That's a fucking issue, dude.
	That's a big issue to me.
	But no, I think, look, man, I think it's important.
	And you know what it makes me think?
	I don't look and see who, because we're in a place now where I can choose the advertisers that I want.
	And I never thought about that before.
	I never have until just now.
	And I can look at advertisers and see if they have some of the same beliefs and values that I do.
	100%.
	You know, and it's important.
	And that is how you start to build back things the other way.
	I wish.
	And it makes it fun.
	Whoever you are and whatever you believe in, when you align yourself with people, not just the people that work for you and around you, but the sponsors that you're with.
	It just makes everything so much more fun.
	You enjoy your job.
	You love what you do every day.
	And there's no bullshit.
	Nobody's fucking calling you going, you know, hey, don't have fucking Kennedy on your show.
	Hey, go fuck yourself.
	Fucking tell me who I'm going to have on my show.
	Yeah, go John F. Fuck yourself.
	That's what I'll tell.
	There you go.
	Exactly.
	Dude, it's crazy because Lee Harvey Oswald went to the same middle school as me, which is pretty wild.
	But anyway, I don't know why I told you.
	Robert Kennedy's a smart guy and he's, you know, he's a great man.
	He's an environmentalist, first of all, and he helped clean up our environment, right?
	He grew up raising homing pigeons.
	And he has this great story about him and his friends, when they were kids, they would give the homing pigeons to the train conductor, right?
	And they would be like, okay, take these to Virginia or whatever and let them off at the same time.
	You have to promise us.
	And whoever gets back to the roost first, that's who wins, right?
	So imagine that game with your buddy.
	You're just fucking sitting there waiting for a pigeon to come in, you know?
	Just the guy's fascinating, right?
	That's some rich people shit right now.
	Oh, dude, that is fucking rich, bro.
	Something flies by us, dude.
	Somebody's fucking gunning it down, bro.
	But we actually had a couple brothers bust grilling up a dove one time, our neighbors.
	And I've never eaten dove, but it was pretty good.
	But Robert's a fascinating guy.
	But that's how he started caring about vaccinations was he cared about the environment outside of us.
	So then he started to care about the environment inside of us.
	So it all makes perfect sense.
	But yeah, I love the guy.
	What about, so when you deal with like, how, has it been harder?
	Because you guys are part of William Morris, right?
	I work with them, right?
	Yeah, they're a pretty woke company, right?
	Is it woke as woke and be?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, I think it's woke Morris Entertainment or something, you know?
	It should be anyway.
	But yeah, they're fucking woke.
	They're always crazy.
	We had Tucker Carlson on the other day and they're all fucking, I'm sure, you know, or whatever, putting on their maxi pads.
	But I love Tucker, too.
	Yeah.
	Tucker's fucking fascinating indeed.
	I'm actually going to dinner with him here in the next few weeks.
	Yeah, he's love him.
	It was interesting.
	I didn't know what it would be like.
	You know, he looks like a guy that, you know, gets dressed at Johnston and Murphy in the airport every day, you know?
	But he was really, really cool.
	Yeah.
	He's a great dude.
	Smart guy, too.
	Really smart.
	Yeah.
	It was fun to do.
	I don't judge people by their politics or their race or their religions or any of that shit.
	You're either a douchebag or you're not a douchebag.
	And if you're a douchebag, I want nothing to do with you.
	If you're a good person, I don't care who you vote for, who you sleep with or what religion you are.
	I don't care about any of that shit.
	Is it how much have you learned about different cultures and ethnicities just having your, because dude, you bring in, there's people with flags sometimes and I got to look them up.
	Yeah, no, it's true.
	It's amazing, though.
	It's like I learned about Ecuador from Chito Vera, right?
	I didn't know about it, but next thing you know, I know about it.
	I get to talk with him.
	Cheeto?
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Thank God I got that right too, because that fucking flag.
	I got it wrong.
	I questioned it.
	Cheeto Vera is a great dude.
	He's fascinated.
	But it is.
	There will be nights that we'll be sitting there by the octagon and I trip out.
	I grew up a big Bruce Lee fan.
	Right.
	And when you watch Enter the Dragon, it's basically the premise is this fanatical guy got all these people from around the world who are supposed to be the best martial artists in the world.
	He brings them to one place to fight.
	That's a movie?
	Yeah, Enter the Dragon.
	Enter the Dragon.
	I've heard of it.
	You never saw Ender the Dragon?
	I never saw it.
	You need to watch that tonight when you go home.
	All right.
	Yes, sir.
	Enter the Dragon.
	So this guy brings them all to this island.
	The guy ends up being, you know, bad guy.
	He's corrupt or whatever.
	And Bruce Lee kills him.
	Sorry to ruin the movie for you, but I'll still watch it.
	But some nights I'll sit there and I'll think about it.
	I got this guy from China fighting a guy from Kazakhstan.
	I got this guy from Brazil fighting a guy from France.
	You know what I mean?
	And it's like, it is almost, it's like, I grew up loving Enter the Dragon and that whole conversation.
	And then now here you are doing it.
	Doing it.
	Yeah, it's pretty fucking cool.
	Dude, laughter and left hooks, those are universal languages, I think.
	It's true.
	I agree.
	Because it's crazy.
	Imagine two guys that can't even speak to each other.
	Then you put Keith Peterson in between them as the mediator.
	And no offense, I love Keith.
	He came to a show in New Jersey.
	He knows I love him.
	But if that's the fucking moderator, and then they can't even speak, but they're fighting.
	It's really, it's kind of a beautiful dance.
	The whole thing is a beautiful dance.
	You have these people from different parts of the world, right?
	And they're training and they're trying to become the best mixed martial artists they can be.
	And somebody on the other side of the planet is doing the same.
	And we can actually put them together to see who is the best.
	It's fucking awesome.
	Dude, that's got to be so high, man.
	It's awesome.
	Have you had trouble?
	Do you ever have trouble?
	Like I have trouble a lot of times feeling proud of myself is something I've had trouble with.
	Has that ever been something you've dealt with?
	Does that make any sense if I can ask you that?
	I'm never proud of myself.
	I always look at things like we're not even close.
	People ask me all the time, do you ever look around and say, oh, wow, look at it.
	I'm always like, what's next?
	What's next?
	What's next?
	Why do you think that is?
	Do you think, because I'm that way too?
	It's hard for me to feel kind of where I'm at sometimes because I always have some vision or something, you know, that needs to be done.
	Yeah.
	Do you think that comes, because I notice it's a commonality amongst some, some folks.
	Do you think there's any, have you able to get in touch with any of that and think about that at all?
	No, I don't give a shit.
	Yeah.
	I just keep fucking, I just keep plugging.
	I just keep plugging, man.
	There's just so much more work to be done.
	I just want to do as much as I can do until I can't do it anymore.
	Dude, I'm so thankful that you said that about the advertisers because I don't even think about it.
	We advertise for a lot of companies, right?
	And we can have an effect on how well they do.
	We've helped build some big brands.
	And to think that I should know what their, some of their thoughts are and their beliefs are so that I can align them with mine, fucking, that's cool.
	That's some, that's a way that I can help contribute towards in the world.
	And have fun doing it.
	You know, you help build their business.
	They help build yours.
	It's a really, it should be a great relationship and it should be a good experience for everybody involved.
	Yeah.
	But I can tell you from experience, if you end up with the wrong one, there's nothing fun about it.
	And actually, you end up in a bad relationship.
	It's like any other bad relationship between you and a woman or whatever it could be.
	Have you guys struggled with a bad relationship?
	Yeah.
	Have you all struggled with it?
	I mean, it happens.
	Yeah, it's happened a couple times, but yeah.
	Oh, Peloton was the, we just got an update.
	Peloton was the band, was the people who wanted an ad out, Peloton.
	And meanwhile, you have RFK.
	So Peloton, what do they sell?
	Fucking bikes, the stationary bikes?
	Peloton sells stationary bikes and they got a problem with Robert fucking Kennedy.
	Fuck you, Peloton.
	Who the fuck are they?
	Are you fucking kidding me?
	Yeah.
	Fucking Peloton calling bitching about Robert Kennedy.
	Yeah, dude.
	You want to go nowhere?
	Who's the CEO of Peloton?
	I want to see this fucking lamb.
	I want to see this fucking lamb, dude.
	Hey, you know what gets you further than Peloton?
	Hitchhiking.
	Okay.
	How about that, dude?
	Barry McCarthy.
	This fucking Wiener Schnitzel, huh?
	Let's see Barry McCarthy.
	Oh, my God.
	Oh, oh, yeah.
	Oh, fucking yeah.
	Barry McCarthy looks like that guy.
	A hundred percent.
	And look, if you're just listening at home and you're thinking of what he looks like, you're right.
	He looks like a douchebag.
	Yeah, dude.
	100%.
	Where's he from?
	Oh, yeah.
	He looks like somebody that eats his own skin a little bit at a time.
	Yeah, he is.
	He is.
	Where is he fucking from?
	If you call me up and said this guy was complaining about something, I'd say, oh, fuck.
	San Francisco, California.
	There we go.
	My boy.
	Ring-a-ling, dude.
	There you go.
	They've been giving Pelotons to fucking vagrants, so that's why they're not leaving.
	Yeah.
	Fuck you, Peloton.
	Yeah.
	Do we have Pelotons in the gym?
	Are those Peloton?
	Asporsh.
	No, no, there's bikes next to it.
	Asporsh.
	Yeah.
	We're getting rid of them.
	Yeah.
	We're getting rid of the Pelotons.
	Yeah.
	And if they ever make it.
	We're sorry he's going to kill himself, but we're getting rid of the Pelotons.
	Pelotons are out of the gym.
	Whoever uses the most can fucking have them at home, but they can't use them here, brother.
	That's what you do.
	That's what you do.
	You stop fucking using their products and you fuck them.
	Yeah.
	And tell them to go fuck themselves.
	And that's the same thing for me.
	Like if somebody's telling you that you can't vote a certain way, if somebody's telling you that if your boss is make a video and fucking blast.
	Imagine that fucking dork fucking picking up the phone, calling you and telling you that you can't have Robert Kennedy, who is a Democrat, by the way.
	You know that guy's a fucking Democrat.
	Oh, yeah.
	Right?
	Telling you that you can't fucking have him on your show.
	Who the fuck are you, Barry McCarthy?
	Yeah.
	To think you can pick up the phone and call anybody.
	You sell fucking stationary bikes for a living, you fucking clown.
	Fuck you.
	Yeah, fuck them, dude.
	God, dude.
	And what is he?
	Fucking, what is he?
	He's probably middleweight.
	I'll fucking cut 40 pounds in fucking.
	That guy is the typical, fucking pompous, arrogant, fucking douchebag that I cannot stomach.
	It's people who don't know.
	Yeah, it's people that think they know what it's like somewhere and they've never even been there.
	That's a story of a lot of our country these days.
	But I like this.
	It gives me an avenue to feel like I can fight back.
	So I appreciate that.
	You have to fight back.
	Yeah.
	You're going to let that fucking guy tell you what to do?
	Fuck no, dude.
	I will cook that dude's fucking.
	Look at this.
	There he is.
	That right there tells you exactly what fucking Barry McCarthy is all about.
	Peloton just laid off 500 of their employees in their fourth round of cuts this year.
	You know what, everybody listening?
	Fucking fuck Barry McCarthy and Peloton.
	Okay?
	That's what a stand-up guy Barry is.
	Yeah, dude.
	And that's why he ain't, yeah, fucking.
	Let off 500 more of his fucking employees out in his fourth round of cuts.
	Yeah, what's lamer than watching your husband get on a bike that doesn't go anywhere?
	Huh?
	What wife is like, oh, I'm so proud of this guy?
	That's like my dad, man, right?
	Get Borsari in here right now.
	I need Borsari in here.
	Yeah, get him.
	Yeah, is he a bicyclist?
	He has.
	If he isn't, why does he look exactly?
	He's just, he's a workout freak.
	I'm not bullshitting you.
	You can film us.
	Yeah.
	My guys are going to take the Peloton's out of the gym today.
	We're getting rid of them.
	We're going to go throw them in the fucking garbage today.
	I'll be happy to toss them in.
	We're throwing the Pelotons in the garbage.
	We're throwing them out of the UFC gym.
	I'll be happy to toss them in.
	What about when you talk about star building, you mentioned earlier, and we'll do it.
	We'll do it.
	I know you're amped and I appreciate it.
	Do what?
	We're going to throw this Peloton towel.
	Oh, yeah, yeah.
	No, that's a fact.
	Yeah.
	Fuck, I'm almost excited now.
	Yeah, fuck that guy, man.
	You know what he did?
	They ruined my day.
	The advertisers calling.
	They want it down.
	They want it down.
	There's advertisers upset.
	They ruined my fucking day.
	And I was already having a shitty day that day.
	And they fucking made it just a nightmare.
	It was like seven o'clock at night.
	You got to take it down.
	And the episode had been up.
	It's a shit show.
	But yeah, screw them.
	You talked about star building a little bit ago, right?
	You mentioned it.
	Is there a toughest class or even gender?
	Is it tough to build like female stars?
	Like, what is that kind of like?
	Star building?
	So if you look at the contender series, right?
	I create lots of different content to build stars.
	You got the contender series.
	You have Looking for a Fight, The Ultimate Fighter, which was the greatest star building show and format of all time.
	And I'm literally doing that same format right now with PowerSlap.
	We bring guys into a house.
	You find these guys.
	You bring them into a house.
	They live, eat, and sleep, and train together and then compete against each other.
	And what it does is it does a few things.
	While you're showing the world who they are on television or online or whatever it is, it's also a pressure cooker.
	They have to deal with pressure and competing over and over and cutting weight.
	Then there's a camera in their face seven days a week, 24 hours a day.
	It's like media training at the same time.
	And what always happens is no matter what, the best always rise to the top.
	It is fascinating.
	All right.
	So this is Craig Borsari.
	He's my head of.
	I know Craig.
	He's friends with my, I know his neighbors.
	Yep.
	There you go.
	Oh, he's Craig is very friendly with all of you.
	Craig's an exceptional guy.
	So he was in a situation where he had Robert Kennedy Jr. on his show.
	And an advertiser called and told him, get rid of that.
	You're not posting that podcast.
	Take it down.
	Blah, blah, blah.
	Because he had Robert Kennedy on, right?
	It was Peloton.
	Okay?
	Well, do you know who Barry McCarthy is?
	No.
	Barry McCarthy is the CEO of Peloton.
	Yeah.
	Let us see Barry McCarthy again.
	Can we see him again, please?
	We got pictures of you and Barry McCarthy together, actually, Craig.
	Is that Pelotons that we have in the gym?
	We have Pelotons, yeah.
	They're going.
	We're throwing them out.
	Yeah.
	Getting rid of them.
	That's Barry McCarthy.
	This is the fucking guy that called and told him to take down the fucking.
	We had an episode of.
	Does that look like the guy that would call him bitch about Robert Kennedy Jr.?
	He does, doesn't he?
	Who is that?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, he does, huh?
	A little.
	I don't know Tim Cook.
	I mean, I'm just agreeing with you.
	I don't know him either.
	Who's Tim Cook?
	Oh.
	Oh, Apple.
	Okay.
	They're gone.
	They're going out.
	I thought I'd go bike on the road now.
	Yep.
	No, you just got to use the assault bikes now instead.
	Yeah.
	Those are tougher anyway.
	Way tougher than the Peloton.
	It's time to step up.
	If I ask you to guess, so he called and he wanted Robert Kennedy Jr. taken down, right?
	Threatening him on his podcast, right?
	Yeah, they were about to go public.
	I think their company is about to go public or something.
	They're like, this could ruin everything.
	That's what our ad agency said to us.
	They're worried this could ruin everything.
	It's fucking 8 o'clock at night on a Friday or something.
	I can't fucking imagine that.
	And they made us go take an older episode down because of something he'd said recently in the news.
	This was like a year and a half, two years ago, maybe.
	Where do you think Barry lives?
	Where do you think he's from?
	Just look at him in the video.
	Yes, huh?
	And listen to the conversation and see if you can tell me where Barry lives.
	Yeah, he probably lives.
	Let me.
	Craig?
	San Francisco?
	Oh, fucking ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.
	Hey, you just won.
	Barry lives in San Francisco.
	Hold on, you just won four Pelotons.
	Congrats, you just won a whole fucking lot of fun.
	You can line them right up in your house.
	I can't set them up here in the office, so I might as well put them on my own.
	Those are going right in your house.
	Congrats.
	I'll put it on my phone.
	You can have a flock of Pelotons, dude.
	Isn't that a band?
	You can have a flock of Pelotons, dude.
	That's classic, man.
	Oh, man.
	All right, anyway.
	Just had to share that with you.
	Yeah.
	Go figure out my new workout.
	Go get those bikes sent over to your house, dude.
	And send Barry a text and tell him thanks.
	Thanks, dude.
	That makes you feel empowered, honestly.
	No, this is what I do.
	I like this, dude.
	I'm going to do more of this, bro.
	What do I do?
	No bike helmets either.
	Anybody wearing a fucking bike helmet out there?
	I bet you Barry wears a helmet when he rides in.
	Oh, I bet he wears one when he rides his wife, dude.
	You fucking come around me with a bike helmet, dude.
	I would rather get a concussion and die than be seen in a fucking bike helmet.
	That is awesome.
	Anyway, what's it like?
	We'll switch out of this world a little bit.
	What's it like being a dad?
	You have a couple children, right?
	Yeah, I got three.
	I got two boys and a girl.
	Was that scary when you first thought about being a dad?
	Yes, very.
	Wow.
	And were you already having success at that point in your life?
	Because I don't know a ton about right when we bought the UFC.
	I had my first son, my oldest son.
	He's 22 now.
	Dana Jr.
	No.
	Yeah, Dana Jr., yeah.
	And then a year, as soon as you could be with your wife again after being pregnant, she got pregnant again.
	So my boys are less than a year apart.
	So I had two kids right out of the gates.
	Yeah.
	It was easy.
	Two kids right out of then they said after my wife had a tubular pregnancy where the baby gets caught in the tube and the tube bursts.
	And they said she couldn't have kids anymore.
	So we were like, whatever.
	And then five years later, she got pregnant with my daughter.
	Just miraculously.
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	That's like all of the miracle baby.
	Yeah.
	And what's something that you like about each one of your children just individually or that you admire about each one of them?
	My oldest one is fun-loving and, you know, a great kid that, you know, he's like a meathead.
	He plays football.
	He loves to work out.
	He hangs around.
	He's in a frat, you know, at USD and all of his buddies are fun guys.
	And they're actually having this fraternity auction.
	You know, they're raising money for the fraternity next week.
	So I'm going down there and going to their auction and all that shit.
	Beautiful school, too.
	Then my younger son is very artistic, very talented.
	He could play any sport he wants to play.
	He's really good at anything.
	But all three of my kids are really good surfers, snowboarders.
	And my younger son loves the skateboard and all that stuff.
	So he's actually working for a company that Lorenzo Fertida and I own called Thrill One, which is Thrill One?
	Thrill One.
	We own Ridiculousness on MTV.
	Y'all own that?
	Yeah.
	That's our only show.
	Yeah, it's basically the Ridiculousness Network.
	Ridiculousness.
	We own SLS Skate League.
	We own Nitro Circus and Travis Bestrana's Nitro Cross.
	Oh, nice.
	So my son works for them.
	Oh, he does.
	And then my daughter is 17. So he's the artistic one, that one.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And they're all athletic.
	He's the artistic one.
	And what about your daughter?
	What's your child?
	My daughter cheers.
	She's a cheerleader.
	Oh, she is.
	Yeah.
	She's still in high school.
	She's a junior and just getting her ready to figure out which college she wants to go to and all that good shit.
	Is it tougher being a girl?
	For you, was it easier being a girl or boy, dad?
	Did you have any?
	It's tougher being a girl, dad, because I didn't really give a shit what the boys did.
	You know, they could do whatever they want.
	She can't do whatever she wants.
	So, you know, as a dad, you have to sort of oversee and protect your daughter more than you did your sons.
	Ah, interesting.
	And does that naturally, I don't have any kids, but I would like to, you know, and so does that naturally just happen in a man?
	You think if you have a daughter, it just kind of shows up more?
	100%.
	Wow.
	Dude, I dated a girl I remember in high school and her dad was a fireman, right?
	And I broke up with her and he fucking made me eat like probably five hot dogs.
	I remember he was fucking mad at me because I went to another event with her and it was like this weird energy and he fucking sat there and made me eat as many as I could.
	It was just hot dogs?
	Yeah.
	Just like unlimited franks, man.
	I'm trying to figure this one out.
	He just wanted to fucking put me through something, you know?
	And I think putting somebody through bad fucking pork while they're sitting there, you know, it's just a lot for a young, you know, for me when I was a kid, you know, I didn't have a lot of role models, so I think it was a lot.
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	Any new partnerships or something that you're kind of excited about?
	Let me think.
	You know, the thrill one stuff that I'm doing, love it.
	You know, we're having a blast doing that.
	You know, Hollerhead, my whiskey.
	Yeah.
	Having fun with that.
	You know, I like building brands and I love running businesses.
	And more importantly, I'm like addicted to winning.
	I love to win.
	I love to get out there and take these niche brands and blow them up and make them big.
	Yeah, I know.
	I'm friends with John Shahidi, right?
	And you are too, man.
	I love Shahidi.
	He's an amazing.
	I love Shahidi.
	Love the both the brothers, the Nelk boys.
	That's, that's my, That's my squad.
	They keep you young.
	I bet they keep you connected to stuff probably.
	Well, you know how I got turned on to them was from my oldest son, Dana.
	During COVID, he says, Dad, I want to show you something.
	He took me down the movie room and showed me the Nelk Boys.
	Oh, yeah.
	And I said, yeah, I get it.
	I get it.
	And then crazy enough, organically, they reached out to me during COVID and wanted to go to Fight Island.
	So that was how we met.
	And we became super tight.
	I'd do anything for them.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	John's been an exceptional new friend to me in the past year and a half.
	He's a neat guy.
	He's inspiring.
	He's fun.
	He's creative.
	He works hard.
	100%.
	Is there any new places you're looking to fucking get this thing to happen?
	Like you thinking about doing like, you know, UFC on top of Kilimanjaro, UFC, you know, the Thriller in Manila.
	Do you guys think of redoing anything like that?
	My next big project that I'm working on right now is a sphere.
	I want to do the sphere on Mexican Independence Day and literally create and put on the greatest live sporting event anyone has ever seen.
	That's my next big project.
	How much fun is it when Brandon Moreno comes into the ring?
	It's fun, isn't it?
	It's awesome.
	Yeah, him.
	It's so fun.
	The whole Mexico thing and these Mexican talented kids.
	Yeah.
	I've been working on this for 22 years.
	Wow.
	That's finally starting to come to fruition.
	It's so cool, man.
	I just, yeah, I love it when he comes to the ring.
	Yeah, I've met so many neat people and have been inspired by so many people from your sport.
	Dustin Poirier and I are close friends, you know, and it's been special.
	Like he's like a real friend to me.
	He's inspired me so many times when I want to give up.
	I remember things that he says or other fighters say.
	It's interesting the amount of inspiration that a lot of people get from your sport.
	Oh, do you ever think about, yeah, how is the relationship with WME?
	Is it good?
	Very good.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, very good.
	You know, Ari is Ari's a maniac, man.
	A maniac in a good way.
	He is like a fucking serial entrepreneur.
	So you guys have that in common?
	He's super fucking smart.
	And the fact that, you know, when we sold, one of his big things was that I couldn't go.
	So at one point, the Fertidas sat down with me and they were like, because I thought we were just going to move on and go, we were going to go do whatever next.
	And they were just like, listen, this is really good for all of us and this and that.
	You know, you got to stay.
	Nobody's going to buy this thing unless you stay.
	Yeah.
	So, you know, in the beginning, I had a hard time with it because, you know, I didn't want to sell.
	Selling was not.
	Lorenzo was done.
	Lorenzo was ready to move on and walk.
	And I didn't want to.
	So we got in with Ari.
	Ari lets me run the business, man.
	And just, you know, if I need help on something, like, hey, I need this connection or I need this or that, he can make all that shit happen.
	Ari's that guy.
	Like, you want to meet the fucking, I want to talk to the fucking president of fucking India or whatever the fuck.
	He can get that guy on the phone and get the ball rolling.
	Yeah.
	No, Ari's awesome.
	He's been a other than being in business with the Fertidas, I couldn't have landed with another better partner than fucking Ari.
	He really is awesome.
	I love him.
	Is it hard to fend off?
	Because I know you, I know, so you like to gamble.
	Is it hard to keep gambling out of, and I bet on fights, on UFC fights online.
	Is there a point where gambling or the odds makers try to come and infiltrate the actual outcome of sports?
	No.
	Does that make any sense?
	That question?
	Yeah, yeah, I get it.
	You're talking about like point shaving and shit like that.
	That happens with the business.
	Right, which would be hard in your sport, I think, because these guys have so much individual pride and it would be so obvious.
	100%.
	We just had an, the problem that we have, it just happened recently, is insider information is the bigger problem.
	These guys inside these camps.
	Oh, yeah.
	If a guy gets hurt.
	Like Chase Sherman as a lisp or whatever.
	No, that definitely does.
	And I love Chase Sherman.
	And that was a joke, Chase.
	Oh, so it's been an MA coach James Kraus worked at Offshore Sportsbook.
	Ah.
	So he knows what's going on, so he's trying to bet.
	So he knows what's going on.
	So he lets these offshore guys know, yeah, this guy's going to fight.
	And he tore his ACL.
	And he did something like that.
	This happened.
	It did.
	Yeah, this just happened recently.
	And that's the closest thing to, you know, more about insider information.
	But these guys, the thing that's so fucking stupid is when you start, when money starts coming in on a guy, these guys know.
	They know, man.
	They know the gambling world inside and out.
	So if anything's fishy, then they end up launching an investigation and they're going to get you.
	And guess what?
	Whatever you made on that bet is not fucking worth going to, you've seen me say this before.
	It's out there for federal fucking prison.
	You ain't going to the fucking white collar crime place over here.
	You're going to fucking federal prison.
	Yeah, you can't have people be like, well, what are you in for?
	You know, and you're like, Paulo Costa in the third round.
	Right.
	You know, like, it would just be, it wouldn't be as like, you know, and I love Paulo Costa.
	That's no shot.
	But it's like, you can't have that be what you're in for in a fucking.
	There's a big difference when you talk about certain crimes, but this one is a federal fucking crime.
	Oh, because it's gambling.
	And you go to federal prison, that's some real shit.
	Yeah.
	Oh, yeah.
	I wouldn't like it.
	What about, and just one more question.
	So, but does that happen to sports where they get compromised, do you think?
	Like, does that make any sense what I'm trying to?
	And I'm not saying that.
	I don't know.
	I mean, it's a great question.
	It's something that, how many people have ever said to you, oh my God, the NFL is so shady.
	That's right.
	You hear that?
	Because you hear that a lot more now.
	The Patriots just beat the Bills.
	Right.
	And the Bills were 10 and a half point favorites.
	You know, it's stuff like that that makes people go crazy.
	Detroit just got killed.
	You know, one of the best there, 5-1 or 5-0.
	I don't know what they were, but it's just all that type of shit is what made me stop.
	You know, I'm a fucking gambler.
	I love to play blackjack.
	I don't sports bet.
	I do not sports bet.
	Was there a bet that took you out of it or just that kind of stuff?
	You know how people say, ah, I threw a little money on the game for fun.
	There's nothing fucking fun about betting on a game.
	It is the biggest sweat roller coaster of all fucking time, man.
	And it won't be fun or make you happy.
	It makes you fucking miserable.
	So you like to know that the, so with blackjack, you know the outcome pretty quick.
	So you don't like that long waiting.
	There's no doubt about it.
	And, you know, you get in there and it's just more fun.
	I'm actually hands-on and actually playing the fucking game.
	You know, when you sit there and just watch a fucking game and watch this whole thing unfold and lose your money, there's absolutely nothing fun about it.
	Or these guys that will do these parlays.
	Yeah.
	I got an eight-team parlay and every fucking team wins and then you lose the last fucking game on the parlay, right?
	Yeah.
	And you bet $10 and it would have paid you $10 million if you fucking won the fucking thing.
	And now you spent two days watching it too.
	Now your kids are eating fucking coffee.
	Yeah, that shit is fucking fucking, dude.
	What about like, was there a fighter that retired and it just kind of broke your heart because you just, and it could be more than one, maybe.
	I mean, I know you probably have a great relationship and unique relationships with all of them.
	But was there one that like, is it hard not to get attached to some of them?
	100%, especially in the early days, we were like a big family.
	I mean, it was like everybody knew everybody.
	I mean, Marco Bailey almost in order to be able to.
	And you go back to Chuck Liddell, Matt Hughes, Rich Franklin.
	You know what I mean?
	That whole group back then.
	I mean, these people would come to my house for Christmas and Thanksgiving and, you know, holidays and things like that.
	And then you had to go up there and watch them fight.
	And it was tough.
	And Ronda Rousey, Rhonda and I are super close.
	And that was a tough one.
	I would say the toughest retirement for me, because usually when it's time for them to retire, I'm happy for them to retire.
	It's over.
	You've accomplished everything that you could possibly accomplish.
	Why keep doing this?
	Habib was a tough retirement.
	Yeah.
	You know, because I think Habib had so much more to offer and so much more to accomplish.
	But I think when his dad passed away, it kind of sucked the fun out of it for him.
	And he was done.
	Plus, he made so much fucking money, he never has to do anything ever again.
	Oh, yeah.
	He could buy his own rock quarry over there or whatever.
	And no offense, I don't know where they're at, but I know it gets pretty, you know, paleolithic in some of those areas.
	I don't know if we have anything else to talk about, man.
	Yeah, one thing you said that kind of reminded me was I remember when Trump was running for office and Bill Belichick, they asked him about him and he said, that's my friend.
	I support my fucking friend, you know?
	Like, whatever you guys think about it is fine.
	Because he wrote a letter to him telling him congratulations for running, I think.
	Is that what happened?
	What are you talking about?
	It was when Donald Trump was running for office, right?
	And Bill Belichick had written him a letter that just said, hey, congrats on running for president.
	And I think Trump mentioned it, and then the media attacked Belichick about it.
	But he said, hey, that's my friend.
	I support my friend.
	Yeah.
	And people need to be able to stand up.
	I think it's, yeah, I think people, a lot of people are in fear because I'm having breakfast with him tomorrow on his plane.
	He's my friend.
	We talk all the time.
	We talk about fights.
	he called me up right after Abu Dhabi and said, Those rides are great.
	Oh, my God.
	The Volk, you know.
	Yeah, I met him twice at your events, man.
	Exactly.
	And it was great.
	He's a great guy.
	He's, he's, you know, it was neat.
	Politics are dirty, man.
	It's nasty.
	It's ugly, you know, and like all the shit that's going on right with him right now.
	If he wasn't running, they wouldn't be doing any of this stuff for him.
	None of this would be happening.
	And if he wasn't in the lead, like he's going to win the election, none of this would be happening to him right now.
	So it's just, it is what it is.
	And the guy's always been an amazing friend to me.
	He and I will be friends for the rest of our lives.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	I'm glad I got to meet him.
	That's the first president I ever got to meet.
	You know, I would support any of our presidents, you know?
	Yep.
	I'm that guy too.
	You know, I'm, I don't, I'm, I'm not volatile over politics, man.
	This is America.
	You can vote for whoever you want.
	You could be on either side of the political spectrum.
	I don't care.
	I don't judge you by your politics.
	I judge what type of a person you are.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	And if you think the government's going to save your life, dude, I've always said this.
	Me too.
	The government.
	They're just some.
	These people that want the government, you want less government.
	You want them out of your life.
	You do not want the government.
	The government's never going to take care of you.
	Never going to get rich off the government.
	Dude, no, dude.
	Stamp collections get fucked, homie, right?
	The post office is almost out of business, dude.
	Have you been to the post office recently?
	They just tell you how to get to wherever you want your mail to go.
	Dude, I'll say this.
	Yeah, there's nothing tougher than expecting the government.
	Well, I think we're in a weird space now where we're between the government that we've been used to and a new kind of privatized communism almost.
	So I think we're in this weird space of almost two governments where one is like a, almost like a shadow.
	Well, there's a battle going on right now.
	There's a war going on in the government, one that wants to go one way that most of us don't want to go, and one that wants to keep things the way they are.
	It might be broken and fucked up and needs to be fixed, but we're definitely in that weird place right now.
	I agree.
	So get off your Pelotons, boys, and let's fucking go to war.
	Dane Whiteman, thanks so much, dude.
	And just thanks for, yeah, David Spade got to bring me to a fight and you let me come.
	It's just, I appreciate it, man.
	You're friends with a lot of my friends, and I'm just grateful.
	It's been a joy to get to know people that work in your office and just everything.
	It's added a lot of joy to my life.
	Well, congrats on all your success, man.
	We're happy for you.
	And yeah, I'll see you at the next one.
	I'll see you at the next PowerSlide, man.
	There you go.
	Boom.
	Now I'm just floating on the breeze.
	And I feel I'm falling like these leaves.
	I must be cornerstone.
	Oh, but when I reach that ground, I'll share this piece of mind I found.
	I can feel it in my bones.

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