Dana White reacts to White House ratings, Alex Pereira's outrage, 'disgusting' Josh Hokit

[0:04] all right fight of the night olivera feely and performance of the night uh cap and uh mega [0:10] bad off so they won all the money what did you make of that performance by cap he was down a [0:15] couple of rounds and then no one hits as hard as this guy at flyweight that would seem so true it's [0:20] just you know let's talk about how one punch can change you know the trajectory of a fight and [0:26] that was it i'm not asking you to book anything but on paper he hits very hard the champion joshua [0:32] van hits very hard that feels like a very fun fight we could see in the future there you go [0:37] what did you make of the co-main event kutalaba versus navajo sterling crazy brawl back and [0:41] forth what did you make of sterling coming through that test incredible yeah um yeah impressive uh [0:49] finish um you know cool out he's got a hell of a chin he was laying there taking all those shots [0:55] i can't remember who it was and we have a group chat with have a group chat with the uh with the [1:00] matchmakers and they were like i can never tell when he's sort of playing possum i said his face [1:05] doesn't look like he was playing possum you know at the end when they were raising his hand but [1:10] great win for him yeah i want to talk about the big story of the week is the white house numbers [1:14] i think it was 17 million total viewers in the states how excited and happy are you with those [1:19] numbers i know paramount are very happy but you personally how happy are you with those yeah i mean [1:24] a third of their subscribers tuned into the you know it was huge and the global number's massive so [1:31] uh that's gonna come out next week um that's the biggest thing that that we've ever done [1:40] and uh obviously the biggest thing ever for the sport and you know my job i've been saying this [1:48] since the the end of the espn deal my job is to deliver for paramount and boy have we delivered in [1:54] six months i mean a lot of the stuff you know we've just been quiet we let them announce and then [2:01] uh you know some of these markets that we're still in our pay-per-view so you got to go through all the [2:06] pay-per-view stuff and everything else but the the global number will probably come out next week i know [2:13] you're not going to tell me but how much bigger is the global number than the state number there's [2:19] there's two problems we're a public company and paramount is a public company and there's so many [2:27] massive wins from that night but i can't talk about any of them because they they influence stock [2:40] movement so there's so much stuff we get to i'm telling you just watch what happens this is like [2:46] what i said with boxing judges january you know 2027 on the body of work we do this year wait to see [2:55] what we do over the next two years it's just like you know and and i had a guy come up to me that night [3:00] after we did the press conference and basically um you know what do you what do you have to say [3:06] about eddie hearn and i said we are not the same okay and and let me just put it this way from here [3:12] on out with all the media you know i'm not going to say anything about any of these other we are not [3:19] the same we literally right now are competing with the nfl the nba major league baseball in the nhl [3:28] if you think about where we sit in the pecking order of the top sports in the country [3:36] i don't know this to be true but i guarantee you it is the day we announced that we did a 7.7 billion [3:43] dollar deal the executives at the nfl said how the did we get knock at this money and how did we not [3:49] know that kind of money was sitting over we'll do games on tuesday friday saturday then you got the nba [3:56] the uh major league baseball is looking for a new deal and the nhl so you got if you look at where [4:03] tv was 15 years ago right all these powerful cable channels and all this stuff the cable industry is [4:10] taking a nosedive so what do you have left you have uh nbc abc cbs and fox and then you have like three [4:19] powerful streaming services right there's a lot of people fighting over the same turf do you feel like [4:28] this is a bubble that could maybe pop like the streaming services can only get so big or do you [4:32] feel like even after seven years you guys could still potentially grow look at that i said 10 years [4:38] ago i said when i grew up there was channel 3 channel 5 channel 8 and channel 13. i believe that's going [4:46] to exist again but globally who's it going to be i mean netflix paramount uh disney youtube you know [4:56] the list goes on and on of all the people that are that are it's like the ai arms race right now [5:02] the same thing is happening in streaming there is probably not a better way to follow the white [5:07] house than with the conor mcgregor return do you expect to see similar numbers at that card as you [5:13] did at the white house you guys know how much i love to win and gloat and and i can't do that anymore [5:22] i would there's so much i would love to drop on you right now um but you know you'll see it playing out [5:31] over you know the next year earnings calls and all this so this will all play out [5:40] and i just have to you know just keep doing what i'm doing and stay quiet stay quiet just grind yeah [5:49] um a couple of negatives look the josh hockett thing was obviously the big story for the mainstream [5:53] media going out that was disgusting yeah do you regret putting him on that card because of those [5:59] comments no i mean listen there's always going to be people that say things that most of us don't [6:07] agree with you know i mean just the time the place the you know it's just yeah no i've said many times [6:18] listen i voted for obama the first time didn't vote for him the second time then when i was at the um [6:25] at the uh the inauguration he was sitting in front of me and then i saw all this stuff on the internet [6:30] where people like oh dana's mad dogging obama obama's the only one that turned around to me [6:35] couldn't have been a nicer guy and said congratulations on all your success and everything [6:40] that you've done whatever i said thank you mr president um and and i don't believe in this [6:44] shit like all the people that hate trump he's not my president all the people people that hated obama [6:49] he's not my president i got some bad news for you if you're an american that's your president and and i [6:55] respect all presidents present and past and and uh you know not everybody does and gotta listen to [7:06] fucking stupid like that sometimes unfortunately because i also believe in free speech alex perera [7:12] has come out complaining about herb dean and the back of the strikes the strikes at the back of the [7:17] head it's kind of a hard one to talk about but it seems like now every time cyril garn fights we're [7:23] kind of talking about some illegal strikes and and some fouls after the fact i'm not saying he's a [7:29] dirty fighter but do you think the next time he fights a referee has to be like the moment this [7:33] guy does something point i think every time everybody fights the referee should be watching [7:38] everything that happens and and and i say it all the time and i'll say it again no reffing anywhere is [7:44] perfect and could be an nba game could be an nfl game definitely some fights um it's just it's it's [7:53] never going to be perfect you don't feel like there's something with cyril or is it just like [7:56] look this is a chaotic sport and it happens well i also think that if you watch the fight it's [8:01] undeniable that he got hit with some strikes to the back of the head but in the middle of the action [8:06] you know when it's going on and guys are rolling around trying to get out of it sometimes some fouls [8:11] happen and maybe dean should have said hey watch the back of the head or you know warned him or or [8:17] something like that but um you know i don't know two more quick ones for me have you reached out i [8:23] i can tell you this i can tell you this uh alex perera is not a whiner and alex perera doesn't [8:31] complain about things or make excuses you know after fights so i have to believe that he believed [8:36] that that he truly believed to you know that that uh you know that that was true have you uh have you [8:45] guys reached out to tom aspinall yet about maybe booking that fight with cyril yeah i'm not going to [8:50] talk about that stuff uh you know i'll tell you something that's funny though so aj just signed with caa [8:59] for sponsorship and all that kind of stuff doesn't eddie hearn have a is that what he does [9:07] aspinall signs with eddie hearn which is insane aj who's been with him forever and they're probably [9:14] best friends uh signs with caa to get i just saw turkey ala shake saying he wants to bring you guys [9:22] for a peacekeeping summit listen the reason i got into boxing one big reason was i met him and i liked him [9:34] and uh he's made some pretty big things happen in the sport of boxing this is his biggest challenge [9:42] yet that i guarantee you dana just one quick one for me following up on oscar and the herb dean [9:49] alex perera situation it seemed like there was some controversy tonight in the fight with andre [9:54] feely where when andre left the cage he went over and herb was showing him the replay did you [9:58] happen to see any of that oh i didn't see that okay of the of the did you see herb herb dean was [10:03] also very quick to respond to alex perera's kind of complaints about the back back of the shot heads [10:08] do you see the video that her been put out yeah what were your thoughts on that i don't know i really [10:13] don't have any thoughts on it uh that's something that that that they'll have to work out with the [10:19] commission and you know not my not my my area listen like i said i said it here's what i can tell [10:28] you that alex perera is not a whiner man that guy doesn't ever complain about anything or whatever so [10:34] you have to believe if he's that serious about it he's upset about it and he believes [10:39] it to be true again i know there's going to be a little time off of events here at the apex i [10:44] hear there's going to be some more continuation on the renovations can you give us a little update [10:48] of what we can expect those changes to be badass i mean when when it's done this place is going to [10:53] be incredible uh so when you walk into the to the apex down there that's all going away there's going [10:59] to be another skybox up there and uh yeah that that will be the final renovation for now but it's [11:06] going to be incredible when it's done and a lot more seats there'll be a lot more seats do you have [11:11] any idea of what the total number of seats that you guys will be able to sell or that yeah it's [11:14] is it over a thousand lanae yeah over a thousand it'll be a thousand yeah that's awesome last one i [11:21] wanted to ask you uh on uh the fighting on freedom 250 but it started getting a little late one of the [11:26] things i thought that stole the show that was incredible and i didn't know if you had any idea how [11:29] good it was going to be but the u.s marine band i believe that was the name that was playing all the [11:32] walkouts did you hear them beforehand and and to me i felt like everybody was talking about them and [11:38] i just thought that maybe fighting that we didn't talk about how good they were did you know how good [11:42] they were going to be and how happy did they uh perform for you that night not until days before [11:46] i'm literally about to post something about that i was going to do it earlier but i we got busy in here [11:51] and uh yeah they were incredible so as we were we were always using them leading up but we didn't [11:58] know how good they were until we got there and started doing rehearsals and then borsari was [12:03] like holy wait till you hear this band and then when they brought me out they they had her play [12:08] thunderstruck you know and it was incredible and what was crazy was he says because we had we were [12:16] intending on using a dj you know to do walk-ins and do all this stuff but once we got into the band [12:22] we're like and you can't tell me though there were moments where we're sitting there and like the [12:28] red hot chili peppers came on and then i realized that's not the red hot chili peppers that's the [12:34] band and you know they're incredible and uh it it it's one of the many things that made that event so [12:43] cool and unique so what we're trying to do right now is assemble all the because they they still play [12:49] off sheets of music so they had sheets of music like the size of a phone book um and uh we're [12:57] taking all those songs we're going to have them put we're going to try to put together a soundtrack [13:02] for ufc freedom 250 and get uh zach's rendition of the star sangled banner on it too so yeah it was [13:11] awesome it was it was funny because i think we even heard some of the fighters say that sounded better [13:15] than their normal walkout just the way the rendition maybe was just getting caught up in the moment [13:19] and you brought up the zach brown when he was doing the uh you know the anthem or singing the [13:23] song you couldn't time the the fly over any better than that i think that's the moment that a lot of [13:27] people took away were just like that was probably the that set the stage for the night you know i [13:32] don't know if you heard a lot of feedback but i know a lot of people we heard they were like that [13:35] was the most magical thing that they had seen there were a lot of magical things that night let me tell [13:39] you this so i can't remember if i told this that night seems like a year ago to me but [13:45] so we're we had two different receptions we had a reception in the east room of the white house [13:53] i had 90 invitations the president had 90 invitations we invited up there it was incredible [13:58] uh food everybody's hanging out talking drinking and then the president came down and addressed everybody [14:04] and then uh we all went out to the fight but what was happening it wasn't like we had like the the [14:10] channel 7 weatherman giving us the you know we had the military the military meteorologists who decide [14:16] whether we we go to war because of the weather is whatever is the guy who was giving us the weather [14:21] and this is no so the storm's coming right so we canceled the flyover they're going to turn around and [14:30] go back because they can't do it in the dark because they fly too close to each other and you know [14:36] potential bad weather and all that so borsari is hitting me and he's saying i'm canceling the flyover [14:44] and i'm like he's like it's looking like we'll go out at like between 9 and 9 15 is when we can start [14:52] seating everybody because after the storm hits us we got to clean up and see what gets you know things [14:57] get broken or whatever happens we got to try to quick fix it and then um and then we'll get everybody [15:03] out as fast as we can so the storm's coming the storm goes like this breaks apart goes around the [15:12] white house and the lips and then continues on borsari calls me back and goes you're not gonna [15:19] fucking believe this and he goes what do you want to do i said he goes they're talking about the [15:24] possibility of the outer you know because as it goes around us some of the could catch some of the outer [15:29] stuff i said it let's go get everybody out there and he goes you and the president have to [15:36] walk we have two minutes before they turn around and fly back to the uh to the to the base and and [15:44] we made it just in time and that whole thing had to be timed out perfectly because by the time we got [15:50] to the to yeah the ledge he's the home of the brave and planes fly over i mean it just everything about [15:59] that night ended up being a miracle it's it's crazy and had we been hit with the storm not only would [16:07] we have lost a fly over but a lot of the stuff about the history of america that we had in the [16:12] show we would have had to cut out yeah so it just unbelievable dana yeah um the you guys tease the [16:22] rankings are coming out the new rankings are coming out on monday is there anything that you could [16:26] tell us or tease about what's what's new hopefully they work hopefully they're you know um but yeah they [16:35] come out monday we have all the details and and everything you need to know about them will hit [16:42] on monday and i don't know if you can answer this or what but like obviously ai is is going to play a [16:49] big part in this but like is there some point that where like stats and results can only do the ranking [16:55] so much don't you need like an actual person to watch a fight to give their opinion on a ranking yeah [17:02] i'm gonna have both i'm still gonna do human non-human however you want to look at it uh rankings [17:10] uh and i think i think that neither will be perfect but you know it'll get us closer and i i actually [17:21] the rankings that are going to come out on monday i think make a lot more sense you know i think you're [17:26] going to have a lot of people who are going to complain and argue and go oh this isn't fair that's [17:30] not right and this isn't we'll see how it plays out over the first year no that's fair um one [17:37] more another question about streaming once the paramount and warner brothers deal kind of like [17:42] finalizes can you see the ufc do an event on on uh hbo once paramount oh the uh yeah the warner deal [17:50] yeah um yeah i i mean if you look at the success that we've had already on paramount plus which has [18:00] completely exceeded their expectations right and if you look at what they paid for the product and [18:08] we have already in six months completely exceeded their expectations i think that once the the merger [18:15] with warner brothers happens and i mean we have access to so many more not and not just ufc but boxing [18:21] too yeah it's going to be huge we're in for a fun seven years man we really are and the we've never [18:29] been in business with an organization that's so excited to be in business with us which helps a lot [18:37] and finally for me um if if you get pitched to do a ufc fight at the coliseum what's the uh [18:44] percentage that that you would say yes it's impossible because i was negotiating the deal [18:51] with zuckerberg and muss that was real i was literally in my backyard for two weeks negotiating that [18:58] fight and they wanted the coliseum the coliseum wanted something like 150 million dollars to do [19:05] it there which that money would go into a fund that restores all the uh iconic places in italy um [19:16] it would the coliseum would take zuckerberg fighting mosque to happen because those who were going to put [19:23] up the money for the coliseum i mean if you get musk to put up the money for a ufc fight would you do it [19:30] if if you get musk or musk or zuckerberg to put up the money for a ufc fight in the coliseum [19:36] anybody that wants to put up the money for ufc to fight in the coliseum i'm in cool thank you all [19:42] right dana when the new rankings come into effect hold on she's been trying to talk for like five [19:47] minutes here go ahead thank you dana i'm just curious uh you don't really hear you say that that's [19:52] impossible so with that being said is there anything that you're kind of um have in your mind that you're [19:57] planning for the future i mean you had you you've seen noche at the sphere then you went to the [20:01] white house what do you have next in that mind of yours well i don't i mean usually what happens is [20:06] is like like the sphere tom brady hit me up and said hey want to go to youtube concert with me [20:11] i said yeah we went there and like halfway through the show i was like the star of this show is the [20:17] sphere and i'm like i have to do a fight here so that that just sort of organically happened and then [20:23] at a fight one night the president leaned over me said we should do a fight at the white house i said [20:27] yes sir we should um and that's how that happened my what i'm excited about is that i believe um [20:36] like the intuit dome in la i think that all of these um uh arenas are going to start getting better and [20:45] better and better with technology and giving a better in house live performance not just for [20:50] what i do but for basketball games and anything else that comes to the arena and i'm always looking [20:56] for the best indoor in-house experience and best television experience for the fans so that's always [21:03] my focus and whatever new technology comes out uh you know and then if something hits me again then [21:14] we'll do it and i just feel like i mean i was just talking i talked to bisping tonight i talked to [21:19] cormier i talked to laura senko um and then all my staff like all week we've all just been saying that [21:28] being if you weren't there live at that event it's hard to explain so there's this guy named gary brecca [21:35] who who you know helped me get healthy like like the last four years and uh he came out here to [21:43] bitch at me two days ago his poster boy isn't doing too good these days so he came out to [21:48] to you know to let me know and uh he was telling me that that night when people started pouring out [21:56] into the streets from the ellipse and from the white house like people were hugging and high-fiving each [22:01] other and like he was like it was this weird incredible feeling that everybody had or whatever [22:08] and you know you see a lot of these other sporting events when people start pouring out into the streets [22:12] they're not high-fiving and hugging tearing their city apart and beating the out of each other [22:16] um this was the complete opposite and and and and to be there was i'm telling you it was really [22:23] something special so i don't know if we can ever you know yeah replicate that it was literally a one [22:30] of one i can imagine even watching on tv made you just feel proud to be an american um that was my next [22:36] question is how is it being back here at the apex after being there on a stage as massive as freedom [22:41] 250 is it like too calm are you enjoying the calmness or are you missing the chaos well no it's [22:47] it's it's uh physically mentally and emotionally exhausting for the entire staff so um you know [22:56] it's awesome that this is like a three-day weekend but everybody's here working but uh the the uh i think [23:04] everybody's on my team is is ready for a little bit of downtime you know and you know if we this is [23:10] downtime for the ufc and then we're like you said we're heading into uh baku you know i got a whole [23:16] group flying out there right now and then we're heading into international fight week and that leads [23:21] to my last question you came in with a power slap cup um ifw is the very first women's championship [23:28] title fight how are you feeling about that and what do you think that's going to do for the sport [23:32] i think it's awesome i think ellie dempster's a star um and uh things sold out immediately [23:44] and i think a lot of people for international fight week that have never experienced that live [23:48] event are in for a surprise the live event is is so fun and it's great and you know we just ended [23:55] into a new five-year deal with mgm for power slap and uh we've got a lot a lot of other big things [24:02] coming up for power slap too so um i'm excited about and all my cups are power slap i have 700 power [24:10] slap cups over at the office so yeah awesome look that's amazing um yeah i think that i think it's [24:17] awesome what the what the girls are doing i love the fight the girl that ellie is facing i beat her [24:21] undeniably and i hope that i get the title contention next boom boom i had to say to the boss [24:28] call frank say destiny mccubbin said matcher after this i love it congrats so much for your time and [24:33] congrats with everything you've done with the sport of combat thank you appreciate it go ahead brother [24:37] yeah dame over here um when you talk about the new rankings right you say that the the human [24:41] rankings will still you know be up and running so when it comes to match ranking what will you [24:45] consider more when the the new rankings or the human rankings or do you find a balance well i think you [24:49] take them all into consideration i mean it so the ai model will have its opinion on what the rankings are [24:58] the media side will have their opinion on what the rankings are you personally will have your opinion [25:03] she will have an opinion everybody will have an opinion at the end of the day what our job is in [25:08] this business is to put on fights that people want to see um and you know you have to have rankings [25:14] otherwise just a free-for-all and one of the things that i love about this sport is there's no sanctioning [25:22] body saying oh this is a mandatory you and you the fans are the sanctioning body as it should be the [25:30] fans determine who fights who um so if anything i think i think this thing you know won't hurt it'll [25:37] just help for sure and something else that stood out to me this week was uh trevor whitman on joe [25:43] rogan experience said that hunter campbell reached out to him regarding his gloves and maybe exploring [25:47] the potential of implementing them here in the ufc so is that something we've been talking to trevor for [25:51] years rashad evans whom i love and respect came to me and said hey listen i'm invested in this thing [26:01] you know i i i want uh i want to uh i want we we think that we have a great product here and i would [26:09] love to you know introduce our glove to the that trevor built you know all those guys like trevor's a [26:15] genius he makes these bags and his gloves so we looked at all and i and i literally told my finance [26:21] team get this deal done care what it takes get the deal done they wanted like a hundred million dollars [26:30] for the glove how many fucking gloves you got to sell to make a hundred million dollars [26:38] it's impossible so the deal never happened um but i told my team and denny the girl who runs [26:46] that department is a brilliant woman brilliant she came back to me like cross-eyed like [26:52] i can't get a deal done with these guys so i i was already i mean that deal should have been done [26:58] a few years ago i i wanted to do that for rashad so we'll see are you confident that you'll find maybe [27:06] some common ground with with this one now i am not confident at all we'll fight in the coliseum [27:13] before that deal gets done it's almost the same money that'd be a good idea um last one for me [27:20] another thing that stood out to me was uh conor mcgregor he talked about you know obviously [27:23] everyone's excited for his return he talked about july being his first date and then he talked about [27:28] april being his second date um and he just kind of was asking why what's what's the question what was the [27:34] dates he said that he's gonna have two fights um obviously the one we know okay july and then [27:38] april of 2027 he's just kind of curious as to why i don't even know i mean listen let's get through this [27:42] one first and then we'll figure out when the next one is you know to even be talking about his second [27:47] fight without even having the first fight this is like when i'm on the internet and they're like this [27:51] fight sucks this weekend how the do you know this fight sucks saturday night at midnight text me and [27:57] tell me the fight sucked so who knows let's see how this fight plays out and i lied i had one more [28:04] you know when you were just talking about the the music from the white house and you guys are gonna [28:07] make a playlist is that gonna be like available on spotify and stuff like that or well i mean [28:11] that's our idea right now now now you gotta turn it into reality you know i don't know how any of [28:15] that works the president that night leans over me and says how incredible is this band i said they're [28:20] incredible he's like i'm gonna give them a fight of the night bonus so then i hit him up and i said [28:25] i'm gonna match your bonus and then i had fucking lawyers from the white house calling me going whoa [28:31] you you know this this has to be done in a certain way and all this other guy i said yeah yeah i'm [28:35] just saying listen i'll match the bonus that the president whatever the president's gonna give the [28:40] band i'll match so this is just an idea i don't know how hard it really is to pull that off but [28:49] it's a great idea and and if we can do it it's obviously great for the band and and and the girl [28:54] who is the lead singer of that band is incredible i mean you know hopefully she gets a record deal [29:01] right how cool would that be out of this thing she sings at the white house for freedom 250 and [29:06] gets a record deal i agree i've seen her stuff all over the internet since that fight yeah awesome [29:12] well deserved for the whole band you done with me have a great weekend