Dana White previews UFC 259; talks Khamzat, Khabib and Poirier-McGregor 3
UFC president Dana White says he believes UFC 259 headliner Israel Adesanya is poised for superstardom if he can beat Jan Blachowicz for the light heavyweight title on Saturday at Apex in Las Vegas.
Video Transcript
KEVIN IOLE: What's up, everybody. I am Kevin Iole. I am joined now by the man of the hour, the guy of the $350 million deal that he just signed with DraftKings, the UFC President, Dana White. Tomorrow at the Apex in Las Vegas, UFC 259, three title fights. A great card top to bottom. Dana, it must be good to be you these days.
DANA WHITE: It's never not good to be, man. Everything is great.
KEVIN IOLE: Except that you work around the clock. You never have time to enjoy all this success you're having.
DANA WHITE: Yeah. But that's what I love to do, man. I mean we're literally on fire right now. We have so many cool things that we're working on that we're going to announce this year. And I know as we go into a new year every year, I tell you guys. Wait till you see what we do this year. And we're just getting warmed up. We have so many incredible things to announce this year. I'm really looking forward to it.
KEVIN IOLE: Well, when I was talking to your chief operating officer Lawrence Epstein about the DraftKings deal, for people who missed it, you can find it on Yahoo Sports, a little over $100 million in cash, $350 million in total value. I was struck by it was 20 years ago last month that you promoted your first pay per view. The company maybe was worth $2 million. And here you are now 20 years later you're promoting a pay per view that people are talking about around the world. And you got these major sponsors.
I mean, how far you have come. And we both had hair back in the day.
DANA WHITE: Yeah. We we had it. But we probably should have let it go back then. But yeah. No, it's been an incredible ride. I still love doing it, still super passionate about it, get out of bed every day fired up to get to work. And I'm really excited. Not only am I excited, staff around here is very excited about this card this weekend. This is one of those cards that gets everybody fired up.
KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. I mean, it's really a deep card top to bottom. We'll get into that. Before we do, one of my favorite topics to talk to you about it always Khamzat Chimaev. He was in the news this week. Apparently, he cannot stop training and listening to his doctors. He announced his retirement. You came out and said that, no he wasn't retiring. Then you got the guy from Chechnya Kadyrov getting involved in this thing. And so first of all, can you clarify? is Khamzat healthy? And is he going to be able to fight again?
DANA WHITE: No, he's not healthy. And the reason he's not healthy is the reason that we all love him and why he gained a million followers in a few weeks, because the guy is a savage. And when you're a fight fan, this is the kind of guy that you love to follow and that you love to watch fight. The problem with a guy like this is he's sick. He needs to take some time off. He needs to go home, and relax, and heal. And the sooner he does that, the sooner he can come back and fight. But he will not.
The guy shows up at the gym, he's downstairs. They caught him running full bore on a treadmill downstairs. And they're like, what are you doing? Get off the treadmill. You're not supposed to be training. Then he goes in and he's at some gym at a hard core wrestling session. And I think the thing with him right now is he's so strong willed and knows, I should be champion. I should fight every week. And I could beat all these guys. But he doesn't have the patience to heal.
KEVIN IOLE: The one thing that I wondered a couple of years ago, there was talk when John Jones was having trouble driving his car that somebody should hire a driver for him. And I wonder if you or somebody on his team should hire a person to be with [? Bohr's ?] and say, hey look dude. I'm not going to let you. And I'm going to be the guy with you to make sure you can't do this kind of stuff.
DANA WHITE: Yeah. That's supposed to be Ali. That's what Ali's supposed to be doing.
KEVIN IOLE: Ali Abdelaziz, his manager. But he's got 350 some fighters I think.
DANA WHITE: Yeah. But yeah. I mean, how do you do that? That's like-- you know that's like, Kevin? It's like hey, why don't you put somebody with these guys to make sure they don't blow all their money and they spend it the right way? They're grown ass men. You can't make them do certain things. And you can't put a baby sitter on them to follow them all the time. Grown men are going to do what they want to do. So he's going to have to get some patience.
KEVIN IOLE: Let me ask you one more question about him and we'll move onto the fights. I saw that Kadyrov who is the head of the Chechen Republic where Khamzat is from said that he wasn't retiring and that he was going to come back to Chechnya to recover. To me, I would seem to think that the medical care in the United States or even Sweden might be a little bit better than in Chechnya. So is he going to go to Chechnya? Is he in a situation where he has no choice because of the kind of person that Kadyrov is? Or what can you tell us about that? And is Khamzat going to get the care he needs?
DANA WHITE: I have no clue. I have no clue where he is, what he's doing, or what's going on with any of that. I don't know the answer to any of that. But go back to he's a grown man. He's going to make his own decisions. And we'll see how it all plays out.
KEVIN IOLE: Israel Adesanya headlines. Speaking of grown men, he is a grown man. He is headlining the card for you making a bid to become the fifth champ champ in UFC history. And there's a parallel to be drawn, I wrote about it, with Conor McGregor. And I want to see what you think of this. When McGregor came to the UFC in 2013, he wasn't very well known even though he had MMA championships at that point. And three years later, I think either the Aldo fight or maybe the Nate Diaz fight was kind of when he blew up.
Now we're looking at three years since Adesanya has been in. Do you think this fight or maybe the next fight is the one where he blows up and becomes that massive star? I mean, it seems like he's right on the verge at this point right now.
DANA WHITE: I agree with you. So this is a fight that either way this fight goes, you have champion versus champion, the light heavyweight versus the middleweight. Middleweight champion on that trajectory to stardom. Undefeated, 20 and 0, and going in against Jan Blachowicz who a lot of people don't know about.
But this dude is a bad man. He's got eight wins by a knockout, nine by submission. So no matter where this fight goes, he's dangerous. He is a former Muay Thai world champion going up against a former kickboxer. I mean, everything about this fight makes it fun. And I think that this is the fight that's going to turn Adesanya into a huge superstar or the fight that's going to make everybody talk about Blachowicz on Sunday and everybody will know who he is.
KEVIN IOLE: I love Adesanya for one reason. I mean, he is a guy that he doesn't just think about fighting. He thinks about the whole business. And he has plans. And he thinks about this like in this whole rivalry he's got with Jon Jones. And he's talking about winning, fighting Jones at one point, maybe for the heavyweight title. Do you like that, the fact that he's talking about that kind of stuff? Or do you feel like, that guy's off with the important thing is, which is the fight on Saturday?
DANA WHITE: What I love about him is he wants to be great. He doesn't want to just be the middleweight champion. He wants to be the middleweight champion, the light heavyweight champion, then he wants to move up to heavyweight and fight Jon Jones who many believe is the GOAT in the sport. I mean, the kid wants to be great. And I love that about him.
KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. I mean, to me, that's what makes him special. He's the fighter to watch. But that's what makes him special [INAUDIBLE] reaching for the stars like that.
DANA WHITE: I'm with you.
KEVIN IOLE: This card with the three title fights is kind of a weird card in a sense. You've got Amanda Nunes on there. She's minus 1,000. Everybody expecting her to blow it away. The fight that people aren't talking about is the most competitive one on the card, Petr Yan versus Aljo. And that's a fight that could go either way. And I think Petr Yan is a guy that could blow up because he's kind of got that-- you're talking about knockouts and everything he's been doing and what he did to Jose Aldo last time out.
So this fight to me of the title fights, that's the fight that I'm really looking forward to.
DANA WHITE: Well, let me put it to you this way. The fight with with with Amanda Nunes and Meghan Anderson for the 145 pound title, both of these women have knockout power. They can knock other women unconscious. So there's a lot of fun fights that happen in the UFC, very technical, fast, very aggressive fights with women. Very rarely do you have fights with women where they can knock each other out viciously. And they both have this power.
Meghan Anderson has six knockouts, three submissions. She can finish fights. And it's no different than when the heavyweights get in there and you got two guys that are big punchers and start punching each other. Anything is possible. Amanda Nunes, she's the best ever. She is the best female fighter ever in combat sports, period.
I was talking to Dan Lambert this week. He's telling me, I don't know how this is possible, but she actually looks better than she's ever looked. And they didn't have women to train with so she was training with men. He said she was dropping men in the gym. So she is without a doubt an absolute beast. But you can't count out a puncher like Meghan Anderson. Anything is possible. And yes, I agree with you on the Yan fight. Yan looks incredible. But I also feel like-- I feel like early on--
You remember when we had sort of the contract stuff going on with Aljamain Sterling back in the day, then we end up signing him? He was way ahead of himself then. A lot of talk and way ahead of himself. That kid has come into his own now and has looked like an absolute beast in his last few fights. I feel like this is two guys in their prime, the perfect fight and the right place at the right time. And I agree with you that this is going to be one of the best fights on the card.
KEVIN IOLE: I did an interview with Aljo the other day. And he was an unbelievable interview. And I hope people get a chance to see that. I talked about owning houses, and investing his money, and doing all the things that you preach to the guys. He avoids the cling ons and all the things that you preach. He is doing that. And it strikes me that he is-- this is the perfect moment in time for him. He could have probably gotten the title fight a year ago because he had won a lot of fights. But maybe you did him a favor by waiting because it seems like he is in the best spot that I've ever seen him in going into this title fight.
DANA WHITE: Agree with you 100%. I think that the guy has grown up a lot over the last several years. And he's in the right place at the right time now. And he's surrounded by good people and the camp that he's in. He's been loyal to that team, they've been loyal to him. I see a lot of good signs with Aljamain Sterling where he's at right now in his career and in his life.
KEVIN IOLE: On the undercard, there's a lot of attention being paid to Makhachev because he's with Khabib and everything. And he's a little over three-- what is he here? I have Makhachev at minus 360, Drew Dober plus 280. And I said Drew Dober is a guy on this card-- Drew Dober is a damn good fighter. And get Drew Dober at, he's at plus 280 at the MGM. I mean, to me, that is a really nice number.
That's a fight that I think is going to-- could blow the doors off the place.
DANA WHITE: I agree with you. And listen, there will be plenty of fights on the card where the underdog wins the fight. Unlike boxing when a guy's minus 5,000, pretty much guaranteed that guy is going to win. Who was the 4 to 1 last week on the card? Somebody was a 4 to 1 favorite and lost last week.
KEVIN IOLE: Oh, yeah. On the boxing card, Bracho? Or your show?
DANA WHITE: Our show.
KEVIN IOLE: Who was 4 to 1 on the card? I don't even remember off the top of my head was 4 to 1. I got so many odds in my head Dana that I'm--
DANA WHITE: Here we go. I'm with you. And the weekends all blur together.
KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. And there's no doubt about that. But I mean I look at Drew Dober and I'm going, he's not even ranked in the division coming off three consecutive knockouts in a row.
DANA WHITE: Guys a savage.
KEVIN IOLE: And Makhachev has been knocked out. Getting plus 280, that's a pretty good little value right there, don't you think?
DANA WHITE: I don't disagree.
KEVIN IOLE: Do you feel like March of 2021 is the most significant month in the history of the UFC since you own it? Five title fights, you got Kevin Holland fighting, you got Leon Edwards returning. I mean, you look at this month and it's like, to me, this is the greatest month in your history. And you've had some good ones.
DANA WHITE: Well, maybe our greatest month in March. After March here, I got-- well, yeah. And we got Stipe and Francis, Volkanovski and Ortega.
KEVIN IOLE: Right.
DANA WHITE: And then we're going back on ABC and we got Till versus Vettori, we got Whitaker versus Costa. This is in April. Weili Zhang versus Rose Namajunes, Shevchenko versus Andrade. What we got is we got a fun year coming up. I mean, all the fights that are happening this year are going to be-- and we're not even talking about the announcements I told you we're going to make this year, just things that are going on with the business. It's going to be a killer year.
KEVIN IOLE: But Dana, when I talk about you're condensing into one month five title fights including some title fights, how do you not like Stipe and Francis? Right? We know what happened at UFC 220. I think it's a different Francis Ngannou this time around. Ortega versus Volkanovski should be a crazy fight. We've talked about the fights on this card. I'm personally excited to see what Kevin Holland does. You're stepping him up. Let's see him.
To me I think you look at it, you go for a good fights and significant fights in one month. I don't know that you've done better than this in a long time.
DANA WHITE: Yeah. No it's good. I can't think back 20 years if we've ever had a stacked month like this, but no. You're definitely right.
KEVIN IOLE: And when you started, I mean you would have a pay per view every couple of months. Right? I mean so you were putting everybody on those cards. Now, now you're going every week. And you're-- do you feel like "The Contender" series has overtaken "The Ultimate Fighter" in terms of being a breeding ground for talent for the company?
DANA WHITE: Yeah, "The Contender" series has been unbelievable. And for some reason, why do we not have the, oh yeah. There they are. I'll give you an example. On the fights this weekend, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, seven of these kids came off "The Contender" series. So as you look down through, the Kevin Holland fight, Kevin Holland the main event came off "The Contender" series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, eight kids on that card came off "The Contender" series.
KEVIN IOLE: Why do you think it surpassed "The Ultimate Fighter"? I mean you've always talked about "The Ultimate Fighter". If you can go through that grind and that crucible and survive, then you're going to be a legit top level fighter. Why do you think that "The Contender" series has kind of taken off this way and produced so much talent?
DANA WHITE: I think that when you take the best talent that you have available, you put them in a pressure cooker type situation, which is what "The Contender" is now too. These kids are lined up with the other best kid that didn't get signed. And you got one shot right there. Here's your fight. Show us what you got. The kids that can come out of those fights deal with the pressure, deal with everything that goes into getting ready for a fight like that. You're ready. You're ready for the big show.
KEVIN IOLE: You have some guys like they peak for "The Contender" and almost like when they get to "The Contender", well, we made it in the UFC. And who was the kid a couple weeks ago when he quit the fight? His corner tried-- Robert Drysdale. Who was it? I'm drawing a blank on the name. Robert Drysdale was trying to get him not to quit. It was his UFC debut. God, I'm--
DANA WHITE: Yeah.
KEVIN IOLE: OK, you remember the fight I'm talking about. But that was a guy a highly touted guy off "The Contender" series that come in. Do you think that there's a lesson to be learned for these guys that getting your contract on "The Contender" series is not the end. It's just the beginning.
DANA WHITE: Well, 100%. It's absolutely the beginning. You won that fight. Congratulations. Now you got to get here and win the first fight here. But you've already handled that type of pressure. You've already-- it's amazing actually that that doesn't happen to more guys, that more people don't freak out. And I think that for fans, media, to sit back and say, oh my God. This guy did this and that.
People like us can't even [BLEEP] begin to imagine what it's like to walk out of that tunnel, step into that cage with the whole world watching you, and you're all alone, and you square off against another guy who's on his way to possibly becoming one of the best in the world. They're very unique human beings that can get in there and actually do this.
KEVIN IOLE: Speaking of human beings, we haven't had human beings in any scale at one of your fights in over a year. Governor Sisolak in Nevada is now allowing some fans. And I understand it's going to go up even [INAUDIBLE] going up in May. I was at a hockey game the other day and I texted you. And it was awesome. I mean, the crowd was incredible even though they had 15% capacity to limit. The crowd was just amazing.
You have said you're not going to do it until you can fill the arena up. Any indication when that might be? I'm hearing MGM is actually starting to plan events and think things are coming back close to normal. Do you have any indication when it might be, international fight week, that you could have a full house?
DANA WHITE: I'm hearing this summer. And I hope that's the case. I'm hearing that Vegas is going to make a comeback, 100% comeback this summer. So hopefully that's true.
KEVIN IOLE: And you and I had spoken just on the phone a little bit ago and I was talking to you about this topic. And I just want to kind of get you to repeat. I had asked you if you would consider doing a show, the first show back in Allegiant Stadium, which is the home of the Raiders, a beautiful stadium that holds 65,000. And you said no. And I thought it was interesting your answer. And so if you could share that answer why you don't really want to go into a stadium in a 65,000 seat arena, and instead you probably end up doing it at T-Mobile. Why is that?
DANA WHITE: Because I think the experience is better for fans at the arena than it is a stadium. I think it's a much better experience. And listen, I've done a couple of stadium shows. When I believe that we have a fight that could go in a stadium, I'll give it a shot. But I like the experience better in an arena.
KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. No doubt about that. Well, speaking of a fight that could go into a stadium, I mean, I would think that Jon-- excuse me, Conor McGregor versus Dustin Poirier three could do that, right? You got Conor McGregor and, if you have fans, the crowd that he could bring over here. Any idea when we might see the fight happen? Have you committed to that? Or is there still a possibility that somebody would jump ahead of Conor and fight Dustin before that?
DANA WHITE: We're trying to figure out how this whole thing's going to play out in that division. But both guys want the rematch. So the rematch does make sense. But we haven't put anything together yet where-- any of that yet. And obviously with the talks of a possible 100% sellouts again fans, perfect timing for that fight.
KEVIN IOLE: Now lastly, you've gotten some criticism for this. You're making a lot of talk about Khabib and bringing Khabib Nurmagomedov back. He said he's retired. He reiterated it again the other day. He talked about how beat his body is. And I don't know if you saw that interview that he did. But in Esquire in the Middle East, he did an interview where he talked about how he doesn't want to be dead tired at lunchtime anymore. I understand you're going to meet with him on Saturday night. What do you expect out of the meeting? And why don't you give up?
You're the guy that in the past that said, if you talk about retiring, you should retire. And here you are now breaking your own word.
DANA WHITE: Because he's playing with us. He's toying with us. All of us. Especially you guys. He's playing with you guys like a cat plays with a mouse. I know that what he's saying is, listen. I already smoked all these guys. But as these start to play out and he sees the right fight, I'm just making sure. I'm making sure that this is the decision that he really wants to make, that he really doesn't want to take one more fight. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do when you're in this position.
And all the people that think I'm pushing him too hard, you know what he's not saying? Stop talking to me. Stop asking me. No, I won't meet you for dinner. No, I'm done. How many times do I got to tell you I'm done? Stop.
KEVIN IOLE: He likes to make you [INAUDIBLE]. Well, when Conor retired, and Conor's what, announced his retirement five times, we would ask you about Conor and you'd say, Conor's retired. We're not-- so it's kind of the opposite with these two guys here. So do you feel like Saturday would be it though? One way or the other, if he doesn't give you indication he's coming back, do you give up on this? Or is it something you would just keep going periodically?
DANA WHITE: Well, the difference with Conor was when you guys would ask me, Conor said, I'm retired. I didn't have any information on Conor. Conor and I didn't talk. Conor and I didn't-- Conor was-- when Conor said I want retire, that meant Conor wanted to be left alone for a while.
KEVIN IOLE: Right.
DANA WHITE: So I left Conor alone. You guys don't ever want to leave Conor alone because Conor's fun to talk about and people want to read about it. But Khabib, like I said, Khabib didn't say, hey, Dana. I would like to publicly say, stop asking me. I told you I'm retired. I'm this. I'm that. And like I said, I'm going to make sure we're going to figure out how this division plays out when you look at number nine, Beneil Dariush, Dos Anjos, McGregor, Ferguson, Chandler, Oliveira, Gaethje, and Poirier, see how these things play out.
You know there's going to be some incredible fights, some fun fights in there. And Khabib will have the option to face one of these guys if he wants to. And if he doesn't, have an incredible life, my friend. It's been fun to watch you fight. And move on to the next chapter of your life.
KEVIN IOLE: Awesome. Dana, I know you're busy. A lot of people want to talk to you. So I will let you roll. I appreciate you, brother. Be well, and I will see you at the fights on Saturday.
DANA WHITE: Take care, Kev.
KEVIN IOLE: Thanks, man.
