Dana White on apolitical UFC: If you want politics, turn on any other channel

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

Channel: Fox News

Views: 567,843

Rating: 4.9168553 out of 5

Keywords: UFC, UFC fight island, apolitical UFC, dana white, fight island, fox news dana white, hannity dana white, ultimate fighting championship, mixed martial arts, joe rogan, dana white ufc, fnc, fox news, fox news channel, fox news media, fox news network, fox news voices, hannity, hannity monologue, hannity monologue tonight, hannity tonight, sean hannity, sean hannity monologue, sean hannity monologue tonight, sean hannity reacts, sean hannity show, sean hannity tonight

Id: 1gXnGq1CjjE

Length: 7min 48sec (468 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 26 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/Facednectar]

Dana White and the UFC never took time off during this “pandemic”. First major sporting event to be at full capacity without a mask mandate.

[u/ea9_]

exactly what sports needs nowadays, truly the last one

[u/-Semaj-]

It's crazy how all you have to do in 2021 is to run a sports league like it's 1988 and viewership + profits will skyrocket.

[u/OptionsRMe]

Greatest owner of the most exciting sport of all time

[u/TerryScottChicago]

50 000 seats sold out in 5 min! Thank you people!

[u/PleaseDoTapTheGlass]

I mean I'm a fan of them putting on shows. I'm not a fan of him cozying up to China and there are definitely masonic elements in the UFC (Jon Anik, Brett Okamoto), but what are you gonna do. Dana seems like a straight shooter. You knows he's going to go with the money.