Dana White - UFC President and CEO

In this episode, Dr. Cliff Redford interviews the president and CEO of the UFC, Dana White. Dana discusses his passion for animal care, particularly in the context of bull riding and rodeo culture.

Dana answers questions sent in from Brock Arthur (coach and owner of Toronto Boxing Academy), Jasmine Jasudavicius (UFC fighter), Drew McIntyre (WWE Champion), and Dom Monaghan (TV and Movie actor).

First, if you haven't watched my film and live in Canada (or have one of those VPN things), you can watch it here:

https://youtu.be/oMUx3yuyznc?si=oagpg7bGnpbuyXlJ

Be sure to follow me on Instagram @drcliffworldwidevet.com and on Twitter at @drcliff_vet
Listener questions, episode suggestions, or if you have a good idea for a guest, email me at dr.redford@vet905.com
Additional information can be found at drcliff.ca

Transcript

Dr. Cliff Redford (00:08)

Fire away, brother. You gotta do what you gotta do, right? Good stuff, all right. Cool, this is kinda surreal.

Alright everyone, welcome back to Vet Life with Dr. Cliff. ⁓ Welcome my guest, Mr. Dana White. Thank you so much for joining me. We all know you, PowerSlap, UFC, TKO. Congratulations on the last two deals with Paramount, right? Yeah, thank you. I was wondering what was coming down the pipeline yesterday when you were posting it. So I was pretty excited about that. But my listeners, my viewers, most of us don't know you as an animal lover.

You say you are so I'm pretty excited. How could you not be an animal lover? mean Yeah, you're pure evil if you're not an animal. That's right. That's right. Well, I have I have some fan Or some friend video questions and one of them says if you don't love animals, you're a prick He was kind of using his his little character he's a he's a sports entertainment star so before we go or before we start

you know, getting into the round to round sort of stuff. I have some gifts for you. Now, it's always been a dream of mine to give jewelry to a playmate. ⁓ I assumed Victoria's Secret, but me being a veterinarian, was instead a 2000 pounds ⁓ rodeo bull. Now these come, Dennis approved that he's actually going to be able to wear these at PBR. These are his ear tags.

Very nice. So I reached out to Dennis. I'm like, got to get something. What do we should get? He's like, know, playmate has black and white ear tags. He does not have white and black. So Dennis put a rush, built those, guess, or designed them and brought them. So you're going to see playmates here in a couple of weeks. He just booked over the weekend. huh. Yeah, he won. There's an event in Vegas coming up. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if playmates there though.

I'll have to ask my guy. So I got a guy out of Texas named Dennis Davis. Yeah, yeah. That's what's in. Dennis made these. he did? Yeah, yeah. I had him on my podcast a couple of weeks ago. He made these. ⁓ these are these are Dennis Davis. Dennis Davis made these and he's going to put these on on the board. I don't have to send him these. No. Well, as soon as you see him next or I can send them or whatever you want. he doesn't have them. No. Well, he has made them, said. Yeah. And he sent it to me like he just made just these two.

So Playmate has black ones like black base. Yep, and Dennis said well, he needs white ones So I was like, all right, let me Pay for them. Of course Dennis is like your money's no good Is he not the best guy? He's such a good man. I love him and and you know what when you get into I'll give you an example. So, know twisted steel. Yep, so twisted steel messes back up and

Dennis Davis and I did everything we could to try to save that bull. You know, we put him out the pasture or whatever if he could and he didn't make it. But ⁓ I love the way that he handles the bulls, takes care of them, trains them, cares about them. Those bulls actually live really good lives. Yeah, I talked to him, it was two or three weeks ago, I think is when the episode dropped. ⁓ And I was amazed at how he trained.

Playmate or kind of desensitized them sitting in the stock in the gate exactly gate and I was kind of comparing it to to training a Chihuahua and he was like, it's no big it's no real difference. You know, you just slowly take your time and now playmate is just chill and calm and ready to ready to fight. He out one of the riders in the gate. He knocked out a rider in the gate and literally knocked him out unconscious and and Dave Dennis took him in and

and started working with him and now he's much better in the game. He is a nasty, nasty bull, man. The guy this last weekend was only able to ride him for five and a half seconds. And I think there was something, Dennis posted something that the rider and playmate are gonna face off again, I think in two and a half weeks. perfect. Something like that. God damn it, I'm gonna be in frigging the Middle East. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, so we're gonna figure out.

Cause I got a gift for Dennis too. okay, so here's the other one. ⁓ The one for Dennis is exactly the same, but I want you to open that. ⁓ My buddy Leon from, or Lion from, from Oldboy Metal Company, a blacksmith company in Toronto. It's heavy as hell too. Built these. these are bad. ⁓ that's awesome. that cool? That's awesome. Twist and Steal and Playmate. Yeah.

There you go. That's awesome. Little dog tags, but they're ear tags. So anyways, you have that. I got one for Dennis. We'll figure out later if it's easier. Look at that. That's all right. Who cares? ⁓ Yeah. Lion from old boy, old boy metal company. It's just this cool blacksmith, old school blacksmith company in like downtown Toronto and in the beaches. He was busting his ass.

Burn in the midnight oil Sunday night with me coming. That's just in case you want to versus whatever. Like I flew in early Monday morning and late Sunday night he was fucking rushing to get what size you. T-shirts. ⁓ I got a bunch. ⁓ she already took care of you. I already bought a bunch. You bought a bunch. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I went downstairs. Don't worry about it. Don't worry pay for? Really cheap. Even with the like.

Like this is the only deal in all of Vegas. What size is your t-shirt? Medium. Tex and Nicole have her put together a package for me. Something, I appreciate it. Well, I'll see you tonight too at Contender Series. Lene's helping me out. She's got me a pass. You're gonna have fun. I love that show. There's Canadian fighting tonight. There you go, brother. Very, very excited. So how did you get into PBR? How did you get into bull riding? All right, so I do a show called ⁓ Dana White Looking for a Fight.

And we go into different... Matt, Sarah. Yes, and Dean Thomas. So we go into different towns. take in, you know, whatever the town has to offer. Food, culture, ⁓ you know, things that are must see in the city. And then we go to a fight. And then sometimes we end up signing people and sometimes we don't from the fight that night. And we were down in Houston, Texas. And...

You know, we always kick around ideas before we go. Our producer's a lunatic and I told him it would be funny if we went and rode baby bulls, you know, if you can ride baby bulls. If there's anything like that, we should do it. This idiot.

takes us to a place outside of Houston, the drive was like an hour.

And it was PBR bolts. So we get there, you know, we just drove an hour. It's going to be an hour back. You you try to film as much as you can in a day when you do this. So we got there and Matt, Sarah said, fuck it. Let's ride the deals. We had no safety equipment, no nothing. We didn't have mouthpieces. We didn't have anything. And all these riders were small guys. So none of the shit fit us. So we put on one of the vests and they had to tape it with a tape and

We did it. ⁓ It was one of the craziest and scariest things I've ever done. And my thing was, like we were just talking about Playmate inside the pen, I was like, man, when you get in there, they literally tie your hand so tight to the bowl. ⁓ And then you have to go like this to tell them to open the gate. And I was like, man, what if I get in there and I can't do this? Well, what happens is if you don't know what you're doing when you get in there.

the bull starts smashing your legs into the gate. And it's like, this thing's gonna break my legs. If I don't open, know, it couldn't be worse than this. And then you did it. I rode. I think I rode for like two and a half seconds, three seconds, and the bull shot me off. And that was it. I was totally into the bull riding thing. And I wanted to own some bulls. So I bought a bull from them.

You know the place that we're at and then Dennis Davis came in and ended up buying them out So then I ended up becoming partners with Dennis. That worked out so well. Yeah, it was incredible. Yeah Yeah, he's salt to the earth kind of guy and I mean it fits your brand right like people people start doing well financially and they go thoroughbred racing Polo, you you get fucking

Bulls that want to beat the shit out of cowboys. Everything's combat for you. I it. you know, when, when I love when playmate is going up or back in the day, twisted steel too, when they're going up against a bad ass nasty cowboy. And I literally build it like a fight, like playmate versus exactly. posters. Yeah. Face, face off, face off. I mean, I had no idea until I started talking to Dennis about these bulls needing points.

you know, and actually can be champion bulls. Like I, I, I'm a city boy, right? Cats and dogs and then wildlife. I had no idea. Um, he really cleared some misconceptions about the sport. Um, and the biggest one he was like, look, these bulls love what they're doing. You cannot make a 2000 pound pissed off bull buck if he doesn't want to buck and they're just so excited to get in. What's crazy is I have the video footage on my phone right now. I'll give it to you to show you like,

There's a video of Playmate this weekend and he's just in his thing chewing in his cage getting ready to buck. Then he goes out and bucks and he is as nasty as you could possibly be. Then when it's time to go home, they open the gate and he literally runs and gets right up in the trailer and turns around like, yeah, we're ready to go home. It's so cool. It really is cool. I love it. I love it. That's amazing. All right. So as I said, I've got some friends, viewers, mostly friends.

who sent some video questions. So we're gonna do this. Let me pull this up. All right, so the first one, normally Tuesdays and Thursday mornings, I'm getting punched in the nose by my boxing coach. I punch him too. I compete in like an old man master's amateur boxing. I picked it up a couple of years ago. So to appease him for not being there, I said he could send the first question.

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:08)

Hey, this is Coach Brock Arthur, owner of Toronto Boxing Academy. First off, congratulations Dana on the Zufa boxing deal with Paramount Plus. My question is, you said Zufa boxing will move forward regardless of regulatory changes. How do you plan to avoid conflicts with existing sanctioning bodies and commissions who may resist your ranking and title structures?

Dr. Cliff Redford (11:28)

Great question. We actually have the ABC behind us 100 percent, ⁓ Association of Boxing Commissioners.

And, you know, I don't have to play by the sanctioning organization's rules, you know. That's still going to exist and plenty of people, know, promoters and boxers and everybody can deal with the sanctioning bodies. I will not. ⁓ Did you do your thing? No, just going to do my thing. You just do your thing. mean, TKO is a pretty strong force to reckon with. All right. So my second question, this is from a UFC fighter fellow.

Hoser Great White Norther. Do know what a hoser is? Of course I Okay, good. Good, good. Bob and Doug McKenzie, baby. She actually spent a day with me volunteering at Shades of Hope Wildlife, the place I volunteer every Thursday. She scrubbed in and helped me pin the broken wing, the broken humerus of a great horned owl.

which was like her highlight. was apparently for days beforehand, just all of her fighting buddies just couldn't stand her just talking. I'm gonna get to do this. I'm gonna get to do this. I gotta get you out there sometime. So here you go. Now this is a bit of a tongue in cheek. ⁓ Maybe a little serious, but.

Dr. Cliff Redford (12:49)

Hey Dana, I hope you're enjoying your time chatting with my friend Cliff. I just wanted to firstly say thank you for welcoming me into the UFC through Contenders Series. And I've just had such an amazing moment ever since then. So thanks a lot. But my question to you is, if I have an amazing performance against Varela in a couple of weeks, do I get the next title shot? ⁓

Please note that I'm the most active female fighter. At least that's what someone told me. ⁓ But I hope you're enjoying your time with him. Here's my kitty.

Dr. Cliff Redford (13:28)

a badass. No, I love her. She's so love her. It's funny. was expecting, obviously not what I was expecting when I first started watching it. then as soon as I saw her face, I said, look at this. ⁓ Yes. The answer is yes, obviously. If you beat her.

You are in a very good position and I am a big fan of yours so that doesn't hurt either. She's amazing and I think she's got a career after UFC and being some sort of animal tech or something. She was so good and so cool under pressure. ⁓ Anytime working with wildlife, especially birds under anesthetic, it's a real risky situation and when the shit hits the fan, I think her spirit just kicks in and she just...

figures out what she's gotta do, listens to me and ⁓ yeah, she's really, really passionate. But right now she's, ⁓ yeah. She's a badass and she's a great human and yeah. Yeah, she's so cool. Small world. that's excellent. Yeah, yeah, totally. All right, so we're gonna stick with the TKO brand with these questions. ⁓ This next guy, I know him as kind of like a client. He's this giant of a man who is completely in love with his four cats.

And I've helped him out with one of them, Chaz, that had some health issues. And he's just a really good friend. ⁓ He is going to be, he just signed a deal to be the brother of Henry Cavill's character in the new Highlander reboot. I don't know if you know who I'm talking about, but here we go.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:02)

So I'm Nadeira, Drew McIntyre from WWE here. You can probably hear the background noise. I'm at SmackDown right now, we're just beating some ass. I Cliff is interviewing you, he's asking a few questions. He asked me to send over a question. So I was like, hell yeah, Cliff's about a hero, saves a lot of animals. And simply, if you don't love animals, you're a prick. So I've been at WWE since 07, and I've watched us grow from where we were at to WWE on Peacock to Netflix to ESPN.

Now we're all under this giant TKO umbrella. So I'm curious, when you were building UFC to where it's at today, you had to balance scaling into a global brand without losing the raw gritty culture that made UFC work in the first place. So what did you do to protect that culture as the money and the opportunities grew bigger? Cheers, pal. Hope everyone has a good night. Bloody hell, that's loud.

Dr. Cliff Redford (15:55)

That's a great question, actually. A lot of what we were just talking about out there. That's probably one that I can't answer publicly, but...

I don't let, even though this thing has become big and corporate, I don't let a lot of people mess with it. I control and run everything that happens here and I don't let that happen.

Yeah, and I think it's like in the veterinarian world right now, they call it the corporatization of veterinarian clinics where at least in Canada, and I'm sure it's the same in the big cities in the US, half of the vet clinics are now owned by corporations. And what ends up happening is I build a clinic, I work on it, you know, I've owned my clinic 26 years. They come and buy you out? They come and buy me out. They offer me a shit ton of money, like life changing money, stuff you'd never think you'd get. You work for a year or two, that's what the contract says. And then you go on your return.

Right and there's a lot of a lot of vets that are retirement age and then the culture tanks because they've lost that one guy But the difference with yeah, the UFC went you guys bought it for what two billion two million You know it sold for four billion something like that and you stuck around that was the key you stuck around Well that nobody was willing to buy unless I stayed yeah, and you have you know creative control Let's call it you get I definitely have that you definitely have that and

I mean the guy that bought it he was smart he was just like you know here's the guy that took it from nothing you know it's a private equity company that owns it yeah yeah so that makes a difference yeah for sure but but it's still work and kudos for you for being able to keep that kind of that that it's almost a blue collar thing even though it's not a blue collar corporation it's still run very

It's still run exactly the way it was run 10 years ago when we sold it. Yeah. Yeah. People were a few of my friends were a little surprised, especially if they don't sort of know your brand, air quotes brand that I was going to show up in ripped jeans and a Toronto Boxing Academy t-shirt. I'm like, no, this is a yeah, this is a big corporation, but this is just he's just a regular guy. Oscar from the front desk downstairs is a huge fan of yours says he is so humble. He comes and he's this big guy and he doesn't have to talk to me and he comes and he talks to me for 10 minutes.

So you've kept that sort of personal touch. Last question. So this guy ⁓ is a huge wildlife enthusiast and rescuer. In fact, him and I are talking about doing a volunteer trip. We're thinking of maybe the Savannah Plains in Africa, flying on a helicopter, darting rhinos, and then you sort of shoot down and...

cut their horns off so that the poachers aren't interested. But most people know him from Lord of the Rings, Lost, and he's got a show right now on TV called Dom and Billy Eat the World. It's a traveling food show, which is why his question is food-based.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:03)

Hey Dana, don't mind me. Big fan of you, big fan of the UFC. I think I'm to get a chance to see you at live event one day. I know a lot of people are going to be asking you a bunch of mixed martial arts questions and UFC questions. I'm going to go in the other direction. So my question to you would be, if you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would that be? Starter, main meal, something after you've finished your main meal, and a drink as well. Take it easy, man.

Dr. Cliff Redford (19:29)

If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? Don't worry about nutrition. Yeah, all right. Don't worry about Gary Brackett. We're talking about food for the soul here. it would probably, it would be Italian. It would be pasta or, ⁓ you know, some type of pasta, you know.

Don't let Gary practice here. He's not gonna be very happy with that. Yeah, it would be some type of Italian food. And then one drink. That's a rough one. mean...

I if you're go one drink the rest of your life, make it a milkshake. Nice. And I don't really drink milkshakes, but yeah. That's what I'd have to have for the rest of my life. I'd make it good, like a milkshake. I love it. Especially if nutrition doesn't matter. I love it. Yeah, there you go. Just checking the time here. Good. ⁓ I mean, that's it for those questions. So, you know, you're talking about being an animal lover. You got pets? Yeah. What do you got?

We have five dogs. Oh my goodness. Three cats. We just had two rabbits. One of them just passed away. Uh, and we have a turtle. So when my son, my oldest son is 24 and when he came home,

As a baby, we bought a little turtle about this big as the size of like a quarter and put it in his room in an aquarium. Now he has a huge habitat outside. He's 24 years old, same age as my son. Do you know what kind? Is it a ready or slide? It's like a tortoise. He lives outside. Oh, okay. Okay. A tortoise. right. He has this massive habitat.

in my backyard. He's got a damn good life, that guy. ⁓ He's gonna have to put him in the will. That thing's gonna live a hundred percent. A hundred fifty years or something. Exactly. So my kids will probably have to put it in their will. ⁓ And we just bought, I didn't, my son.

bought for his girlfriend, his sister and his mother, just bought those little Highlander cows. I have a place up in Maine too. Yeah. So we just, we just bought three cows. I just, I got this little barn now up there. And, and you know, the family, my family loves animals. My daughter is in college right now and she wants to be like a Marine biologist that, that helps and works on injured seed life. So no way. that's a big animal lovers in my family. You guys, you guys need,

to come with me on one of these volunteer trips. I mean I go for 10 days you don't have time to go for 10 days but like I've been to Panama so I travel I take my vacation time and I travel around the world Jamaica, Ukraine twice during when the shit's hitting the fan. ⁓ Panama I did some work with a turtle rescue in Panama and Bocos del Toro she would she would get a kick out of that.

and even She would love to do that. Yeah, like it's some cool stuff. I always imagined, you know, someone like you come to South Thailand. I've got some connections with the South Thailand Elephant Foundation. ⁓ Go there, see some old school Muay Thai fights, help out some elephants. I've done it. I've done both. Went to an elephant sanctuary in Thailand and ⁓ went to Muay Thai fights. Yeah. But I mean actually like treat them. Yeah, I didn't treat them.

⁓ I saw him. Or she could be our assistant. ⁓ I want to do some stuff with sharks one day. Maybe she can help out with that. I'm terrified of them. Not as much as Mike Tyson, apparently. Me But there you go. That's the only thing. People ask me what I'm afraid of. I'm not afraid to die. I'm not afraid of anything. I'm afraid of sharks. Sharks are my one... You're one thing. I'm reading the 50th anniversary Jaws book. Like the original novel.

scares the shit out of me. So my daughter, she loves Jaws too much. just went back, uh, back East and went to where they filmed Jaws and you know, uh, yeah, this is all right up my daughter's alley. This is all the stuff she loves. Yeah. Cool. I love it. I mean, no one would have thought, uh, a lot of people were asking me why, why are you, why are you talking to this guy? It doesn't really, uh, doesn't really fit. First of all, I say, look, some of it, sometimes my episodes aren't about animals. They're about, you know,

health benefits or building a business or overcoming challenges. But it's one of the things that we all have in common. like your buddy that does the food show.

We all love food and we all, you know, are interested in different types of food and everybody's like your buddy, other buddy said, you're a prick if you don't like animals. You know what I mean? You're, you're, you're, there's actually something evil inside of you. If you don't like animals. just saw this thing on a, this isn't the thing to talk about on the podcast, but I literally just saw it on Instagram. There's a guy walking down the street and they're in some whatever, and there's a dog and he must be a stray dog or somebody's dog. He picks it up by the back legs and

smashes the dog on the ground and this guy comes out of his place with a stick and just starts beating the living shit out of this guy with the stick. Yeah. And ⁓ yeah, people like that are pure evil.

Yeah, it's, you know, one of my trips was to Cairo, ⁓ Egypt. I always try and pick places that obviously need my help, but also I'd never seen the pyramid. So, you know, here's a good opportunity. ⁓ And they had actually called me, the rescue had called me to come in because someone had...

poured acid on a dog's face and it needed basically advanced reconstructive surgery and it was a lot worse than we thought and where was it? Cairo. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's they love their cats but I have a friend who just hit me the other day was getting off Tropicana one of the streets here which is a major street especially at you know rush hour and there was a duck there was a little duck in the road and freaking out like

Yeah, you should have stopped and tried to get the duck but you end up killed here two people I Love this city so much. This city is Can't explain how much I love this city, but the worst the dumbest drivers on the planet are Living in this city. They are literally the worst of anywhere I've ever been and I travel the whole world So I don't know if you want to be trying to catch a duck in the middle of the freeway rush hour, but yeah ⁓

I have if we were driving by it. There you go, there you go, you would have grabbed it. ⁓

What's next for you? got any secret things you want to drop on this podcast and make it an exclusive? We've dropped pretty much everything we got going on right now. But what's next for me is no matter how successful you are or how successful you've been, you always have to prove yourself. So I just signed a new seven year deal with Paramount for UFC, just signed a new five year deal with Paramount for boxing. And now we got to go out and deliver.

Over the next decade here, we have to work hard, put our heads down and grind and deliver for the network. Wow. I mean, that Canelo-Crawford fight was spectacular. Thank you. Yeah, it was spectacular. ⁓ I mean, Crawford seemed to, he had Canelo's number. he seemed to figure it out. You could see how frustrated Canelo was getting at the end.

wasn't able to land those big shots but... The fight was massive for Crawford. mean it put him now in the Floyd Mayweather discussion talking about him you know possibly being the greatest of all time and he just did what he did with Canelo and he's not even done yet so...

happy for him. He's actually a really nice guy. Yeah, he's a good person. So it's good to see good things happen to good people. And it's great. And it's great, you know, for the sports community to finally have these sort of dream matches. Shake Turkey from Saudi Arabia. None of this stuff will be happening without him. Yeah, this guy's passion for the sport and his desire to make these big fights ⁓ is definitely pumping some life back into the sport of boxing. Yeah, I love it.

Well, thank you very much for coming on. the gifts. We gotta get Dennis his. And ⁓ for anyone watching, be kind to animals. ⁓

Go watch some MMA fights. Don't be a prick. Don't be a prick. That's what that's gonna be the new Be Kind to Animals. Don't be a... I wish I could do his accent. I'm pretty sure his first take was don't be a fucking prick. And then he probably wanted to change it, which he shouldn't have had to. It's a beautiful way to sum it up. Don't be a prick. Don't be a prick. Pleasure to meet you. Thank you very much. right.

Dr. Cliff Redford (28:24)

fun. Yeah, one of the things about bull riding too that I get into, I probably should have said this on the podcast, but a lot of people, know, like the, you know, I lean a little right, I'm more in the middle, the far right are nuts, the far left are nuts, you even have nutty animal lovers, right? You're gonna be too nutty about everything, but...

The truth is that these bulls are so well taken care of and they love what they do. mean, these things get massages. put the, what's the thing that they put on them and the horses that does the electric, like the electric shock on them? The EMS, the TEMS. Humans do it too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And massage the muscles. They get all that shit done. mean, these, they're so well taken No way.