LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — Las Vegas businessman and UFC CEO Dana White was certainly one of three folks featured within the season premiere of 60 Minutes on CBS Sunday.
White touched on a myriad of subjects throughout the section with journalist Jon Wertheim, together with his unprecedented success with the Final Combating Championship, which started within the early 2000s.
In August, The UFC agreed to a $7.7 billion take care of Paramount to develop into the first U.S. broadcaster for all occasions.
“Whenever I read stories about the business of FFC I literally laugh and say, ‘No one knows anything about the business,'” White mentioned. “For 25 years, people have been trying to figure it out and people have been trying to do it.”
Wertheim spoke with White about his collaboration with Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta to buy the corporate for $2 million in 2001.
“I said I think they’re going out of business,” White recalled. “And we could probably buy this thing, and we should.”
On the time, White was awarded at 10% stake and tasked with managing the group.
The interview additionally touched on White’s decades-long friendship with President Donald Trump, which additionally started within the early 2000s.
“The relationship that he and I have, and when we get together, when I have dinner with him,” White mentioned of Trump. “We don’t talk politics. We talk about goofy guy stuff that all guys talk about.”
He additionally gave Wertheim a tour of his workplace at The UFC Efficiency Institute, close to Jones Boulevard and the Southern 215 Beltway within the southwest valley.
One other portion of White’s interview concerned time at The Bellagio, the place he tried his luck betting $400,000 at a baccarat desk, later cashing out at $700,000.
The story then dove into the controversy over fighter pay inside the sport, together with the UFC guardian firm’s latest $375 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit.
White additionally professed his advocacy for the fitting to free speech, touting his as the one firm to permit athletes to talk freely with out worry of penalties.
“I’m a big believer in free speech,” White mentioned. “I don’t like trying to destroy peoples’ lives over doing something dumb.”
An occasion White instructed Wertheim is prime of thoughts is subsequent summer season’s combat card set on the south garden of the White Home.
“The fighters will walk out of the Oval Office to come to the octagon,” White defined.
The interview did contact on politics, together with White’s look at President Trump’s inauguration in January, the place he had an interplay with President Barack Obama.
“President Obama turned around, the only president that did, and said, ‘congratulations on all your success,”‘ White mentioned. “And I said, ‘thank you very much, Mr. President.”‘
Lastly, White’s enlargement to boxing underneath UFC, with the latest Canelo Alvarez vs. Terrence Crawford combat at Allegiant Stadium.
“Almost 71,000 people,” White mentioned. “And it was the third biggest fight ever in the history of boxing.”
