Transcription
Fit Club started right here at the strip off Hosienda Indicar. The energy, the grit, the place that set the standard for Vegas fitness. Then came Northwest near Summerland. Sharing the Fit Club gym culture and vibes across Las Vegas. And the crown jewel, Henderson, a cutting-edge space designed for bodybuilders, competitors, and anyone chasing their best self. Fit Club Las Vegas. Now with three locations, we don't just fight insurance companies, we train for it. If you want results, get a lawyer that puts in the work. 107. Do you trust a lawyer that doesn't train? 102. Or a lawyer that quits when it gets tough. Pacific West Injury Law. We're built to win.
[Music] [Music] All right. So, we just had a crazy guest walk in here right now. Hana White, welcome. This, we thought we were going to go, we thought we had some really big guests here. This is, uh, a truly a pleasure, pleasure to have you here, man.
It's good to be here. Thanks for having me. Never thought we'd. Local. Local. You're like three minutes from my office. It's perfect.
Crazy. Yeah. I get to train over at your crazy gym over there sometimes.
Yeah. How do you like that? No one knows about the, everyone. I'm like, "Oh, I train at UFC." They're like, "Yeah, there. I've been there." You know, I said, "No, you haven't. Not to this one."
Yeah. And, uh, I know the leg section's crazy over there. And you know, you guys have all that variety. So, you know, I'm a, I'm a, I'm kind of a gym nerd, so I've been, uh, you know,
I am too. I'm Oh, [ __ ] Mr. President, how are you, sir? Yeah, I can hear you. Perfect. Of course. Right when we start the [ __ ] podcast. It's okay. We're good. We're good to go. Hey, you can just say what just happened. That was pretty cool. Little pause. Little pause. Little business calls. Will never happen again the rest of our life.
You know what's kind of funny? So, when you, when I think about, I, I watch, you know, we've obviously watched what you've done the years and you know, being, being in Vegas, you've done so much for the community here, but I was asking everyone around like, how does Dana handle his time? Like, time management is so crazy, right? I mean, that's so, that's what makes everyone so efficient.
So, I always say, I, I have a lot of things, but time isn't one of them. Um, you know, I'm, I'm at the office most of the time. I spend most of my time there. Um,
Do you sleep is the question.
Yeah, I, I don't sleep a lot, but yeah, I, I, I, I obviously sleep, but I don't, I don't require a ton of sleep like most people do. I actually saw this guy, um, on, on the Rogan podcast. I didn't see the whole podcast, I just saw a clip, but he was basically like, you know, people who claim they sleep five hours a night are full of [ __ ]. And I was like, "Yeah, no, dude. You're full of [ __ ] shit."
Yeah. Uh, I, I, I've been sleeping five hours most of my life. Um, and, and, you know, I don't require, um, a lot of sleep, but then there'll be times where, you know, I'll knock out for 10, 12 hours or something like that, every once in a, in a blue moon. Um, but yeah, I don't, I don't require a lot of sleep. I don't actually like to sleep.
You know, I always said when I was training like full capacity for this stuff, I always said you have to sleep in at least a five-hour stint in order to recover properly. You know, I, people say, "Oh, bodybuilders sleep eight or 10 hours or whatever else to get full recovery," but I think from what I've researched, it was about five hours straight is really what's kind of required.
Well, now I just saw this thing. I don't know if it's true. You don't know what to believe that you seeing on the internet, but they're saying that they, they just saw that some people have a gene that don't require a lot of sleep. Certain, you know, and, and that would actually make sense to me. Um, but I know people who love their sleep and sleep as much as they can and then people like me that don't like to sleep.
Yeah. Because you, I will literally stay up as late as I possibly can and then just sleep a few hours and then get up and start all over again. I, I literally love my life.
You stay up that late pretty much like, like every night. When will you go to bed tonight? You think?
Last night I went to bed at four. Night before that I went to bed three, three thirty-four. I, I, I do that almost every night.
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Okay. Click the link below. Yeah.
Are you, are you gambling or is that?
No, I, I actually, I shouldn't say I haven't gambled, but I've, I've, I've only gambled a couple times in the last like two months. Yeah. Seems like I just gambled in New Orleans. We had Power Slap out there. You know, we do the big thing after, but yeah, we played Bakarat out there. And that was a, that was a minute since you actually been out there, right?
It was. You haven't had an event there in quite some time, right?
Yeah. Yeah, we, uh, the last time that I, uh, was on Bourbon Street, it was me and the Fertitta brothers and we were there to watch the UFC because we were thinking about buying it. That's the last time I was on Bourbon Street.
What year was that?
Had to be '98, '99. Wow. Something like that.
And let me ask you this. Did Trump put on your first event for you guys?
Um, yeah, Mahal. Was that the first one then? Yeah. At the Taj. So, so the, the UFC had such a bad stigma attached to it that venues didn't even want us. And, uh, Trump at the time, now think about where the Trump brand was and where our brand was. He said, "Yeah, come to the Taj." Showed up to the first fight of the night, first prelim and stayed till the end, both times that we did the Taj. And then after that, um, anything good that would ever happen to me in my career, he would be the first guy that would reach out and say, like, I'll give you an example. When we, we, we were on the cover of the New York Times for the first time and they were, you know, did a story on us. He said, "Congratulations, Dana. I always knew you were going to make it." And sent me the, the front page of the paper. You know, stuff like that he would do. But he wasn't into like fighting himself.
Oh, he was. Yeah. Really? He loved fighting. I mean, all the fights he had us come to the Taj. And when you think about all the other people that have fought at, at the Trump Taj Mahal back then, he was always into fighting.
And what about at one point he wanted to do his own thing, didn't he?
Yeah. So, I think that was Don Jr. that, that got that whole thing rolling, but yeah, he, he, he was even involved and, and back then people would try to get me to talk about him, you know, negatively. Yeah. Yeah. And I would always say, I'll never say anything bad about Trump. Trump was, uh, and he aligned. He was great to us.
Just, just a phone call from the president, right?
For real. Yeah. Um, yeah. So, so we, we became really close.
Go back to the time management like obviously.
Oh, that's what we're talking about. Time, man. Crazy busy. How do you juggle all this?
Well, there's every day that you get up, there's certain things that, that phone call that I just had had to get done today. Um, and then, um, you know, you have your list of to-do. I got to get this, this, this, this, and, done. The thing that I love about being in the office and not being working remote is every day [ __ ] will happen that you don't expect to happen that will pop up or somebody will roll in your office, you know, one of, one of your people and they have an idea or a problem that needs to be fixed and when you're all there in the office, you jump on it and you just try to knock out your list of your to-do list for the day plus put out, you know, all the fires that that pop up that day.
I know. But with your travel schedule, you know, you're not always available in the office. So when you to jump back in, be on a different time zone after flying back, you probably come back and go right to business. Like how, like I literally when we get back, like I got my guys that that travel with me and, and everything, but when we get back, you know, they're like, they get to take care of their, handle their [ __ ] that they need to do. I jump right back on the hamster wheel and start going again as soon as we get home.
Like you go right from the airport sometimes to?
I go straight from the airport to the office every time we land.
Sound familiar?
Literally every time we land, I go straight to the office.
What I've witnessed for 20 years or that is crazy. Yeah, because you go all the, I mean, to all these foreign places. I mean, it seems like, you know, I used to come to a lot of UFC events back.
Yep. I remember the ages. Yep. I was invited as a guest. I think at that time it was still in the building phase. I mean, it was like Randy and Chuck and all those guys and, uh, you know, they used to happen every, every once in a while. Now, yeah, we used to have five events a year. Now we have 44 events a year, which it seems like there's, it seems like more than that, actually.
Yeah. Well, you got 44, but if you add the Contender Series and, and the Ultimate Fighter and, you know, all the other [ __ ] that we do. Plus, now we got Power Slap. Um, we just started, uh, UFC BJJ. Um, yeah. So, yeah, we got, we got boxing. Yeah, boxing now, too.
Yeah. Mentioning the Power Slap. How did that come about?
So, I, uh, started to see this popping up on, on Instagram in like '17 and '18. And what I noticed is I usually go by gut. Now I'm, I'm jaded and, you know, I've, I've sat in the best seats for a million fights and I've been in the fight business since I was 19. When I started to watch the Power Slap stuff before it was Power Slap, I, I said, what, what made me interested is that I wanted to see, I'd stay and watch to see who won. And I, then I took a deeper dive into it and started looking at some of the numbers on YouTube. First of all, the production quality was terrible. Um, they looked like they were slapping in a barn. They were literally slapping over a barrel. Um, and I said, "Damn, what if I did this and actually turned it into a sport, gave it the right production, and, you know, made a good live event out of it? I think this could be big." And usually when I feel that way, I just go with it. If I'm in the mood, I go with it. So, I literally called the Fertittas and said, "I'm into this slapping stuff. What do you think?" They both said, "What do you need?" I said, "I need a million dollars from both of you, from you and Frank." And, uh, they said, "We're in." So, we all put up a million bucks and, uh, Power Slap began a little over two years ago, like two and a half years ago. And now, from what I understand, it gets more views than even the UFC.
Yeah. Crushes it on social media. And, um, the live event is [ __ ] awesome. And, uh, yeah, it's, uh.
But you have them outside, like you've had them like at Fountain Blue and these other places, right? Like you haven't like?
So, we started it at the Apex. Okay. Then we moved it over to Durango. Then we did a deal with Fountain Blue. We, then we went out to, uh, Abu Dhabi. Then we went to Saudi Arabia. Now we just took it to New Orleans and, uh, in the United States next. My next spot I would love to take it to Hawaii. You know, we got a lot of Hawaiians who compete in it and the UFC has never been to Hawaii. So I would love to bring Power Slap to Hawaii next. It's either going to go Hawaii, Texas, Florida, one of those places. Um, and then, uh, we're going to do Qar.
And how big is the roster?
Um, [ __ ] I don't even know what the roster is right now, but, um, we have a good number of guys and growing. Yeah.
Is it something like you're an amateur and you have to, how do, how do you determine who comes on? Is there a ranking?
So, what we, so think about this. So, when we bought the UFC, right, the UFC wasn't the biggest. It was the most well-known, but it wasn't the biggest. There was Pride out there in Japan and tons of other, um, competitors here in the United States. So, there was already a steady flow of talent out there. With Power Slap, there are some, some knockoff leagues. There's one down in Brazil. There's one here in the US. It started in Russia and Poland. Um, I think there's one in South Africa, too. But to, to have a steady flow of competitors coming through, we now started running guys through combines over at the PI. And, um, for instance, there's a bunch of people out there, um, that want to get into the AEW or the WWE, right? And these guys will [ __ ] jump off a ladder onto a table full of tacks for 50 bucks a night. You can come into Power Slap and make a shitload of money. You know what I mean? So, and these guys are all tough guys, big guys. Um, so, so we're looking at these guys that wanted to be professional wrestlers and a lot of other athletes around the world that didn't become professional athletes to come into Power Slap.
So, it's in, you incentivize them. So, the money obviously is building. Okay. Which a lot more than there's real money in this.
Yeah. With sponsors. You have like what, over 30 sponsors with the event?
Correct. Yeah. Um, yeah. No, this, this, this things for most of these. So, when you start a business like this, the, the problem is money. You got to have money to put. Money is not a problem for us. The problem for us is finding a steady flow of talented guys that can come through. Uh, you know, so any big guys out there, if you're a bodybuilder or you're trying to be a pro wrestler or any of that [ __ ], whatever your dream is, you can literally come into this and and make, make some real money.
I don't hear a lot of those guys speak often, though. Cuz like they don't, you know what I mean? I don't, I don't know. Is it like a?
Well, they do the, they do interviews after the, uh.
Is there like a press conference of like?
Yeah. Yeah, there's a press conference. Yeah.
And how many people can attend? Like, how can people attend a Power Slap event?
Yeah, you, where, whatever venue we're at, we, you know, we just did the, the, the arena that we did in New Orleans. It was almost like this arena was built for Power Slap. It was, it was perfect. The crowd out in, in, uh, in Louisiana was incredible, you know, at the UFC and at Power Slap. So, this was probably our best event. Then we do the big gambling thing after and Caesar's Palace was, uh, New Orleans is where we did it.
I always [ __ ] on casinos outside of Vegas. Let me tell you what, the Caesar's, the, the two groups, Caesar's Palace, every one of their casinos, cu, uh, in Vegas, Kansas City, and now New Orleans that I've been to will make you feel like you are in Las Vegas. They are so [ __ ] good at what they do. And then the other casino outside of Vegas, um, that is an absolute [ __ ] home run is the Encore in, in Boston. Incredible. Incredible. Every other casino that I've been to outside of Las Vegas dumps [ __ ] holes and sounds like I was totally dump [ __ ] holes in, in places that you should not [ __ ] risk your money.
Yeah, that's, that comes, that's speaking standards because I know you're a Vegas guy and you love to have the events here. The Caesar's Palace Group, they own Caesars here. They own a bunch of places. It's the Corono family. They own a bunch of places in Reno. They got Kansas City and we just did New Orleans and, and I literally, I hit up the CEO Anthony Carano and I tell him, this is unfucking believable that I could come to Kansas City or New Orleans and still feel like I'm in Vegas. Um, those places are so well-run and, and New Orleans has a Nou and a, a great steakhouse and, you know, um, yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty impressive.
Next, you go to Boston. Yeah. You guys are both from the same area.
Well, two things. When you go to Boston and you stay at the Encore, you literally, it's, you, I'm assuming you love Boston the way that I love Boston, but you feel like you're in Boston, but you feel like you're in Vegas at the same time. Um, their gym is excellent and their spa is off the charts. They have a cold plunge in there, they have the sauna, they have the, uh, steam, and they have this one of those, uh, uh, um, what do they call them? Like a, um, [ __ ] uh, waterfall. Like you go in and the water [ __ ] just dumps on. Yeah, it's incredible. That's where I picked up my Woodway treadmill actually after using one of their treadmills. It was like the Rolls-Royce of treadmills. Yeah. Um, and obviously Nicki Verono, he's a good buddy of mine, right? Restaurant, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, he's always like, "Come stay over here so you can go eat at the restaurant." But I like to stay near the North End. I'm staying at Boston Harbor Hotel a lot when I'm there. So, that's where I used to stay, too. I mean, that's that's where I worked. I, that's where I worked for.
Saw you dressed up as a bell.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. There's a commercial with Dana was dressed up as a bellman. No, I, so we did, uh, we, we have a show called Looking for a Fight. Me, Matt, and Dean go around and, and we did one in Boston and they, I had them stay at the Boston Harbor Hotel cuz that's where I used, I was a Bellman there. So, I dressed up as the Bellman and I went and took their bags and brought them up like, uh, like the old days, you know. Yeah. I love the Boston Harbor, too. But since they built the Encore, [ __ ] that [ __ ] I'm staying at the Encore, man. It's, it's.
The spa is.
Yeah, second to none. It's incredible. Yeah. And that hotel, if you gamble, that hotel feels almost like Vegas. They have when you go, same inside. Well, when you go to different states, they have different regulations and things you can do when you play, which is, you know, a little irritating, but, um, yeah, Encore in Boston's as close to Vegas as you'll get. Other than the Caesar's Palace places outside of Vegas are a [ __ ] home run. If you gamble and you are a gambler, play at any of the Caesar's Palaces out of Vegas. It's awesome.
They better sponsor your events for this one.
No, listen, I'm very passionate about certain things and gambling is one of them, though. Um, for these guys that, that know exactly what I'm saying, that play like I play and, and deal with all the frustration and the [ __ ] and the podunk backward ass [ __ ] that you have to deal with in these casinos outside of Vegas. Caesar's Palace is the best.
I used to live in Macau. Have you been to?
Oh, [ __ ]. Yeah, of course. Macau to win there. So, when that first opened, man, that place was booming. I, I have never gambled there though. I've been there, but never gambled. But, um, you know, recently people have been telling me, I'm, I'm going on a big tour of China in August. The government invited me out and, and I'm going to tour like all of China, Shaolin Temple, the Wall, and all these things in China. I'm doing it in August. So, I used to work for the Ho family. They own most of the stuff there. Yeah. So, I'm looking very forward.
You're going to love it. You're talking about the guy who owned all the cas, who the guy who owned all Stanley Ho was the main guy, casinos. Yeah. He passed away a couple years ago, but I worked for his son.
Then you know this, then you know this. So, Stanley Ho that he's talking about, you know, if you look at the Forbes list every year, this guy's the richest guy, this guy's [ __ ]. So, all the people that you see that are number one and all that [ __ ], not true. There are people that are richer. And I guess for a while there, there was a debate who was richer, Stanley Ho or Putin. Like, those were like the two top guys that, that people thought were the two richest guys in the world. So, when I was there, he owned like all the licenses. He owned the airport. He owned everything. He was in his 90s. But when you go to the casinos there, it's, it's just like here. They don't have a night like, night life, but luxuries is and, and I, I've heard somewhere you've always wanted to gamble a million a hand.
It's funny you say that. That's where everybody was telling me people, you know, um, you know, I gambled two million there. They said, you, you want to play a million a hand, go to Macau. They'll take your [ __ ] action all day.
Oh, absolutely. Yep. Yeah. I got to get, I got to get him over there. He's.
How long did you work for him?
Um, I worked for, I was handling the entertainment at one of the casinos there. It was like, not directly underneath, not for him, but for one of his properties. And at the time, they had, they had Crown Melro, which is all over, uh, Australia, Philippines, Macau. I just stayed there. Yeah. I, um, in Australia. I, um, I've heard so much about this guy. I love, I love the casino business. I love gambling. And I love all the [ __ ] stories about all the guys that were involved in, in, in gambling. Um, I love this city with a passion and, um, yeah, so I, I know all about him. That was, that was something we were going to, I wanted to ask you.
You're, you've been in Vegas for how long?
Since 1978.
Okay. That's a long time. You can live anywhere in the world. Unequivocally, I would never buy Vegas. I would never [ __ ] live anywhere but here. Um, and I, I have a house up in Maine, um, that I love. Not only do I love it, all my friends want to go there. It's, it's, it's, it's like my getaway place. Um, I got, I got a place in California. Um, and I've stayed, you know, my family loves Lake Austin. The list goes on and on. This is the only [ __ ] place I could live. And I go to these other places and it's awesome, but in short spurts and then I have to come back here. I love everything about this city. Best restaurants. Um, everything's 24/7. That this city just, I can't tell if this city was built for me or if I was built for this city, but I, I literally couldn't live anywhere else. I can go vacation and take.
Talk a little bit about your Boston roots because we know you support the the sports teams like.
So, when I say 1978, that's where we came from and we moved out here. Single mom with two kids and a dog. We drove out to Vegas. Um, my mom was a nurse and Vegas was paying nurses more than anywhere else in the country at that time and the cost of living was so cheap. So, back then they paid nurses more and, you know, you get a house here for 30 grand. Um, so we moved to Vegas and, um, you know, I was very lucky that I got to bounce back and forth, you know, so I got some East Coast and I got some West Coast and, and, uh, you know, I, I, I, I really value that experience growing up and I gave that to my kids. My son lives in Boston right now. My oldest son, Dana, lives in Boston and, uh, he loves it there. And my time, you know, when I was, uh, 17 to, uh, 25, I lived in Boston. I moved back there from here and lived there in from that time and it was great. When you're that age, Boston's the best, right? It's, it's such a great experience. But now at my age, [ __ ] that [ __ ] I, I couldn't live there right now. The winters [ __ ] suck. Um, traffic, all, all the, all the things that are a nightmare when you get older, uh, about Boston. But I love to visit. And you go to the, obviously you have your events there, but you go watch the Celtics games, right?
Oh, I go, I try to catch as many Celtics games as I can, uh, every season. Huge fan. Um, obviously, what do you think about the sale that just happened? They just sold the team.
Yeah, it's, it's fascinating. All these, all these owners are selling all these sports teams. Yeah, I don't blame them. Six billion dollars. Cuz I'd be [ __ ] selling too.
Well, I mean, you didn't really want to sell the UFC, though.
Well, I did not. Yeah, but, and that was a big acquisition. Here's the thing. If, if these guys are trying to sell, it's like the Lorenzo thing. You know, Lorenzo wanted to sell and I didn't. Um, and Lorenzo's like, I'm done. I, I, I'm out. I can't do it anymore. Be happy for me that I, that I'm getting out and I, I don't want to do this anymore. Um, but yeah, no, I wasn't ready to sell, but, um, you know, obviously if these guys, if, if they're at that place, they want to sell, six billion is not a bad.
Did you think though when that acquisition happened that you would stay in the position that you're in? Because you're kind of, I mean, you're the face. Was there that concern as like, okay, I exit with you or I'm still in a bunch of different businesses with them?
We, we own a lot of different companies together, me and the Fertitta brothers. So, I just figured, all right, what's next? What are we going to go do next? And we'll move on to the next thing. And they were like, "Yeah, we got to talk to you. Nobody's going to buy this if you don't stay." So, um, and now in hindsight, I mean, it's the greatest thing ever. We continue to to break records and I continue to, you know, the relationships, Dana, that you must make this business. I mean, what happened during COVID and, you know, you just taking the stance. I mean, just balls of steel. Just.
Well, me, me staying was obviously the, the right thing and, and, uh, you know, I love what I do still. So, um, but if I had not stayed, it would be fascinating to see what me and the Fertitas would be doing where I could devote 100% of my time to it. You know what I mean? The businesses that we own now. Some of them, you know, I, I have nothing to do with other than I'm an investor with them and others I'm very involved in. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's all good. It all, it all worked out the way that it was supposed to.
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You try to get them involved with everything. You guys kind of look at this as like a partnership because I know you do like a Shark Tank type thing at your.
I heard something about that. Well, I, I joke saying every day is like Shark Tank at my office. People are coming and pitching me [ __ ]. But me, I'm, I'm like the third Fertitta brother. We're, we're super tight and super loyal to each other. And if they're doing something, they invite me in. If I'm doing something, I invite them in. Sometimes we say yes and no to each other on what we want to be involved in and what we don't. Um, but yeah, me and the Fertitta brothers, it's, it's like, um, you know, it's, it's almost 10 years now since we sold, but I mean, we, we're still as, as tight as we've ever been. And, you know, they must have total faith in, like you just push this thing. I mean, UFC did struggle for a long time. People think it was just automatically to the top, you know.
Well, what's funny is so much resistance. There's a, there's a business that was pitched recently to the brothers within, I say recently within the last year and a half. Um, and they turned it down. They said, "We're not interested." Then that business ended up coming to me like four months later and I said, "Huh, this is interesting." So, so I called Lorenzo and, and Lorenzo said, "Um, yeah, we turned that down, but if you're in, we're in. If you're gonna, if you're in, we'll, we'll [ __ ] go in with you." Um, so we're sort of still kicking the tires.
Let me ask you a question though. We talk, go back to the time management where we started.
So, yeah, no, you're not wrong. Hats, that's like.
So, how do you devote that time, man? Because like I said, I know you're on the plane and you're, you know, you're in front of people. Well, it's not like you can be on your phone doing all these.
Here's the thing. When, when your bandwidth starts to get smaller and smaller and smaller, the key to everything is no one person can do everything themselves. What, what your real talent has to be is building a good team around you. You have to build a good team around you and bring in the right people. For instance, when we sold and, you know, I got Lorenzo leaving, um, and then a bunch of guys got rich and left. Um, so now I have to figure out how do I fill these spots with the right people? And a couple of bad choices were made. I had to whack a couple people that, that I didn't like and didn't trust and then brought in. When we sold the team, that I rebuilt was a [ __ ] home run. Um, but how do you?
Those people like, how do you? I mean, there are certain people that you know in your life that, um, you know, are smart, hardworking, aligned with you. Um, you trust them no matter what. Um, and then there's other people that you like, they seem talented, they seem smart, and then you have to hope once they get in, they are the other things that you hope that they are.
And how do you determine to leave your friends out of it? Cuz I'm sure everyone's your friend, and they want, they pitch you something like they're your buddy.
And, yeah, I keep my circle super tight. And I'm not looking for any new [ __ ] friends. I got enough friends. Um, and, and, and the guys who've been with me. I mean, [ __ ] Elliot over here has been with me. E, what do you, been here? 20 years. Been with me for 20 years. The guys that I'll travel with, one of them is Marty Cordova. Um, he was the American League rookie of the year in '95. Played for the Twins. Me and him have been friends since 8th grade. Um, him at the gym actually.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, these are the kind of dudes that are around me. Skipper Kelp, who boxed, he and I have been friends for [ __ ] over 20 years, too. Um, and that's it, man. I, I, I, I kept my circle really small. And, yeah, but you know, as you get older and obviously, you know, when you're trying to be home and spend time with family, you talked about all these trips you going on, the motorcycle, the house in Maine, like that's what I mean. Like, hey, Dana, let's hang out. Not much time, right?
Yeah. No, listen, when I go on trips, let's hang out. Yeah. Yeah. That's what I'm there to do. I, I go to my place in Maine and blow my [ __ ] brains out for 10 days. And I was just there for Fourth of July. Fourth of July is my favorite holiday. I go to Maine every Fourth of July and it's literally my closest people, family and friends, and we have a blast. Man, on the 4th of July, like people from other towns show up at my house. I put on a fireworks show that'll [ __ ] smoke any of.
I ask him how much you spent on fireworks. What do you know? Do you know what, what the fireworks bill is?
[Laughter] A lot. Yeah, it's awesome. I mean, a small town, right?
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a small town, uh, right outside of Bangor, Maine. And, uh, you know, if you do like, you know, the, like the end of a fireworks show when it's ending, it goes 25 [ __ ] minutes straight. It's, it's like that. It's, it's [ __ ] awesome, man.
So, your neighbors either love you or hate you.
I think they all hate me, but they are the best [ __ ] people in the world. Never ever. I got music blast until 4 in the morning. I got, I, there's just [ __ ] madness going on at this place up there the whole time. Nobody has ever complained. Nobody's ever called the. Actually, half the police are at my house. Um, but yeah, it's incredible. Yeah, they've all been, they've all been. They know.
Did you wreck the razor or?
Okay. Who wrecked the? Who? Everybody. Everybody rolls the razor. The house. Me. That was me. I did that. Yeah, I was, I was. That hurt when I. It was [ __ ]. I just got done. It was the garage. I just got done building that garage and I crashed a [ __ ].
Yeah. 69. Uh, yeah. Yeah, it was bad. But you were, you showed it like what are you going to do, you know?
Yeah. What are you going to do?
So, I've noticed you are what I call unfuckwithable, meaning you're cancel. At what point did you get in your life where you said, "I can do what I want. I don't give a [ __ ] and I'm going to roll over."
You are too. And so are you because there's a. I just said there's a small group of people that I give a [ __ ] about them, their opinions, and everything else. And anybody who knows me knows me, right? Um, outside of that, who gives a [ __ ]? [ __ ] them, right?
What I, what I mean by that is like in the business sense, like maybe you might say something and a sponsor be like, "Fuck you. I'm going to take your money away." At what point did you go, I don't need anyone. I can do what I want and I'm going to.
Every day. I mean, that, that every day that, that that's how I feel anyway. And then on top of that, there are sponsors that I don't want. I actually got rid of one of our sponsors, big [ __ ] sponsor for big money. We went through the, the whole woke period and they were the [ __ ] worst ever to deal with. They don't have enough money to come back and I don't want them. There's lots of other people out there, lots of other sponsors. Don't ever let any of these people torture you and make your life miserable over money and, and a sponsorship. There's plenty of other people out there that you can align yourself with. Um, and maybe it's not as much money as that was, but I'll tell you this. Um, life will be a lot, a lot better without their money and their [ __ ]. And I never publicly put this company on blast because before COVID hit, they were great partners, right? But you don't know who's who in a relationship, in any type of relationship, business, personal, whatever, till the [ __ ] hits the fan. When the [ __ ] hits the fan, that's when we find out who's who, who's a good friend, who's a good partner, who's a good, um, you know, wife or husband or whatever it might be. You don't find out and you don't know until you hit hard times. And I say this, you know, all the time about my people. I always tell my staff how much I love them and care about them and all that stuff. Well, you don't know until, you know, bad times come. And, and, and it came. I, I always talk about this, but me and my people, um, meaning my employees, I always talk a big game about how I feel about my people. Um, the universe actually gave me the opportunity to prove it to them, me, you know, because when I said we're going through COVID, my whole team rolled through COVID. We went, men, women, everybody. I'm sure, and, and I'm sure in, in my company, there are people that, um, are on the opposite side of me politically and in a lot of different areas. I don't know because I don't care. Never once have I told my employees, you know, we're going to, we're going to vote, you know, we're going to get out there and vote for Donald Trump. We're going to do this and that. You're all grown men and women who live in America. You can vote for whoever you want to. Not only that, I don't even say, "Hey everybody, it's election day. Get out there and vote." [ __ ] grown men and women. If you want to vote, vote. If you don't want to vote, don't vote. Tell my employees to do anything except their job. That's it. We don't talk about any of that type of [ __ ].
Well, you gave, I mean, you started, I mean, you started the UFC ground up. You were like trying to egg on these fighters to get, had the heart to fight and, you know, if you don't want to be here, leave. Do you still give like those morale kind of like speeches or anything to people?
No, I think we're at a different level now. Think in the beginning, um, with my staff, I mean, we always do these, um, these awards celebrating the, the, the, uh, the people who've been with us for, you know, 10 years, 15 years, 20 plus years. And in the early days, you had to do the rah-rah stuff because you have a vision and, and, and hopefully you're going to bring in smart, talented people that believe in your vision and believe in you and, and, and want to go on this, this, this professional journey with you. But then once you get to a level like this, it's, you know, it, it completely changes. But what I love about my staff and I could walk you through, I, I could bring you over to, to the headquarters and walk you through department by department and show you people who, who love it as much as I do and go in there and grind and, and, and work hard every day. And, you know, I, I've said this many times. We don't have this thing at the UFC, um, where you, your, your shift is 9 to 5. And if you're not at work by 9:03, you get written up. And if you get written up this many times, you, we're all grown-ups, right? You know what needs to get done. Get your work done. Care if you [ __ ] do it at 9:00 this morning or 9:00 tonight. Get your [ __ ] done. And by all means, if your kid has a play or a school function or a practice or a game, I hope you, I hope you're going to be there. I hope you're going to go. Uh, that shit's very important to me, too. So, um, we run it just a completely different business. We are a [ __ ] circus. We are a traveling, you know, most of these people are on the road all the time and they work really hard. We're going to have, I just put out a thing every year. I have a, a carnival in the back of, of, of, of our, uh, headquarters and bring your kids and wives and friends and family. Um, you know, I try to throw three, four parties a year for the staff to come out and just [ __ ] relax and bring your family into work and, you know, I want the kids to realize where their parents are all day. And, you know, I, I don't know. I, I, I, I love my team and, and, uh, that team's growing all the time.
Yeah. I mean, even when you, you launching the different PIs, right? I mean, you have all these different opening now.
Yeah. The PIs. And now we just, I just opened up a bunch of offices, uh, for the boxing side of this thing now. And then we have, um, you know, whole Power Slap team that's in there now.
That's what I was going to say. And the jiu-jitsu team that's in there now. And, and it keeps growing.
Thanks. So, all these are positioned. So you have like, they, like you said, the Power Slap guys are now going, they're training at the PI. So, is that all the different PI? Because I know you had Mexico and you.
Well, we also have, when you look at the PI, the regular PI that, when you walk into UFC headquarters, then over at the Apex, we have a huge facility over there now where the, where the PI is expanded. And the Apex, we just did a $30 million renovation. Wait till this [ __ ]. It's, it's incredible. When the new Apex opens, it, it's going to blow people's minds.
Will you host more events there?
Yes. Yes. And not just ours, but other people's, too. It's pretty awesome. This thing's going to be ready to go. There'll be a liquor license there. You can serve, you know, liquor.
I've never been to the Apex for any of the events.
Oh, you haven't? No, I never went. Oh, [ __ ]. I didn't realize it all the time. Oh, that's crazy. Well, well, the bathroom situation was a [ __ ] nightmare. Now there's like, just in the women's room, there's like 30 stalls in the women's room. I mean, it is, it's, it's going to be badass when it's done.
Let's talk about your fitness crusade that you've gone on. That's how I want to wrap it up. Um, I'm a fitness guy. You know, you know, you ran into me at the Cosmo one year and you like, you walked up to me and you're like, "You're a big motherfucker." You know, and I don't think you realized who I was at the time, you know, and obviously you followed, you know, you said you'd follow bodybuilding a little bit, Arnold, and, you know, obviously he was a huge inspiration. I won a few Arnold Classics. These are the Arnold trophies that I won and in my, I won three in a row. He was the inspiration for me. Vanam was an inspiration and also, um, Stallone. Those are the guys I started in '91. So, uh, you, I mean, you have a boxing background, but did you, did you ever follow bodybuilding in a sense? I mean, looked at magazines and saying, watch Pumping Iron.
Yeah, Pumping Iron got me into it and obviously Muscle and Fitness. Joe Weider, I mean, what that guy did for bodybuilding. Um, but yeah, I mean, I would every month I would get the magazine and read it and I always worked out. I was never into bodybuilding per se, but I followed the sport. Yeah.
About the nutrition and the train and now I know you're training like crazy. I know Kevin's taking you in the gym all the time. You.
Train in the morning. Um, what like you went through this whole transformation? I mean, you were a bigger guy before. Yeah. And when did you decide, you know what, I'm going to make this, I'm going to become leaner and just more of the health aspect because I know you're working with Gary a little bit and a lot. Yeah. What happens is when you hit 50, everything changes, man. And what starts to happen is you start to think, "Holy [ __ ], this is what 50 feels like. I guess this is, you know, um, and it's not true." That's what Gary Brea, you know, has taught me over the last two years. And now I've gotten more into, you know, and the other thing was, uh, we were in there benching one day, me and my, so my head of production, his name is Craig Borsari. He's been with me for 20 years, too. And, uh, you know, me and him used to do the big meathead workout every day. How much can we bench? And, uh, in Gold's Gym in in, uh, in New York, I put up 355 pounds on the bench. Um, I don't know, probably 10 or 12 years ago. And, you know, I was that type of a [ __ ] meathead. Then I blew my shoulder out and he tore his pec. And we're both [ __ ]. I'm I'm 55, he's 45. And now I work out for reps and, you know, trying to get leaner, eat right, cold plunge, and, you know, all the superhuman [ __ ] that I do with Gary Brea. Um, you know, it just your goals change when you get older. Um, and and that's what happened to me and and and I'm I'm so lucky that I met Gary Brea and learned this [ __ ] from him.
Was it really the, was it really like, hey, you have X many years to live at this years or something? How old are you now? I'll be 52 and right after you. Well, you know what I'm talking about then. Yeah. So, when you're in your 30s and and even your 40s, you can go out and eat [ __ ] up dinners and do all this [ __ ] and and you can still function and whatever. When you hit 50, you you try and eat like that and do that stuff. It's just you can't, you can't do it anymore.
So, did you just wake up one day and decide, I'm No. So, there's this girl named Carrie Kasem. Remember Casey Kasem? Yeah. The Top 40 and all that [ __ ], his daughter, and I have been friends for a long time. And she's one of those girls I always used to call a hippie. You know, she, I used to call her a hippie. She was into holistic medicine and all that [ __ ], which I never believed in. Then COVID hit. Now I [ __ ] know what a croc of [ __ ] the the medical field is and these doctors are all trying to put you on pills and sell you drugs. And I used to be that guy. So, if I was going out on the road when I was in my [ __ ] 30s and early 40s, I'd be going out on the road and I'd start to get sick, I'd go see a local doctor here and he'd give me [ __ ] pills and shots and all this [ __ ] and I wouldn't get sick. You know what I mean? So, I was doing all that [ __ ]. When Ambien came out, I started [ __ ] taking Ambien. What a nightmare that [ __ ] is. Um, and all this [ __ ] garbage that these doctors try to put you on. Um, I believed in until COVID. COVID changed everything. When I when I realized one day that I had COVID, I was in my steam room and I sprayed the eucalyptus and I couldn't smell it. I go, "Oh, shit." I opened the bottle and sniffed it. Nothing. When I stepped out of the steam shower, I didn't call my doctor. I [ __ ] called Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan said, "Do this, this, this, and this." I did exactly what he said. The next day I woke up, I had my smell and taste back the next day and never had any effects from COVID.
Why did you call him though? Because you felt he was in front of people that like he, that guy has so much knowledge. I started to see all the [ __ ] that was going on with everybody else. And I, uh, I felt the same way Rogan felt about everything that was going on. So, I did it. And then all my family members that got it, my mother-in-law, who's [ __ ] 80 years old, you know, and the list goes on and on. Not to mention the fact that my mother-in-law has had cancer twice. Three times. Three times she's had cancer. Once when she was younger, like 10, 15 years ago, and now twice within the last couple years. Gary Brea has gotten my mother, cancer, my mother-in-law cancer-free twice. Most recently, like three weeks ago, she went in and the doctors took, um, her blood and, you know, they, you have all these cancer cells that are flying around and they know that you're about to get cancer, so you start getting into chemo and what all the [ __ ] that they do, you know, and because she's now, she's like 83 years old. So the doctors aren't as whatever with, you know, she's 83 if she does this. So I always tell her, "Don't listen to these [ __ ] guys. Listen to Gary." Gary sent her down to [ __ ] Mexico, right? A few weeks ago, a week later, she did the blood work again, cancer-free. Yeah. I'm I'm I'm not I'm not uh falling for any of this [ __ ] anymore, man.
Pretty amazing that, you know, cuz I, yeah. You know, we're pretty like I'm pretty stubborn, so if like someone tells me something, I'm like, "Ah, you know, I'm not so sure about that." So obviously, well, that's the thing. I'll talk about these things on Gary Brea. When this comes out, people will be, "Oh, you [ __ ] do it." Don't do it. Yeah. Here's, here's I'm not trying to sell you on [ __ ] anything. I don't give a [ __ ] what you do. I talk about this stuff publicly so that people know there are other options out there and they do work, right? You got these guys that start trying to debate. There was some [ __ ] goofy dude, big jacked up dude talking [ __ ] about Gary Brea. Don't do it. I don't give a [ __ ].
But did he get you on a diet and everything too? And like you're, I know you're clo What's the crazy thing? There's some ad thing at your office that talking about it's like, how much is it? 60. I guess it's 100 grand. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. But this thing is down in the PI. Oh, okay. So, basically what they do is they put these, uh, I'm not the guy to talk about it, but I do it every [ __ ]. Uh, the guy comes in like twice a month and does my core. My core has gotten so much stronger from doing this thing. And, and where I notice it the most is riding my motorcycle. Cuz what starts to happen is as you get older, I'm going to be 56 [ __ ] uh, next week. This, I don't know. I'm going to be 56 soon. Birthday, by the way, just so you know. Not that you give a [ __ ], but, uh, I'm going to be 56 soon. And I've known a lot of guys in my life that are older than me that all have to start selling their motorcycles as they get older. Don't have the same reaction time, can't handle the bike the way they used to. And, and most of that stems from your core. So, I want to be able to ride my bike. Every year I go on a big ride, and we go on [ __ ] rides that if you make a mistake, you don't fall feet, you fall [ __ ] miles off these cliffs. These are the kind of rides I still go on at 56 years old. And when I start to feel like I can't ride anymore, my last [ __ ] ride of my life, I'm shipping all the bikes out to, uh, Italy and we're going to start at the top of Italy and we're going to ride all the way down to [ __ ] Capri and, and, and that will be my last ride of my life when when I decide it. But I, I'm I, I try to stay in great shape obviously to live a better quality of life, but I want to be able to ride for as long as I can.
And you train how many days a week? You think? Wait. I train Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. I take Thursday and Friday off and then I, I hit it again on Saturday. But every day, Monday through Sunday, I do recovery stuff every day. Yeah. We can always get in the messages. We're looking for the gyms, you know, and, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, every, that's what I love too, is that I travel every Saturday and I tell Kevin this every [ __ ] Saturday that we work out. So, Monday is like, um, chest, shoulders, and tri day. Tuesday is back and buys, and Wednesday is [ __ ] legs, right? We do Death Row every Wednesday because we're in town. Death Row is at my gym is the nastiest line of [ __ ] leg machines that you can do. And then Saturday we do everything. We do a full body workout. And every Saturday we're in a new gym somewhere in the world. So it's always different equipment on Saturday that we're hitting ourselves with. And I, and I love that. I love using different equipment and the diet. No more crazy dinners when you guys travel.
Listen, I, it's, I've had a rocky, uh, couple months. The last couple months I've been some of your crazy dinners, man. Or, oh, yeah. So, we'll order [ __ ] like all the craziest food that we think even if we're not eating it, stuff we want to taste and then I order every [ __ ] dessert on the menu. That used to be my my lifestyle for 25 years and that [ __ ] catches up with.
So, you have, you have a particular food that you pretty much stay eating now? And, yeah, I, I, you know what's funny is, did you see how [ __ ] ripped Dustin Poirier was for this last fight? Carnivore. So when he was fighting, even his back, I mean, the guy's back was chopped up into different [ __ ], it was, I've never seen him look so good as he did. Said he ate, uh, what did he eat? Red meat, uh, avocados, and berries, which is basically like, like a keto style. That was the, I've ever seen a fighter. So like a bodybuilder. So is that what you're eating now or? No, that's that's how I normally eat. Yeah, that's how I normally eat when I'm doing, you know, when I'm, you know, doing the Gary Brea [ __ ] [ __ ] the way that I'm supposed to. But then, you know, you go to a couple places and, and it's like, "Oh, [ __ ], I want to." We were just in, uh, uh, when we were just in New Orleans. One of my big problems is fried chicken. I [ __ ] love fried chicken. And I didn't eat it for like two and a half years. We just went, we had Gus's fried chicken when we were in New Orleans. And, uh, went to Gus's. What was the other place that we went to that was incredible? Oh. Oh, we were in, uh, Nashville. We went to Hattie B's in Nashville. You ever been to Hattie B's? I haven't been there. No. Uh-huh. He's not a foodie at all. Oh, really? Good for you. Like super, like I do meal prep and everything. I wish I wasn't a foodie, but I am. I [ __ ] love it. We actually had him go to, we had him go to KFC for the first time and film it. First time in his life. Never been to KFC. Never had Kentucky. You set the bar low. Uh, let me tell you what, you, if when you go down south, Gus's Fried Chicken, Hattie B's, some, next time you're down south, call me. I will send you to places that will [ __ ] ruin you. The, the, the chicken is so good. So good. It's that must be good since he travels all around the world. You got the best food in the, like, every place there is. Well, that, that's the thing. It's funny when people said, people always say, "Oh, when you have money, it's easy to [ __ ] not eat." But no, when you have money, you have access to literally the best [ __ ] food in the world. And, um, God, you have to be disciplined to. It's especially hard when you travel around the world. You go to a new country and you want to try their local delicacy. Well, in a few days, I'm going to be in Italy. Right now, this is a fact. You can ask anybody that's been to Italy. You can eat pizza, bread, pasta, eat any of that [ __ ]. You'll lose weight while you're there. The way that they make the food. And it's, it's, it's fascinating. Yeah. Our food's [ __ ] up. And hopefully over the next, you know, three years while while Trump is in here, you know, and he's got Kennedy, uh, they can clean up a lot of this food [ __ ]. Yeah. It's a, it's a, it's a bad problem. I, I, my wife's from South Africa and we go, I go all over the world on a regular basis. When you come back to America, even when you eat the cleanest food, it's, it feels worse in your body than eating a piece of pizza in Italy. You're so right. You eat Italian food here, you feel like you just ate a [ __ ] comforter. You know what I mean? You go over there, you don't feel full. You don't feel gross. Um, and you actually lose weight in the time that you're there. It's fascinating. When I took Ryan there the first time, I was like, "Just eat a piece of pizza." He's like, "I can't, man. I can't have those type of carbs." And he ate the pizza. And then an hour later, he's like, "I'm hungry again." I said, "Did it's just, we're not in America anymore." Yeah. The food's, the food's clean.
So, is that, you take a break when you go on these vacation? Is this a vacation or is it business? I'm going to [ __ ] up some Italian food on this trip. Like how long do you usually go for normally? What do you mean? I'll be there for 10 days. Okay. Yeah. And like I know the Fertas, everyone that you guys meet up at certain places and, yeah, it's awesome. Yeah, it, it is awesome. Actually McGregor. Uh, so this weird thing, I don't know if you're into this or you are into this, but every once in a [ __ ] blue moon, like especially with my older son, like we'd be like, "Let's get a cigar." And we'd smoke a cigar and, you know, [ __ ] burping and tasting smoke for the next three days and be like, "God, why did I do that?" And then you do it again. Well, recently I got into this whole cigar thing and, and, and, um, you know, this eight cigar lounge over at, um, Resort World. Resort. Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. The guy who runs it is amazing. The people over there all good and they turn me on to these unfucking believable cigars and I love them. So when I was just in Maine, you know, I drank for 10 days straight and I smoked at least three cigars a [ __ ] day. And, um, yeah, I'm I'm into this whole cigar thing.
You ever do the thing? I haven't, I never got into it, but everyone, it's supposedly like a major, everyone, Arnold's a huge. When when you smoke the right cigar, you get it. You're like, "All right, I [ __ ] get it now." When did you start? What age? Um, cigars. I, I mean, I've been smoking cigars since I was in high school. But every once in a [ __ ], you know, every once in a while, somebody busts out a cigar and do it. And then I regret it for three [ __ ] days. Now, these new ones, I, I'm [ __ ] literally. You've been to the headquarters. So, in the back where the, um, uh, the PI, open the doors open up out into the back. The furthest over there's this cabana out there. I'm literally ripping the whole [ __ ] thing apart right now. I'm building a cigar bar out there. I'm going to put an outside human door. My staff can go out there and [ __ ] smoke. And, uh, yeah, I'm doing a whole cigar setup over there right now. And even a couple Christmas parties ago, we did, we had a guy there rolling cigars and it was the most popular thing at the Christmas party. So, yeah, I'm I'm totally into cigars right now. Eight cigar bar. It, you should go down there and give it a shot sometime and maybe, maybe I'll, I'll invite you down. We'll go do it and then see, see if you like it. Um, they have these cigars called Romeo and Juliet that are just [ __ ] And where do they come from? Unbelievable. I think they're from Cuba. Okay. Best of the best is Cuba. Well, I was asking him, you know, about why Cuban cigars are the best. He's like, why is Italian food in Italy the best? Why is, you know, when you think about it's just, you know, they, they got 80-year-old women down there smoking cigars, rolling them, you know, is it the dirt? Is it the leaves? Is it whatever? It's just they have the best cigars in the world. It's awesome, man. Going to turn you into a cigar. You just got to try it. I guess if Dana invites me, you know, it's hard to say no to Dana, you know, and, and I'll, I'll get you when I open my my new bar down there. I'll have you come down. We'll, we'll, we'll hang out and, uh, when I when I open the cigar bar, we have like this, um, uh, this stage down there where we can have, uh, bands play and things like that and, and, and, you know, our big employee meetings, we can do out in the backyard. I, I'm, I'm going to hire a band out there when I open the cigar bar and we all hang out and listen to the band, smoke some cigars. Sound good?
Yeah, sounds great, man. Listen, we appreciate you coming on. I want to take, I know is limited. Pleasure. Congrats on your success. I'm happy for you guys and, and thanks for having. No, man. You know, you do so much for everyone. I know you're so generous with so many people and like, we only hear so many great things about what you do outside your business, right? I mean, besides giving opportunity, um, you know, I've watched it from the get-go. I mean, I've, I used to follow it when, like I said, Chuck and all those guys, and I know you managed a lot of those guys. You're on like working from the grassroots up, man. So, it's, it's great to see now the success. I'm excited to see what other business you guys start thriving in. Of course, I see Hunter a lot, so I get a little, get a little inside track. And of course, Kevin and, you know, we appreciate you coming over, man. So, thanks. Thanks for having me. Yeah, it's awesome. Cool.