Dana White, UFC President

Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm interested in making money.

I'm not interested in hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio. Season 2, The Dixie Mafia. Available now on the Odyssey app, or wherever you get your podcasts. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown, and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about, like leagues and teams, pause or rewind your local sports and news, and add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Israel Adesanya versus Alex Pereira coming up tomorrow night at the world's most famous arena, Madison Square Garden in New York City. I have never been to a UFC fight before, and I'm fired up to say that I'll be in attendance tomorrow night. I'm also fired up to welcome back to the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio, a man that has joined us many times before, and that is the president of the UFC in Dana White.

Dana, appreciate the time as always. How you been? I'm great. How are you? Well, I'm doing fantastic.

I'll start you off with this. I was watching one of your F it Friday videos last week, and you were eating that pizza burger, which looked just delicious. And when I'm watching the video, I said to myself, Dana White's looking slim these days. How much weight did you lose? Thanks. I'm down like 36 pounds. And more important than that is I feel incredible. There's this guy, his name is Gary Brekka.

He's a human biologist, and he has this company called 10X Health Systems. And I've been on that for like 20 weeks, and it's incredible. So what's your actual diet like? Because I lost 70 pounds the last three, four years or so. Damn.

There you go. Keto. I need to lose it. And I feel great. I'll say that too. Yeah, no, it's unbelievable. I'm on Keto.

So you can eat protein, things that are high in fat, low carb, no sugar. You're not going to Scallon to tell us what you're telling me this time around to New York? Yeah, but you know what?

I actually will. I was going to go there last night, but they were actually shut down. They're doing some renovations in the kitchen. Wow.

So I went to their sister's property. What's it called? Il Postino? Il Postino. Il Postino.

I went to Il Postino last night. They, you know, they whooped up some Keto for me. Well, you like to eat. We all know that. I like to eat as well.

That's the toughest part when you're on this diet is staying disciplined and not cheating too much. Well, you know what? You get to a point. I'm 53 years old now. I've eaten it all. I've done it all. I've drank it all. You know, I got to a point where it's like, all right, I need the party over. I got to start taking care of myself.

The president of the UFC, Dana White here with us. So I was reading up on this that you went to that DNA analyst and he said you had 10 years to live with the way that he analyzed your DNA. Just had that made you kind of change your perspective on life. Obviously, you're losing the weight and feeling better.

Yeah. You know, and it's not about it's not about living or dying for me, man. I'm not I'm not afraid to die. It's I want to have a good quality of life while I'm still alive.

It's not you know, it's great. Oh, yeah, this guy's still alive. He's 84.

Yeah, but he's in a wheelchair drooling on himself in the house. You don't want to be that guy. So I'm just trying to live the best quality of life I can live and, you know, be happy. Do you take that at all with a grain of salt when you when you're told you may only have 10 years to live? I was obsessed with it. I mean, once once I found out that this guy. So this guy is a human biology, the mortality expert, too. And he can take the DNA test and blood work and he can tell you within a month of when you're going to die.

So, yeah, I was obsessed with it. I wanted to know. And, you know, he came in and actually started going through my blood work. And what impressed me the most was he told me things that were wrong with me that I'd never told anybody, things that he could possibly couldn't possibly know. Then he told me what was wrong with my parents.

And then after that, he had me. I said, OK, he said, you do what I tell you to do for the next 10 weeks. And I guarantee I'll change your life. I can do anything for 10 weeks. That's totally blew my mind. Yeah, blew my mind. And I said, I can do anything for 10 weeks.

And now I'm 20 weeks in and I can't I feel 35 again. It's incredible. When you're told that, did you at all say, hmm, maybe it's time to walk away from the UFC? Oh, hell no. No way. No way.

No way. This is what I love to do. I love this. What I'm super passionate about. It seems like you're never going to be a guy that retires.

You're going to work until the day you die. One hundred percent. Dana White, the president of the UFC here with us. So I've never been to a fight before. I'm very excited for tomorrow to go to UFC 281. And I always say that you guys put on an unbelievable show and I've been following it from afar. What should I expect?

Like, take me through what I should expect to someone that's never been to a fight before. Well, first of all, thank you. And I'm glad you're coming. You're going to be blown away. I guarantee you this.

And I'm not just saying this because it's my show. This will be the best live sporting event you have ever seen in your life. The energy is unbelievable.

The garden is sold out on Saturday night and you picked a hell of a fight card to go to. It's just when you leave your net, you're not going to get up out of your seat after the show and go, yeah, I don't ever want to see one of these again. You're going to be hooked. You think you like it now. Wait till you see it live. It's a completely different experience.

Show the energy, the buzz, the excitement. You're in for a great night. What do I need to look for in this card?

Because I've been reading through it and I know some of the history between some of these guys and girls and it looks like it's going to be unbelievable. You can't miss on this card. This card is incredible and it's the card of the year. And obviously, it's hard not to say the last three fights. Poirier versus Chandler should be ridiculous. Esparza versus Weili Zhang is an awesome fight for the title.

And then the main event, Pereira and Adesanya. Those are the three fights that are going to... I'm telling you, when these people walk, the energy and the buzz, the excitement, then the fight itself, it's like a rollercoaster, man. You're going to have a blast. What are you like on Fight Night?

Literally everything that I just explained to you is what I love about Saturday nights. Today, we have the weigh-ins and the face-offs, which is the second funnest day for me. You find out where everybody's at, where their weight's at, how do they look, when they stare down, who got the edge and the stare down, and then the next best thing is the fight. Do you get nervous anymore before these fights are so routine for you, Daniel? No, I definitely do. That night when it all starts going down and guys start walking, you get nervous and then some of the fights have you sitting on the edge of your seat.

It's fun. What haven't you done in this sport that you still want to do, or have you done everything? I haven't done a fight in Africa yet. My next big thing is I want to go to Africa and put on a big fight over there. Is that close to happening?

Yeah. Well, now that the world's opening up again, unless everybody loses their mind again and gets out, then yeah, that's what we're working toward over the next couple of years. With all your experience, if you could go back and talk to a 28 or a 30-year-old Dana White, what advice would you give that young Dana White on the journey that you're about to go on? Don't change anything. Keep doing what you're doing and stay the course. Yeah, because this thing really started to break and I think when we bought it, I was 30 or 31. I would have told a 28-year-old me to keep doing what you're doing and stay the course.

Keep working hard, keep grinding. Yep. When did you know that this thing was going to blow up? After the first season of The Ultimate Fighter. After Forrest Griffin and Stephen Bonner fought, literally we didn't have a deal for another season on TV and I didn't care that night.

I said, I don't care what happened. We literally, this is going to work after I saw that fight and literally we went into the alley and did a new deal with Spike TV that night. Dana White, the president of the UFC, here with us for a few more moments. UFC 281 coming up Saturday night at Madison Square Garden.

I'll be in attendance and I can't wait. I remember over the summer you were on McGronk and you shared that you almost got Brady and McGronk to the Raiders. I know you're a season ticket holder with the luxury box and then Gruden blew it up. While you were sharing that story, you said there was some stuff behind the scenes. What was the behind the scenes?

I'm not getting into that. When Grunk said that that night, you know how much crap that caused in Vegas? Man, it was insane. But it was true. It's not that it wasn't true.

It's true. Brady was coming to Vegas and Grunk was coming with him. The rest is history. Does Brady hit you up afterwards and say, why are we spilling the beans?

No. I hit him up and said, you're not going to believe what just happened. I actually hit him up. Will you make a recruiting pitch again to Brady? I don't know if he's going to play next year, but he's a free agent again.

Yeah, I know. It'll be interesting to see what he's thinking. He's so laser focused during the season. I hit him up here and there and we talk a little bit during the season, but he doesn't mess around during the season.

I got two more for the president of the UFC and Dana White. What can you tell your fans about Conor McGregor when we could see him making a return to the Octagon? He's starting to post videos again of himself training. He just got done filming a movie, so he's ready to come back next year. We'll start looking. We'll see how this weekend plays out in the rest of the year and see what's next for him.

How potentially early in 2023 could we see him? That I don't know. Do you have an opponent in mind? Nope.

Okay. And the last thing I'll ask you, when I said yesterday we were having you come on the show again and everyone loves when Dana White, the president of the UFC, joins us on the Zach Gelb show on CBS Sports Radio, I got a lot of tweets and messages about Stipe and Jon Jones. Is that ever going to happen? Well, Jon Jones will fight next year too. Whether it's Stipe, Francis and Gagnon or whoever, we don't know yet. Do you feel pressure from the fans to give them Stipe and Jon Jones and how much Jon Jones has talked about it?

No. I mean, I never feel pressure like that. My job is to always put on the best fights in the world so the fans get excited and want to see them, so that's what we do.

But there's a lot that goes into it. A lot of different things have to happen to make certain fights happen. But you fully expect Jon Jones in 2023 to be fighting for you guys?

100 percent. Well, Dana White, I'm excited to go to UFC 281 tomorrow night. Can't wait for it. Thanks so much for carving out some time for us as always. Thanks for having me, buddy.

Can't wait to see you there. Get started and download the free Odyssey app today. The listening you love is on the free Odyssey app. Your trusted local radio stations, coverage of your favorite teams, live news from your hometown and millions of podcasts on demand. Best of all, you can completely customize your listening experience. Follow topics you care about like leagues and teams. Pause or rewind your local sports and news and add shows to your queue to catch up later.

There's a lot to listen to, so get started and download the free Odyssey app today. Throughout the 60s and 70s, cops hunted down key figures of the Dixie Mafia, including its enigmatic ringleader, Kirksey Nix. I'm in a rush to making money.

I'm not in a rush to hurting people. Fifteen years into Kirksey's life sentence, the Dixie Mafia was practically folklore, but that would soon change. I'm Jed Lipinski. This is Gone South, a documentary podcast from C-13 Originals, a Cadence 13 studio.

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