Dana White: The Rolling Stone Interview

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Rolling Stone

Music, Music Interviews, Music Commentary

4.0 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On a new episode of The Rolling Stone Interview, writer Jack Crosbie sits down with president and CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) for a conversation about running an empire, what legacy means to him, and the upcoming fight at the White House. The upcoming cage match in honor of the country’s 250th birthday was arranged at the behest of White’s “very close” friend, President Donald Trump, and will be put on by perhaps the single most important figure in American sports, Dana White. He’s the gateway to America’s most intimate displays of violence, a multiplatform empire that he says will encompass “every way that you could possibly kick another person’s ass.” That business has intersected with some of the most powerful people in every corner of the world. He’s got the ear of the president, the attention of the nation, and he’s just getting started. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Attention all passengers.
0:04.0	The Uber ride for Mark and Jamal's romantic weekend will depart in four minutes from Platform 6.
0:11.0	Your ride comes with a rolling countryside sunset view and a table seat ideal for playing footsie beneath.
0:18.0	Thank you for booking your tickets on Uber.
0:22.6	Trains on Uber.
0:24.2	Welcome to the Rolling Stone interview podcast. I'm Jack Crosby, senior writer at Rolling Stone.
0:29.3	We sat down with UFC President Dana White as he prepares for the first ever UFC fight at the White House.
0:35.2	White has been a close friend and political ally of President Donald
0:38.2	Trump for years, and White and the UFC recently signed a $7 billion broadcast deal with Paramount
0:43.5	Skydance. For the Rolling Stone interview, White opened up about his unique place in American
0:47.8	culture and his journey from being a small-time boxing coach to the head of the most violent
0:52.4	sports organization in the world.
0:55.9	Welcome to the Rolling Stone interview.
0:56.5	Thank you.
0:58.8	The first time we profiled you was in 2008.
1:03.5	And that profile started with kind of a description of you.
1:08.4	And it says, the way things are going, Dana White, president of the ultimate fighting championship,
1:12.7	may soon be hailed as the greatest sports promoter ever of all time bigger ever than boxing's Don King bigger even than pro wrestling's Vince McMahon. You know, 18 years later after that,
1:20.6	most of that has kind of come true. Did you ever see yourself at this point? Was that always where it was going?
1:26.3	If you separate if you,
1:35.6	you separate me from from the sport in the UFC, I mean, I always believed that this, the sport could be where we are today. This thing wasn't allowed on pay-per-view. We wanted to get
1:40.7	it on free television. We spent $10 million to buy our way on to TV.
	...

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