Dana White shares never-told story of jeopardizing billion-dollar UFC-CBS deal: "Full-blown war on the phone"
Dana White recently opened up about when CBS tried to buy the UFC in a billion-dollar deal. The UFC CEO outlined some previously unheard details and revealed how he had a full-blown shouting match with Showtime executives on the call.
It's no secret that White has been an integral part of the UFC's success story and is widely credited for making it the world's premier MMA promotion. While the promotion initially aired its events on Spike TV and then on FOX network for a while, it now has a multi-year deal with ESPN that expires in 2025.
In a recent interview with Fox News, White recalled calling off a big-money deal with HBO at the eleventh hour due to him being unhappy with their production. He then revealed that a billion-dollar deal with CBS was canceled over similar grievances and said:
"So CBS tried to come in and make us an offer to buy us at one point, right? And I was in Hawaii on vacation... I was on the call early, and the Showtime guys were on the call early... Me and Showtime were fighting, going at it, literally, 'F-you, f-you,’ back and forth. And those guys [CBS] got on and heard us going back and forth, and the call, literally, that was the end of it."
White continued:
"I hated the guys at Showtime. A bunch of those guys worked for the UFC when we first started out. I thought their production sucked... And then it just so happens, we’re talking about CBS making us a billion dollar offer to possibly buy the company. And by the time Lorenzo and Les Moonves [former CBS CEO] get on, full-blown war on the phone."
Dana White recalls convincing Ari Emmanuel to pull out of massive HBO-UFC deal
In the same interview, Dana White detailed how he convinced TKO CEO Ari Emanuel to withdraw from a massive broadcasting deal with HBO after the contracts had been signed.
White explained how he was unhappy with HBO's production ideas for the MMA promotion and didn't want them to dictate how they would operate. Outlining how the deal was called off, he said:
"We were going to put fights on HBO... We had already signed the deal. We were done. So I literally called Lorenzo [Fertitta] and said, ‘Yeah, we can’t do this deal.’ He’s like, ‘What do you mean we can’t do this deal? The deal is done. We have a deal.’ [White said] ‘We’ve got to get out of this deal.’ And Ari [Emanuel] got us out of the HBO deal... I believe that if we had let HBO do what they wanted to do, it would’ve hurt us and hurt our brand."