How serious is Dana White about gambling?
The UFC president once pulled all MMA events from the Palms in Las Vegas after the casino reduced his gambling credit line by 50 percent. They reconciled a few years later and White was awarded his own undisputed blackjack championship belt.
Joe Rogan blames White’s addiction on CTE (seriously).
“I always [gamble],” White told ESPN Sports Betting (transcribed by Adam Martin). “On every sport that I’m interested in. On every game on Saturday, If I want to know what the line is, if it’s college or pros, I always look at the line on fights. I play table games too much. I’m a degenerate if you’re not getting it. I’m a degenerate, yes. I love to gamble.”
Things got so bad at one point that White lost $1 million on the boxing match between Jermain Taylor and Kelly Pavlik. “Bad Intentions” (great nickname btw) closed as the 8-5 favorite but ended up getting starched by the middleweight “Ghost.”
“Oh my god … what was the kid’s name? Jermain Taylor,” White continued. “And who did he fight? I should know this for the ass-whooping I took. He fought the tall, lanky, white kid from Ohio, Kelly Pavlik. I bet $1 million on Taylor and he got destroyed. It was the first time I ever bet $1 million dollars because I was so confident Taylor was going to win that fight.”
In completely unrelated news, fighters are still getting paid $10,000 per fight.