‘He Slapped Me Across The Face’

Emanuel admits Endeavor wouldn’t have survived if White wasn’t willing to ‘take the heat’ on holding UFC events during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel is once again crediting Dana White with saving his entire billion dollar empire during the COVID-19 pandemic.

At a time where every other sport shut down, White forged ahead with a ballsy plan to keep holding events. His first attempt to do that on tribal lands in California was shut down, but a second move to create ‘bubble zone’ events in Florida, Nevada, and Abu Dhabi allowed the UFC to keep holding fights during the summer of 2020.

In a new interview with Jay Shetty, Emanuel credited White with ‘slapping him across the face’ and forcing him to agree to the audacious plan.

“I thought we had [to] shut everything down and Dana White talked to me and said ‘Nuh-uh, we’re not shutting down,’” Emanuel said. “I got scared and he, like, slapped me across the face. ‘We’re going.’ And then he said ‘Get me an island.’ And I was like … you know, my brother’s a doctor, he’s telling me the world’s closing. But [White’s] like ‘Nuh-uh.’ And he was just driving that train.”

“So we got him an island and he did everything else. And it kind of just reminded me that yeah, it’s nerve-wracking but don’t be scared. And he was like amazing. And I was like on the other side of that fence. And that’s why he’s a great partner, he’s an incredible partner. But I for the first time got very scared. And he just said ‘No, we just have to go. And we’re going to take all the heat for it.’ And there was a lot of heat against him. But we did it.”

“If we didn’t have that, the whole company would have tanked. Because we needed the ESPN deal, we needed to go and put on fights. His courage, dragging me along, it’s incredible.”

Endeavor was in a very tough spot during the pandemic. They’d just spent billions on acquiring the UFC, and a huge chunk of their portfolio was focused on live sports and entertainment, two industries that largely shut down during the worldwide Coronavirus pandemic. In past interviews, Emanuel said the UFC made up 70% of Endeavor’s revenue through the crisis, dragging the company through a period that would have otherwise sunk them.

Sure, a ton of fighters caught COVID-19 training for these events and some of them suffered serious side effects for many months afterward. But the bubbles built by the UFC and Endeavor largely held and no one directly died on account of these events. Dana White has promised a documentary will come out soon on how he defied the wimpy media and everyone else to ensure fights flowed during the pandemic. Until that comes out, he’ll have to just enjoy these kind words from his business partner.