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Dana White Post Historic Power Slap 1 Event Press Conference
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thank you [Music]
what's up guys thanks for coming I
really appreciate you being here tonight
uh I guess I'll start with the social stats
stats
we were the number eight Trend in the
United States tonight
the uh
the live stream
um
again it takes a good 24 hours for
social and all this other stuff these
guys are telling me this is the largest
Drive live stream on the internet on a Saturday
Saturday um
um
performance of the night
AJ and Wolverine
and Trujillo and Bell they all won ten
thousand dollars each so
who's got the first question go ahead
brother obviously you know this is a
learning on the job sort of experience
you know you're putting on these events
and everything like that so I'm curious
your reaction to the first live show
you've put on and how do you think
tonight went
I think it couldn't have gone any better
I mean there's so many things about
launching this thing and going into the
finale that remind me of
you know the early days of the UFC the
cast of this thing reminded me of the
first season of the of the ultimate
fighter and the finale
was like the finale of The Ultimate
Fighter for this thing it's it's very
very weird the way that this whole thing
played out but tonight was uh
a monster success this has been a huge
weight on my shoulders for the last for
the last two months I've been grinding
to make this thing uh successful and so
is my team Frank
and everybody else that was a part of
this uh
you couldn't have scripted tonight any better
better
how unique is a platform like Rumble
where you can even have those views the
live views right away like almost
immediately how unique is it to have a
product on that how do I think that it's what
yeah I mean this thing has well if you
looked at the social numbers that I've
been posting and showing you guys over
think about this
this thing is eight weeks old this
didn't exist eight weeks ago didn't
exist the social media uh
the channels for it didn't exist none of
this existed we're over a billion views
on Tick Tock alone right on Instagram we
did like 38.5 million views a week and
online with Rumble the the whole season
did 15 million views globally so I mean
these are obviously massive numbers and
it also proves that this thing
like the UFC is global but the social
and streaming numbers are just [ __ ]
nuts I mean the worst Power slap
uh post of the day did better than the
best UFC post of the day on UFC's
uh you know social so
so
yeah now this thing's a [ __ ] monster
man those are the positives was there
anything you saw tonight that you'd like
to change moving forward
you know I'm kind of
tonight was so good I'm just
relieved and relaxed you know I'm super
psychotic about
Live Events and and the television
events and how they come off that's why
we spent a shitload of money on Thursday
we held a live event here on Thursday
to practice for tonight to make sure
that tonight we're not one without a
hitch I didn't see anything tonight
that upset me that made me pick up the
phone and call you know the truck but um
we'll take it all in and and talk over
the next few weeks what's going to
happen now is we're going to do season
two in Abu Dhabi and I'm going to bring
in the best guys in the world from
Russia Poland Eastern Europe South
Africa and wherever else in the world
you know we end up finding some Talent
we'll film the show there and then we'll
uh those guys will take on the guys from
this season sounds like a power slap
World Cup almost
huh it's like a World Cup exactly
exactly well that's what I'm going to do
immediately I mean listen I I know the
formula for this stuff now so
so
we're we're gonna move fast and you know
I uh
I got a two-year deal with Rumble so
so
and the Abu Dhabi deals we're still
working it out but what I'd love to do
is is two years with them to do season
two and season three over there
obviously you had the UFC tonight as
well with marab and PDR I'm curious did
you get to watch the main event and what
did you think of it yeah
unbelievable fight usually Peter Yan
sets the pace and those type of fights tonight
tonight
morob set the pace and and uh
you know put on a great performance
especially his first time going into
Championship rounds like that
you've made no secret that you don't
love it when a guy doesn't want to fight
his teammate and marab is clear that he
will not fight Al Jermaine Sterling and
he'll wait until algae moves up so what
do you do with him right because you
don't necessarily want to put him
against other contenders knock off other
contenders before they can fight for the
title so what do you do with mirab it's
so funny to say that because
I don't remember who the hell I was
talking to the other day about this and
I was like yeah we don't have to deal
with that [ __ ] anymore uh you know
back in the early days the camps were so
small you didn't have a lot of different
options so we had a lot of these guys
saying oh he's my friend he's my friend
you can still be friends
and want where your friend has you know
what I mean um
it would be a really
bad idea for Murad to go down that path
is there a point where you so to say
right that's enough you have a decision
to make or you have to make divisions or
what do you do with them yeah so so does
marab want a shot at the title or Rob
rather have people under him jump over
him and him have to take on all these
different different tough guys
when he's not even getting a title shot
when he's next in line for it that's a
personal decision that he needs to make
if that's what he wants to do I can tell
you how that story ends it's not it's
not a good ending to that story but
he's a big boy he can figure that out on
of course we're gonna slap news
Dana hey how proud of you how proud are
you of your team here tonight pulling
this off
yeah so we've been running hard you know
we filmed this season of slap uh that
had been planning for this live finale
we had the Jon Jones fight last weekend
we're filming The Ultimate Fighter at
the same time that ends Monday
um we've got London coming up uh next weekend
weekend
I'm going to uh film looking for a fight
starting Monday
we've been running hard man so my team
has been working on I probably forgot a
couple things too there's other [ __ ] in
there too but yeah we we've been going
so I'm very proud of my team I say it
all the time not only are we the best in
all of sports we're the best to ever do
it and that's a fact power slap scene is
very personal for you what motivates you
to make this successful
I started looking at this thing in 1718 um
after covid
obviously I got a lot healthier uh you
know when I started working with 10x I
feel like I'm 30 again so I figured I'd
take on you know this Challenge and try
to make it happen and um
um
it's been good you know and I ain't
gonna lie the media has definitely
motivated me through this whole thing I
I was I was being a kind of a wise ass
the other day at the press conference
but at the same time I'm dead serious
[ __ ] bet against me bet against me
tell me it's not going to happen tell me
it's going to fail
I love it I love every minute of it kale
Chris how bad of a man is he
yeah he's incredible I I mean this
thing's just starting to grow
but you know
as we as we continue to bring in more
and more talent I mean you can tell you
guys know and even the people who want
to hate it who want to hate this so bad
you cannot deny that this is [ __ ]
exciting it's different it's fun and I
think what happens with a lot of people
especially the media the older media
is that anything new anything that's
different anything that's you know this
is the same exact [ __ ] they said about
the UFC exactly the same this will never
be like boxing this stuff is disgusting
this isn't a sport these guys aren't
athletes and one of the things that I
love about
the guys who compete in this these guys
are like real guys these guys work they
they they they they're very uh Middle
America Bible Belt you know Thai people
some of these guys work construction and
have these other jobs Farmers they have
kids they have families and they say
this is an opportunity just like you
guys who are into mixed martial arts in
the early days and I love the stories
behind these guys and I love the uh
the competitive spirit that they have so
I'm I mean I know you guys can tell I'm
so [ __ ] into this I haven't been this
fired up since like 2008 or 10 I don't
know in that ballpark somewhere but this
has been a really fun challenge for me
I've really enjoyed it how far away are
we are how far away are we from having
these guys make slap their full their
full-time career we're cool there's real
money in this now you know much like the
UFC again when we talked about uh
you know season one of The Ultimate
Fighter me and the Fertitta boys put up
10 million bucks again to do this first
season of uh powerslap and and the finale
finale
and here we are again
there were some incredible upsets
tonight which one do you personally
think was the most impressive
I was super excited for the last two
weeks for AJ and Vern
obviously the two most powerful guys here
here
they knocked everybody out
could AJ take the shot once we found out
who won the coin toss and if he could
take the shot could he knock Vern out I
mean that thing couldn't have played out anymore
anymore
like the way we were you know the
questions were all answered tonight and
that fight and then the main event
you know look like you know Darius and
the only guy Wolverine ever lost to was
Darius what was it gonna happen again he
takes darius's slap and then knock
Darius out with his first lap I mean
it's just
Vince couldn't script this [ __ ] it was
so good absolutely
absolutely
um you know AJ is a custodian in a
cardboard Factory
you know I'm sure you've worked with you
know many millionaires these guys are
real down to earth people yeah what does
it mean for you to be able to improve
the lives of all these individuals well
that's the thing about all the people
who are [ __ ] on this thing and
hating on it I mean these people that
came and competed first of all these are
all grown men and women
who make their own decisions on on
wanting to compete in this sport right
number one number two
you know these guys are changing
you know
their family's lives I mean some of
these guys I mean Frank
what kind of a number did somebody walk
away with tonight that that probably
made the most for tonight
yeah I'm gonna walk out of here with
forty five thousand dollars you know
what I mean
um and no no we're going to have the
stories written tomorrow oh this is
disgusting these people did this for
forty five thousand dollars that's how
this [ __ ] Works some of these guys
probably don't make forty five thousand
dollars a year they made it in one night
and now you know we're on our way and
this thing's going to grow I mean
started out you know we used to drive
Lorenzo Fertitta crazy when we first
started the UFC everybody who competed
here had jobs
so they would have to go you know train
for this thing and do all this [ __ ] and
they had to go back and go back to work
when they were done competing here but
that's that's how things start that's
you know it's it's the way you start a
business and uh
the people who came here in March to
watch the the first test fight that we did
did
I said watch what we do with this thing
in the next several months and now I'll
tell you all here tonight watch what we
do with this thing in the next two years
have you spoken to anyone from the
commission and what is their response on
how tonight went yeah I mean no I
haven't I mean I'd ask them that I'm not
going to answer for the commission but
what I can say is
I I thank the commission for the hard
work and and everything they did to make
tonight a successful night
um you know a lot of talk about health
and safety a lot of uneducated people
about you know the
Combat Sports and
a lot of doctors who like to get attention
attention um
um
but the bottom line is we go above and
beyond since day one on health and
safety here and uh we're doing the same
thing with slap and you know the
commission this is the best Commission
in the world I say it all the time and
I'm not just saying that because there
have been times that I've had my issues
with this commission but um there's been
really strong times for the commission
there's been weaker times we're at a
very strong you know uh point in time
again for the Nevada State athletic
commission and I respect the [ __ ] out of them
them
when you started this did you ever think
the numbers that came in tonight would
be where they are
yeah I did so just like the UFC when I
believed that it could be what it is today
today
when I saw 350 million views on these
events that look like um
um
uh you know they were in a barn
I knew that if we brought
legitimacy to it
production value
story lines and all the things that were
the best at doing um
um
it could be you know I mean [ __ ] if we
came out and pulled 350 million views
leading up to the we're over a billion
just on one platform I mean I don't know
if any of you are really wrapping your
head around how big this is I mean we
beat we beat the NFL Super Bowl week by double
double
so if the NFL did 7 million we did 14.
we beat the WWE by double
we beat the UFC by double
I mean we we crushed everything on
social media
seven weeks ago this [ __ ] didn't exist
and we've done over a billion views
he's [ __ ] wrapping your head around
that I mean that's it's
a success level that's undescribable
what would you like to tell aspiring slappers
slappers
what's the question what would you like
to tell aspiring athletes that would
like to come into slot fighting well I
don't think I need to I mean everybody
knows what we do here if you look at
what we've done for the sport of mixed
martial arts
it's literally what we're going to do
for slap so you know anybody who is into
this likes it wants to do it and like I
say there's people that are that aren't
going to like it then it's what I used
to say about the UFC it's no problem you
don't have to like it don't watch it
it's that easy I don't like [ __ ] golf
you know what I do I don't watch it and
I don't play it so
I never even think about it it doesn't
bother me at all because I don't [ __ ]
bother with it
thank you appreciate you thank you hey Dana
Dana
Lorenzo is in the house
how is his uh
how is his reaction to powerslap listen
those those guys are my rider dies so uh
again much like the UFC I hit him up and
said I got an idea and they said we're
in you know we love being in business
with each other and uh
you know give us more opportunities to
hang out and spend some time together
and have some fun together so
um let me tell you what these days not
much get some runs out of the house
Lorenzo goes to Station Casinos does
this thing and that dude's in bed by
like eight o'clock at night so to get
him out and and get him back at an event
is awesome I love having him around how
surprised were you that uh Ron put
Darius down with one slap
shocked you know you know what I mean
it's it's uh
it's it's it's what's so exciting about
live sports though it doesn't matter if
it's [ __ ] football basketball boxing
MMA when you get live sports you never
know what's going to happen man
um hasbula was here last night
um he didn't slap Marky Mark there's a
video coming out were you surprised he
didn't slap Mark Mark Wahlberg he
wouldn't slap Mark Wahlberg yeah he said
I won't slap you I like you
[ __ ] slaps everybody but it won't
slap Mark Wahlberg
um hezboola's awesome it was good to
have him here he flew out of here for
this event
and uh yeah we've had fun with him this
week and the milk boys have been you
know I mean what the milk boys have done
for this for this guy is unbelievable
when the milk boys went out to Russia
this is how powerful Hezbollah is the
milk boys went out to Russia and they um
they did all this cool [ __ ] with him and
and uh they said you know what we're
going to make a we're gonna make a
they did uh
they sold like 500 000 worth of uh
hasbula t-shirts and like 48 Hours
something ridiculous like that and they
gave him half the money for for the
stuff so
um we did a deal with houseboola we
signed him to a deal he's going to be in
the video game and he gets his own fight
kit you know and he got paid for that so
that dude's doing some cool [ __ ] and
making some big money and couldn't
happen to a nicer nicer kid I like them
two last questions for me for anybody
for any for anyone that's saying that
you don't care about the UFC anymore and
that you're only putting your your time
and effort into Power slap what do you
say to those people
do I even need to answer that question I
mean oh come on I I listen anybody that
wants to talk [ __ ] can come up with with
anything no and this is what I'm I say
this all the time people have no [ __ ]
idea what I really do and what I don't
do and they don't know anything about
this business nobody nobody knows
anything about this business if they did
they'd be doing what we do
um the UFC were coming off one of the
biggest weekends in the company's
history the number one social fight of
all time it beat Connor and uh and Habib
right uh the gate to this that was like
the fourth largest event that we've ever done
done
tonight was a sellout over a uh at the
uh you know the virgin
what the [ __ ] else do I need to do what
else would you people like me to do you
know what I mean if uh we weren't
selling tickets we weren't putting on
fights people wanted to see sponsorship
wasn't through the [ __ ] roof and the
list goes on and on
maybe you'd have something
shut the [ __ ] up and mind your business
that's what I have to say about that now
that I think about it that's what I'll
say and finally Peter Young suffered his
third third straight loss what do you
yeah um listen he's still one of the
best guys in the world
he fought a guy in Moab tonight who was
extremely motivated and you know like I
said John usually sets the pace in these
fights starts a little slow but then
turns it on and and and grinds out
victories tonight that's what marab did
you know but Peter's still one of the
best in the world so
yeah when you have number two versus
number three
you know
when you lose you can't say oh wow this
guy's this guy's washed up or you know
maybe he doesn't have it anymore he just fought
fought
one of the best guys in the world
hi Jada hi I just have to I want to know
um when you're going to have a women's day
day
women's yeah yeah we're working on that um
um
it would be interesting to see when we
cast for Abu Dhabi
um how that plays out
um I'm sure we'll find some women over
there yeah
um next question when do you think
you're going to have some fans in the
arena I had a lot of people reaching out
asking for tickets so people definitely
want to come see it in person
selling tickets that's the question yeah
yeah this so
much like
um season one
the March event that we did
put this thing on TBS
we've built a digital plan and a social
plan around it this this was all a big
test to see what worked what didn't work
um and you know like I said this is all
the work in progress just like I mean if
you watch the early days of the UFC I mean
mean
I played with the production
forever it took 22 years to get the
production to where we are today
and now we're a lot better and smarter
about that stuff that's why I mean I
mean what did you guys think of the the
live production for your first time and
we just last March was our first one we
didn't know what the hell I didn't know
we want a platform we want a stage we
wanted this we wanted that and we kept
playing with it tweaking it coming up
with ideas and I think we got to a
really good place tonight for the first
event we did the rehearsal on Thursday
the rehearsal went
very well I was very happy with the
rehearsal so I knew tonight wouldn't be
perfect but it would be better than
Thursday so I'm really happy with the
way it went tonight and we'll continue
to just get better and better and we'll
also I I said a ton of [ __ ] but I didn't
answer your question um
um
so now we start figuring out
do we do a few in the Apex until we did
when do we start traveling and if we do
where do we go and how do we it's just
there's so much work that needs to be
done to figure out all these all these different
different
um questions that need to be answered
I'd love to see the coin toss like
minutes before the slapping that's my
one one thing that I'd love to see you
want to see the coin toss the coin toss
right before right before they slap so
they don't have a lot of time to prepare
hey the problem is the reason we can't
do that is because for gambling
people will bet on who wins the coin
yeah they could still bet on that
probably but you got to do it earlier so
that uh you have time to you know that
again brand new sport they got to make
lines for this stuff and there was a lot
of action on this thing tonight
um Lorenzo told me that that there was
actually a lot of action no big big
money bet on it but lots of action so
that's a really good start too then the
great question I forgot to address that
um you know all the books took it and
the other thing is and I told you guys
this before
is this works on social media and it's
really good in bars
so all the big chains had this tonight
I'm sure you saw us posting it from
Buffalo Wild Wings to Hooters to PT's
pubs here in Las Vegas all the casinos
took it so for something again that
that's only seven weeks old
pretty huge to be in all these bars and
and on all these different platforms
it's been it's it's been it's been a
good couple months
go ahead right here uh there was quite a
few celebrities here for the first live
event how does it feel to have so many
well-known people not just take an
interest in power slab but also just
want to come to the live event the first
ever one
yeah great question it was awesome you
know and a lot of influential people
online from you know the milk boys Aiden Ross
Ross
um Bulgarian um
um
risk house I mean I could go on and on
for all the the influencers that were in
here tonight so um
um
yeah I'm obviously thrilled about it and
like these guys like like Aiden Ross
flew in from Miami to come to this fight
and he's flying back out tonight I think
so yeah
huge now boys I mean those guys never
stopped they're always they were just in
Israel and you know they came back for
this thing so yeah
uh I I really appreciate the support
now you said you you said you're like
psychotic with Live Events you had two
just today uh you had a successful one
at virgin hotels and you had one here uh
is it one of those things where like you
just want to sit back and smell the
roses just of how successful like just
this day was yeah
yeah
um there's not a lot of people that can
pull off what this company can pull off
I remember you know before covid
remember we canceled that event in Las
Vegas and moved to uh
California on like Christmas Eve and
pulled off an event there a couple days
after Christmas
two events in one night and you know in
the same city and the list goes on and
on I have such an incredible badass crew
here that will run through walls to make
stuff happen talented hard-working and uh
uh
you know uh
I love them I love them all
thanks Tina thank you brother hey Dana
when it comes to the numbers and you
mentioned all of the social numbers that
you have are you guys looking at the
demographics or even the specific
countries and seeing where is this even
bigger than in the United States yeah
great question
um you know this thing Philippines
Thailand and uh
India um
where else was some big Canada
oddly enough Canada big um
um
what else was another big market for us
that was crazy uh Australia
the UK
yeah we can already see where this
thing's starting to click and starting
to grow and
um we have we have so much more data now
than we did in the early days of the UFC
so it's gonna it's gonna help us out a
lot and then to keep the content machine
growing do you think for maybe season
two in Abu Dhabi that you could keep the
idea of like Dana White looking for a
fight going around the in other
countries maybe if you had the time for that
that
uh uh Dana White looking for a fight
type show for these other countries
maybe in some other countries before uh
season two well it's this thing's so
young and so new you do
two more seasons you know do a season
one year you do another season another
year and uh I think I think you gotta
you gotta pump the brakes and slow it
down a little bit and uh I think this
will be perfect like like I said to you
guys earlier
watch what happens in the next two years
with this thing and if you look at the
progression of the UFC we started on
Spike TV with a deal from Spike TV we
went to Fox from Fox we went to ESPN and
this will play out the same way except I
believe that the spikes foxes and espns
will end up being
um social platforms that everything's
head in that way so check this out I had
the uh
the UNLV baseball team came in and
toured the the headquarters and then
went to the to the pi
so I put them all in the in the media room
room
at the pi and I was answering questions
for him
they probably asked me 10 questions
six of them were power slapped
okay so I'm like holy [ __ ] you guys are
asking me I said how many of you have
not seen powerslab not one kid raised
their hand
the whole team had seen it right then I
asked them um
who's the who's the oldest guy on the team
team
the oldest guy on the team was 24 years old
old
I said how many of you watched it on TV
not one person
these [ __ ] kids do not watch TV so
there was a lot of criticism
about the TV ratings
these people are so full of [ __ ] it's
it's [ __ ] conversible what do any of
these [ __ ] people know about TV
ratings number one and like I told you
the thing average 317 000 viewers on TBS
with zero advertising from the network
zero right we held fifty percent of the
aew audience and the night that Kyrie
moved over to Dallas and the Dallas
played the Clippers that night that game
was on ESPN what had more
publicity and attention on it then Kyrie
moving to Dallas that game did 570 000
viewers we did 317 000 at the same exact
time that game that was on ESPN and we
were on TBS
we were number two with with men on all
of Television that night they were
number one that's an incredible [ __ ]
number especially when this thing skews
so much younger and none of these people
are watching TV these kids don't watch
TV none of them they watch their phones
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