Truth Podcast - Vivek Ramaswamy - January 29, 2024


The Ultimate Fighter | The TRUTH Podcast #44

Topics
Abu Dhabi investments and experiences jiu-jitsu Asian culture and martial arts perceptions cancel culture common sense PR woman champ pay per view revenue Ari and UFC public company partnership
Hosted by
Vivek Ramaswamy
Mentioned
Frank Lorenzo Vegas Sheik Ta Noon Sean Strickland Shaq Taknoon Ari Emanuel John Lewis Jim Miller Bruce Lee Frank Fertitta Michael Jordan Chuck Liddell Whitey Bulger Sheikh Taknoon Ronald Reagan Tyron Woodley Peter Welch Wei Li Zhang Tito Ortiz Abu Dhabi and 4 more
Disrupting the Mainstream Media | The TRUTH Podcast #43 The Weaponization of Government, Jan 6 Truth, & MAGA's Missteps | The TRUTH Podcast #45

Episode Stats


Length

52 minutes

Words per minute

202.9

Word count

10,713

Sentence count

1,129

Harmful content

Misogyny

16

sentences flagged

Toxicity

100

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Dana White sits down with UFC President and CEO Lorenzo Fertitta to talk about how he built one of the most successful companies in the history of the UFC. They discuss how he got started in the fight business, how he bought the UFC, and what it's like being the president of the world's largest mixed martial arts organization. Dana also talks about what it was like growing up in a small town in the late 80s and early 90s, and how he dealt with the aftermath of the financial crisis that hit the UFC in the early 2000s. Dana and Lorenzo also discuss how the UFC has managed to bounce back from adversity and how they've managed to stay relevant in a tough industry like the fight game. They also discuss the differences between the boxing business and the MMA business, and why the UFC is better than boxing in terms of business and business acumen. UFC President Dana White talks about the importance of having a good relationship with your employees and how important it is to have a strong relationship with them. Dana talks about his relationship with his employees and why it's important to have good relationships with them and why they're so important in the business. UFC is a great place to be a part of your life and why you should be there to support your friends and family. The UFC is not only in the sport, but in your life. We hope you enjoy this episode and share it with your friends, family, family and your significant other. Thank you so much for listening to this episode! -Jon Sorrentino and thank you for supporting the UFC! -MMAKE THE UFC. -Dana White & Co. -Jon & Dana White - The UFC - The Ultimate Fighting Championship - Dana White and the UFC - UFC - Dana's Story - The Fight Game - UFC: The Ultimate Fighter - The Rise of Dana s Journey - UFC's Journey - The Power of a Fighter - UFC vs. The UFC, The UFC's Story of a Man in the Fight Game, UFC's Future - UFC s Future - The Real Life - The Future of the MMA Game - The People s Most Powerful Man - Dana s Story of UFC's Most Powerful People - The Best of UFC? - The Most Powerful Person in the MMA Business - UFC, UFC s Most Successful Man in The UFC? and much more! Subscribe to our new show, we'll be hearing from the UFC s most Influential Man in America?

Transcript

Transcripts from "Truth Podcast - Vivek Ramaswamy" are sourced from the Knowledge Fight Interactive Search Tool. Explore them interactively here.
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 But your passion's still in this, and that's awesome.
00:00:02.000 I love taking things that people think can't be successful and making them successful.
00:00:08.000 That's what I love to do.
00:00:10.000 Two months later, we bought the UFC for $2 million.
00:00:13.000 I love killers that just, no matter how successful you've become, you love to win and you keep driving.
00:00:17.000 The media was murdering me.
00:00:20.000 Respect the hell out of me.
00:00:21.000 So we're meeting for the first time, man.
00:00:23.000 Yeah, nice to meet you, and congrats on everything.
00:00:25.000 It's good to meet you.
00:00:25.000 It's good to meet you.
00:00:26.000 I think we just walked in here, but catching you at a moment where I know you're taking care of the people who work for you.
00:00:33.000 That says a lot about you.
00:00:34.000 I don't know you before, but I know that you care about the people who work for you.
00:00:37.000 Sounds like somebody had a medical issue today.
00:00:39.000 You're here taking care of them.
00:00:41.000 Well, I'm here.
00:00:42.000 I respect the hell out of that.
00:00:43.000 Thank you.
00:00:44.000 I say it all the time.
00:00:46.000 We went through COVID together, me and my employees.
00:00:49.000 Probably the scariest time of our lifetime and a lot of uncertainties.
00:00:55.000 And, you know, I talk about it all the time.
00:00:57.000 At a time when companies were, you know, making the decision to lay off 30-40% of their staff, I did the exact opposite.
00:01:06.000 There's no way I was laying off.
00:01:07.000 Some of these people have been with me for, you know, 20 years.
00:01:10.000 Yeah. 1.00
00:01:11.000 And you don't find out who people really are until the shit hits the fan. 0.99
00:01:15.000 In that sense, it's useful. 0.99
00:01:17.000 100%.
00:01:18.000 People talk a lot about how much they care about their employees or how good a friendship is or how good a relationship is.
00:01:27.000 But you really don't know until you hit hard times.
00:01:30.000 I mean, the UFC has been this rocket ship of success now for the last however many years.
00:01:34.000 And then the first time that we face adversity, I'm going to lay off 30-40% of my staff.
00:01:39.000 There's no way in hell, man.
00:01:40.000 I look at this thing, this is a battleship.
00:01:43.000 And, you know, we either all go down together or not at all.
00:01:47.000 Yeah.
00:01:48.000 So what was...
00:01:49.000 I actually want to get to that, but just rewind the clock.
00:01:52.000 How long have you been here now?
00:01:54.000 I've been doing this for 23 years.
00:01:56.000 23 years.
00:01:57.000 And what brought you into this?
00:01:59.000 So I've been in the fight business since I was 19 years old.
00:02:03.000 And I was involved in boxing.
00:02:07.000 And...
00:02:08.000 A couple of buddies of mine, the Fertitta brothers.
00:02:11.000 We were out one night.
00:02:14.000 We saw this ultimate fighting kid.
00:02:16.000 His name was John Lewis.
00:02:18.000 And Frank Fertitta says to me, you know what?
00:02:19.000 I've always wanted to learn jujitsu.
00:02:21.000 I've always wanted to.
00:02:22.000 I said, well, I know the guy.
00:02:23.000 We went over and we talked to him.
00:02:25.000 And we set up a lesson for Monday.
00:02:27.000 Frank Lorenzo and I all started training on Monday morning.
00:02:30.000 Became addicted.
00:02:31.000 Through John Lewis, we started to meet a lot of the fighters.
00:02:34.000 And I started managing Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz.
00:02:38.000 Got into a contract battle with the old owner of the UFC. He flipped out on me one day and said, you know what?
00:02:44.000 There is no more money.
00:02:45.000 I don't know if I can even put on another event.
00:02:47.000 I literally called the Fertitta brothers and said, I think the UFC's in trouble.
00:02:51.000 I think we could buy it, and I think we should.
00:02:53.000 Oh, is that what happened?
00:02:54.000 Two months later, we bought the UFC for $2 million.
00:02:57.000 For $2 million?
00:02:58.000 So you kind of smell, in some ways, to use a fight analogy, smell blood a little bit.
00:03:03.000 Oh yeah, no, I knew for a fact that he was done.
00:03:06.000 He was on his last leg.
00:03:08.000 So who put up, the Fertitta Brothers put up the money?
00:03:10.000 The Fertittas put up the two million bucks.
00:03:12.000 They made me the president of the company and they gave me 10% to run it.
00:03:16.000 Yeah, good arrangement to get started.
00:03:18.000 It was incredible.
00:03:18.000 Yeah, and then that's end of history.
00:03:20.000 And here we are today.
00:03:21.000 Yeah, no other investors ever came in?
00:03:24.000 Abu Dhabi came in.
00:03:25.000 A little bit later.
00:03:26.000 Yeah.
00:03:26.000 The investment firm for Abu Dhabi came in and they bought 10% in like 2010, I'd say.
00:03:32.000 And then we sold in 2016 for 4.025 billion.
00:03:36.000 You sold in 2016. And who bought that?
00:03:40.000 The current owner?
00:03:41.000 Endeavor, yeah.
00:03:42.000 Ari Emanuel and Endeavor.
00:03:44.000 So you've been in the fight business for a long time anyway.
00:03:46.000 Yeah.
00:03:46.000 What have you learned?
00:03:47.000 What's different about UFC versus what your old days were in boxing in terms of just the character of the business and what drew you?
00:03:55.000 Well, the difference is, you know what's fascinating about boxing?
00:03:59.000 There's probably never been another business.
00:04:03.000 We're literally trillions of dollars have been made.
00:04:06.000 And at the end of the day, there's nothing there.
00:04:09.000 So what we wanted to do is come in and build, you know, almost like a league, a brand like the NFL or Major League Baseball and where there was actually value.
00:04:19.000 Inside the brand and bring all the fighters inside so that you could put on the best fights that the fans want to see.
00:04:27.000 That's interesting.
00:04:27.000 Usually when there's nothing there, you mean just after the fight, it's just gone.
00:04:31.000 Every time they put on a fight, it's a going out of business sale.
00:04:34.000 They try to get up as much money as they can get in the door and they don't care if the customer is satisfied, if they're happy.
00:04:41.000 You like the fight? 0.99
00:04:42.000 Too fucking bad. 1.00
00:04:43.000 We don't give a shit. 1.00
00:04:44.000 We're done anyway. 0.99
00:04:44.000 Exactly. 0.99
00:04:45.000 It's interesting.
00:04:47.000 Not to bring it into this, but it reminds me of the weirdness of a political campaign.
00:04:51.000 It's a business that's designed to end by the time you actually wind it up, which means you actually do all kinds of screwed up things along the way compared to a real business that's built to last.
00:05:02.000 Fact.
00:05:02.000 That's exactly what boxing is.
00:05:03.000 It actually just reminded me of it.
00:05:07.000 Versus what you said is you want to create something that lasts.
00:05:09.000 Right.
00:05:10.000 Something that lasts, has value.
00:05:13.000 We set standards that people believe.
00:05:15.000 Now when UFC events go on sale, they'll sell out before they even know what the main event is because there's a standard.
00:05:23.000 They know that they're going to get a quality product whether they buy the pay-per-view or they show up and buy a ticket.
00:05:30.000 So that's what I meant by it.
00:05:32.000 So you're talking about the sale was in 2016, but you bought it for $2 million when?
00:05:38.000 In 2001. 2001, you bought it for $2 million and you kept your 10% stake all the way through.
00:05:44.000 You sold in 2016, which means you cashed out to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
00:05:50.000 So what gives you your motivation now?
00:05:53.000 I love this.
00:05:54.000 It's just out of passion.
00:05:55.000 Well, since 2016, you know, I came back.
00:05:57.000 That's a long time to still be around after having sold it.
00:05:59.000 Well, what happened was when we were selling it at the time, you know, I thought that me and the Fertittas would ride off into the sunset and whatever was next we would do.
00:06:07.000 Yeah.
00:06:07.000 And they sit me down one day and they're like, listen, we want to talk to you.
00:06:11.000 This is obviously...
00:06:12.000 They being...
00:06:12.000 Franco Lorenzo, the brothers.
00:06:14.000 The Fertittas. 0.78
00:06:14.000 Okay, got it. 0.78
00:06:15.000 And they're like, this is an incredible deal.
00:06:17.000 It's an incredible deal for us.
00:06:18.000 Incredible deal for you and a lot of other people.
00:06:20.000 I mean, they made billions off of it.
00:06:22.000 Oh, yeah.
00:06:22.000 Yeah.
00:06:25.000 And you gotta stay.
00:06:27.000 Nobody's buying this thing unless you stay.
00:06:28.000 Literally not one buyer will buy it if you don't stay.
00:06:31.000 You know, in the beginning I was a little, you know, a little messed up with it when we did the sale because I didn't want to sell.
00:06:37.000 Yeah, you don't seem like the kind of guy who would have been satisfied.
00:06:40.000 I didn't want to sell.
00:06:41.000 I loved what I was doing.
00:06:43.000 Were you okay taking Abu Dhabi money or you didn't want to sell?
00:06:45.000 Yeah, yeah, we did that.
00:06:46.000 Because that's just minority investment.
00:06:47.000 Exactly.
00:06:47.000 They bought like 10%.
00:06:48.000 So when you asked me about that, I gave up 1% to Abu Dhabi and the Fertittas between the two of them gave up 9%.
00:06:53.000 So they bought, you know, 10%.
00:06:55.000 Oh, so they bought in not putting money into the company.
00:06:57.000 They took your, they bought shares from you.
00:06:59.000 Exactly.
00:07:00.000 Got it.
00:07:00.000 Okay.
00:07:00.000 Yep.
00:07:02.000 And, yeah, that was fine.
00:07:03.000 I was fine with that.
00:07:04.000 And I love the royal family in Abu Dhabi.
00:07:07.000 I love everything about Abu Dhabi.
00:07:08.000 They weren't telling you what to do.
00:07:09.000 Nothing but great experiences over there.
00:07:11.000 Yeah, good.
00:07:11.000 So, all good.
00:07:12.000 Did you do some fights over there, by the way, too?
00:07:14.000 What's that?
00:07:14.000 Did you guys host any fights over there?
00:07:15.000 Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:07:16.000 Okay, good.
00:07:16.000 When we went through COVID, they were who we partnered up with to go through COVID. My whole thing was when we were going through COVID is like, They're testing in Abu Dhabi.
00:07:26.000 If they're testing, why can't we test here?
00:07:29.000 So, you know, I was always very optimistic that we could pull it off and go through COVID. So they ended up being good friends that you made.
00:07:35.000 So they invested anyway years ago.
00:07:37.000 100%.
00:07:38.000 But then anyway, so you get to 2016, Endeavor or whoever else wants to buy you.
00:07:41.000 And the producer's like, listen, this is going to be good for everybody.
00:07:45.000 You've got to stay or nobody's going to buy it.
00:07:46.000 So...
00:07:47.000 I end up staying.
00:07:48.000 I didn't want to sell anyway.
00:07:50.000 How did these guys make their wealth?
00:07:51.000 The Fertittas to buy?
00:07:52.000 Casinos.
00:07:53.000 They own Station Casinos.
00:07:54.000 Okay.
00:07:55.000 Which is like the fourth largest gaming company in the country.
00:07:57.000 Got it.
00:07:58.000 So they already had their...
00:07:59.000 That's how they put up the two million to help you.
00:08:01.000 Yeah.
00:08:02.000 Although the amount of money they made out of this might be bigger than the casinos.
00:08:05.000 Huh?
00:08:05.000 The amount of money they made off of this might be at least as big as their casino.
00:08:08.000 100%.
00:08:08.000 Yeah, no doubt about it.
00:08:10.000 But the way that I looked at it is, at the time, I already had money.
00:08:14.000 I had money.
00:08:15.000 I already made more money than I ever thought I was going to make.
00:08:17.000 So, I was good.
00:08:19.000 But, you know, my friend Lorenzo, he and I are best friends.
00:08:24.000 He's like, listen...
00:08:26.000 I'm done.
00:08:27.000 Be happy for me.
00:08:28.000 This is what I want.
00:08:29.000 I want to move on.
00:08:30.000 So I got past it.
00:08:32.000 Ari comes in. 0.99
00:08:35.000 And he's been an incredible partner.
00:08:38.000 So I really can't complain.
00:08:39.000 It's been awesome.
00:08:40.000 And I love what I do.
00:08:42.000 And then me and the Fertittas got back into business together anyway.
00:08:45.000 We own like four other companies now together.
00:08:48.000 So while you're running this, you're able to, good. 0.99
00:08:50.000 And we get together every day and deal with all the shit you gotta deal with. 0.97
00:08:55.000 I love taking things that people think can't be successful and making them successful. 0.98
00:09:01.000 That's what I love to do.
00:09:03.000 Is the first part of that part of what gives you that chip on your shoulder that people think can't be successful?
00:09:08.000 Oh, there's no doubt about it.
00:09:09.000 When somebody tells me it can't be done, I have to do it.
00:09:14.000 Yeah.
00:09:14.000 I know that feeling.
00:09:15.000 I love it.
00:09:15.000 Yeah.
00:09:16.000 And so you're sticking with this, you think, rest of your life?
00:09:19.000 Yeah.
00:09:20.000 I'll never retire.
00:09:22.000 I'll die working.
00:09:23.000 Yeah.
00:09:24.000 It's interesting.
00:09:26.000 When I wrote my first...
00:09:28.000 I wouldn't have written my first book.
00:09:29.000 I wrote this book, Woke Inc.
00:09:30.000 years ago.
00:09:31.000 It was part of my time out of business.
00:09:33.000 You think you're going to sit down and you're going to do something.
00:09:36.000 I said, you know, I have an idea.
00:09:37.000 I sent it out around somebody to a book agent, another author I knew said, okay, here's an agent.
00:09:41.000 And they sent it back to me and they said, hey, listen, if you want to actually put your talents to use, you're a businessman, maybe you can use your financial resources to support somebody who has literary talent.
00:09:53.000 So I said, okay, all right.
00:09:55.000 That's actually going to make me what made me decide to actually sit up and write the book.
00:09:59.000 It's almost a favor that somebody does you when they said that it can't work.
00:10:03.000 It actually gives you the motivation that you otherwise wouldn't have had.
00:10:06.000 And so I feel you on that.
00:10:08.000 That's a big part of what got me going.
00:10:10.000 Well, you're either that guy or you're not.
00:10:12.000 Yeah, Michael Jordan was that way, too.
00:10:13.000 100%.
00:10:14.000 And that's a perfect example because I love killers.
00:10:19.000 I love killers that just, you know, no matter how successful you become, you just love to win and you keep driving.
00:10:27.000 I love to...
00:10:28.000 I do a lot of things A lot of things come across my desk because you have young entrepreneurs out there that are trying to build.
00:10:38.000 I love being a part of that too.
00:10:40.000 I don't want anything.
00:10:41.000 I'm not looking for any money or any of that.
00:10:44.000 I've connected so many people with other people or helped smaller companies to grow.
00:10:50.000 I just love everything about business.
00:10:53.000 I love people that have the balls To one day say, I'm going to work for myself.
00:11:00.000 You know, I say this all the time. 0.56
00:11:01.000 You see these people like, oh, you know, I'm thinking about working for myself because, you know, I want to have some time off and I want to take some vacation.
00:11:08.000 You don't want to work for yourself if that's what you're looking for.
00:11:12.000 You want to work for yourself, you have to get in there and grind and work hard.
00:11:15.000 And I respect everybody who gets out there and tries to do it.
00:11:19.000 I love it.
00:11:20.000 In any way that I can help, I usually try to.
00:11:21.000 Yeah, it's interesting.
00:11:23.000 I mean, I think that people...
00:11:25.000 If it feels like work, you almost lost the battle.
00:11:30.000 I agree.
00:11:30.000 Right?
00:11:31.000 I think that any time I've felt in my life that you're actually laboring, like you're doing it for somebody else, you don't have the motivation to actually see it through.
00:11:40.000 Did you ever start to start a business before this one?
00:11:42.000 100%.
00:11:42.000 That's all I've ever done.
00:11:43.000 So when I was 19 years old, I worked at a hotel.
00:11:46.000 It was the Boston Arbor Hotel in Boston.
00:11:49.000 Oh, you worked there?
00:11:50.000 I've been there.
00:11:51.000 You stayed there for it?
00:11:52.000 Yeah, I know that.
00:11:53.000 Well, thirty-something years ago, I'd have been taking your bags and carrying them to your room for you.
00:11:58.000 Okay, fair enough. 0.91
00:11:59.000 I was standing in the lobby one day, and I'm like, what the fuck am I doing here? 0.95
00:12:03.000 This is not me, this is not what I want to do, and I want to be in the fight business. 0.98
00:12:08.000 And everybody told me at the time, which, fair enough, is probably the dumbest thing anybody ever heard, you know, that I wanted to be in the fight business.
00:12:14.000 But I walked out, I think half the battle in life...
00:12:18.000 That's kind of an interestingly weird choice to make.
00:12:21.000 You're a valet at a hotel, and you say, I want to be in the fight business.
00:12:25.000 Mm-hmm.
00:12:25.000 It's true.
00:12:26.000 I mean, what was going on in your...
00:12:27.000 I love...
00:12:28.000 Inside that...
00:12:29.000 I love the fight business.
00:12:30.000 You just loved it.
00:12:31.000 And I wanted to do it.
00:12:32.000 And everybody told me I was...
00:12:33.000 You said, like, somebody watched it? 1.00
00:12:34.000 Stupid it was. 1.00
00:12:35.000 Yeah, I was a big boxing fan. 1.00
00:12:36.000 But there was this guy in town.
00:12:38.000 His name was Peter Welsh.
00:12:39.000 And he was a fighting legend.
00:12:41.000 Street and boxing.
00:12:43.000 Okay.
00:12:43.000 And, you know, not a dude you went looking for, but I went looking for him.
00:12:48.000 And I approached him, and I said, I know you don't know me, and I know this is weird, but I want to learn everything that you can teach me about the fight game.
00:12:56.000 I'll work for free.
00:12:57.000 And at that time, this is in South Boston, when Whitey Bulger ran Southie and all that stuff.
00:13:03.000 It's a funny story, but his wife thought I was a fed.
00:13:05.000 She thought I was a fed or something.
00:13:07.000 She's like, this guy comes out of nowhere.
00:13:10.000 Did you have a shaved head back then?
00:13:11.000 No, no, I actually had hair then.
00:13:13.000 You know, this guy comes out of nowhere and wants to work for you for free?
00:13:17.000 This doesn't make any sense.
00:13:19.000 But, yeah, it's a crazy story.
00:13:21.000 But that's how I tell people all the time.
00:13:23.000 So you did do it then?
00:13:24.000 Yeah.
00:13:24.000 You worked for free.
00:13:25.000 He took me in.
00:13:25.000 Yeah.
00:13:26.000 And he was my...
00:13:28.000 My college.
00:13:29.000 He was my sensei.
00:13:30.000 He was my whatever you want to call it.
00:13:32.000 That's what he was to me and that's why I'm sitting here today is because I sought him out.
00:13:37.000 He said yes and I learned everything from him.
00:13:39.000 Is he alive still?
00:13:41.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:13:42.000 We're still super close.
00:13:44.000 Awesome.
00:13:44.000 What's he doing?
00:13:45.000 He owns a gym in Boston.
00:13:47.000 Awesome.
00:13:47.000 He's in the fight game still and doing well.
00:13:50.000 So you trained under him, and then you said, okay, I'm going to start my own boxing business.
00:13:54.000 Well, then I ended up coming back to Vegas.
00:13:56.000 And as soon as I got back here, I was doing my thing.
00:13:58.000 And obviously Vegas, you know, the fight capital of the world, you know, everything just started to roll.
00:14:03.000 And I bumped into Lorenzo again.
00:14:05.000 I hadn't seen him since high school.
00:14:07.000 He was on the athletic commission for boxing.
00:14:11.000 And, you know, we saw each other at a wedding.
00:14:15.000 And then the next day, we ended up hooking up and we've been together ever since.
00:14:20.000 That was 27 years ago.
00:14:22.000 So the first entry into business was indeed this.
00:14:25.000 Yeah.
00:14:26.000 Well, I had my own business before that.
00:14:31.000 I ran a gym.
00:14:33.000 My own gyms.
00:14:34.000 So I opened a gym here.
00:14:35.000 Then by the time we did this, I had three gyms going and had people.
00:14:39.000 I had employees.
00:14:40.000 But you've never really experienced failure.
00:14:41.000 But not at this scale.
00:14:42.000 But you've never had failure, really.
00:14:44.000 Major failure, huh?
00:14:45.000 Yeah, no, I failed.
00:14:46.000 I failed in...
00:14:48.000 And things here and there.
00:14:50.000 Nothing ever dramatic that, you know, I lost everything or anything like that.
00:14:56.000 Listen, when you get out of bed, you have some good days and you got some bad days.
00:14:59.000 Yeah, exactly.
00:14:59.000 But I love stress.
00:15:03.000 If there isn't any, sometimes I put more on myself just because I love it so much.
00:15:08.000 Number one.
00:15:09.000 And number two, I love solving problems.
00:15:11.000 I look at everything, like COVID. COVID needed to be solved.
00:15:15.000 So you were starting to say that before.
00:15:17.000 So that was maybe the big challenge you've had in building this thing.
00:15:21.000 What was that like?
00:15:22.000 Where did that 30 to 40% layoff number come from that people were proposing to you?
00:15:26.000 Yeah, you know, basically, you know, we were looking down the barrel.
00:15:30.000 First of all, I knew that I was going to get paid bonus and all that stuff.
00:15:34.000 So if I was going to get that, I'd give that up to give to my employees while we tried to go through COVID. And I looked at it as, this is the way I look at my team.
00:15:47.000 No one guy does anything by himself, right?
00:15:50.000 You have somebody who is the vision and gets everything set up, but you need a team to really accomplish the things that I want to accomplish.
00:15:59.000 And over the last 23 years, I've built the biggest, baddest team in all of sports.
00:16:04.000 I'll put my team up against any other team and any other sport anywhere.
00:16:10.000 And, you know, the first day that they started shutting everything down, brought all my employees downstairs.
00:16:18.000 And I said, here's the truth.
00:16:21.000 I don't understand this.
00:16:22.000 I don't know what's going on.
00:16:24.000 But if you're scared, And you're nervous and you think you have somebody at home that could, you know, whatever, you're free to go.
00:16:31.000 Free to go home and do whatever.
00:16:32.000 Nobody went home.
00:16:34.000 Nobody went home.
00:16:35.000 So then we got to a point where we all had to go home.
00:16:38.000 Okay?
00:16:39.000 That happened even here.
00:16:40.000 Yeah.
00:16:41.000 Every week, I would send videos to my employees saying, Enjoy this time.
00:16:47.000 This is gonna be a very unique time in our life.
00:16:51.000 We're never gonna have this again, where you just get to stay home, get paid, and spend time with your family and hang out.
00:16:58.000 And I said, if you need anything, you need groceries, If any of your people get sick, you or family members, make me your first call.
00:17:06.000 We'll get you taken care of.
00:17:07.000 And this sounds weird, but at the time, it was a hot commodity.
00:17:10.000 If you need toilet paper, call me.
00:17:13.000 So I was telling these guys, whatever you need, made everybody feel cool.
00:17:17.000 Nobody's losing their jobs.
00:17:19.000 Nobody's getting laid off.
00:17:20.000 We're all going to be fine, and we're going to fight through this together.
00:17:23.000 And then I made the decision that I was going to go through COVID, no matter what it took.
00:17:27.000 Because at the end of the day...
00:17:29.000 What I have to do is I have to deliver a live product to television.
00:17:36.000 I don't need...
00:17:37.000 I don't have brick and mortar.
00:17:39.000 I can set this up on an island somewhere where it's just us.
00:17:42.000 I can do this anywhere.
00:17:45.000 And we can build a true bubble.
00:17:46.000 And all I have to do is give the feed to ESPN. That's all I need.
00:17:51.000 So when the time came when I told my troops...
00:17:55.000 We're going.
00:17:57.000 Everybody went.
00:17:58.000 Awesome.
00:17:59.000 Everybody went.
00:17:59.000 How soon into that?
00:18:00.000 Not one person said, oh, you know, this, that, or, you know.
00:18:04.000 Nobody. 0.99
00:18:04.000 My whole fucking team stormed the beach with me, and we went, and we ripped through COVID. It was the most successful time in the company's history. 0.99
00:18:13.000 Three fights that should have been doing 350,000 buys were doing a million.
00:18:17.000 Amazing.
00:18:18.000 Yeah.
00:18:18.000 Just because people were so hungry for it.
00:18:20.000 100%.
00:18:20.000 The media was murdering me.
00:18:24.000 Murdering me.
00:18:25.000 It means you're doing something right.
00:18:26.000 You know what I mean?
00:18:26.000 Through the whole thing.
00:18:28.000 What were they saying?
00:18:29.000 We did it in Abu Dhabi.
00:18:30.000 So we did it back in OCO. We ended up naming...
00:18:32.000 To your friends in Abu Dhabi.
00:18:33.000 Yeah, Yaz Island.
00:18:34.000 We named it Fight Island.
00:18:35.000 And we did the fights all in Yaz.
00:18:38.000 And we built...
00:18:39.000 The only true bubble that ever existed during COVID in sports.
00:18:43.000 We built a true bubble.
00:18:44.000 That's awesome.
00:18:44.000 Where the people who came in to work there, like they opened the restaurants and the hotels and everything for us.
00:18:49.000 Those people were there two months before we got there being COVID tested nonstop.
00:18:54.000 And then we tested everybody before we went.
00:18:56.000 We chartered Etihad Airlines and flew over there.
00:18:59.000 And everybody was safe.
00:19:02.000 Amazing.
00:19:03.000 Yeah.
00:19:03.000 And more than paid for itself.
00:19:04.000 It was an incredible, unique experience in all of our lifetimes and in all of our careers.
00:19:10.000 It was super cool.
00:19:11.000 That's phenomenal.
00:19:11.000 That was in 2020?
00:19:13.000 Yeah, it was 2020, 2021. So what did the media say?
00:19:16.000 Murdering me every day. 1.00
00:19:17.000 The fucking New York Times? 1.00
00:19:20.000 Relentless. 1.00
00:19:21.000 Just every week. 1.00
00:19:22.000 That I'm a piece of shit. 1.00
00:19:23.000 I'm gonna kill everybody. 1.00
00:19:25.000 I care about money more than I do human life. 1.00
00:19:29.000 All the shit that's put in place to scare everybody. 1.00
00:19:33.000 Let's scare everybody to death. 1.00
00:19:35.000 My philosophy was this.
00:19:36.000 If these people are right, if what they're saying is true, we're all dead anyway.
00:19:41.000 Right?
00:19:42.000 We're gonna sit in our houses.
00:19:45.000 But we can go to a restaurant Sit down.
00:19:49.000 Take our masks off.
00:19:51.000 Eat.
00:19:51.000 Put our masks back up and go.
00:19:53.000 And this is the deadliest disease.
00:19:54.000 And take off our masks to sneeze.
00:19:56.000 100%.
00:19:57.000 But then put it right back on.
00:19:58.000 But this is the deadliest disease of all.
00:20:00.000 It didn't make sense.
00:20:01.000 So many things didn't make sense to me.
00:20:03.000 You know?
00:20:04.000 Those are good friends in Abu Dhabi to do that for you.
00:20:06.000 The best.
00:20:08.000 Was it your contacts from the investment that opened it up?
00:20:12.000 Because I'm sure it wasn't the investment people that were doing it, but they opened it up via their other...
00:20:16.000 The royal family and Abu Dhabi are some of the smartest, most progressive...
00:20:21.000 Do you know MBZ? Love them.
00:20:23.000 You know the guy, personally?
00:20:25.000 Sheik Taknoon, too, yes.
00:20:26.000 He's a smart guy?
00:20:27.000 Brilliant.
00:20:28.000 If you look at the infrastructure that Abu Dhabi has built From 1970 to today.
00:20:38.000 It's almost unbelievable.
00:20:40.000 And when you sit down with the royal family over in Abu Dhabi, these people are so smart and so humble and caring and just, like, write down, like...
00:20:52.000 I'm trying to explain that.
00:20:54.000 To try to explain these people is really tough to do.
00:20:57.000 Well, try.
00:20:58.000 They're very unique.
00:20:59.000 When you're talking about a group of people who control trillions of dollars, right?
00:21:07.000 Or this royal family in the Middle East.
00:21:09.000 And when you meet them, gracious, smart, humble, caring, care about everybody.
00:21:18.000 They try to...
00:21:21.000 Look at all sides of the equation, or of the story, or whatever it is, and try to be fair to everybody.
00:21:29.000 Yeah, they're some of the best people that I've ever met in my life.
00:21:32.000 And I do tons of deals with them.
00:21:34.000 I was just there recently and had dinner with Shake Talk Noon, and every time I get to spend time with this guy, it's just...
00:21:43.000 It's a gift.
00:21:45.000 It's a gift.
00:21:46.000 I mean, it was interesting, because...
00:21:49.000 It doesn't feel to me like their whole investment, I mean, I don't know the first thing, but just my gut instinct is it wasn't just a financial investment for them, right?
00:21:57.000 No doubt about it.
00:21:57.000 And that's the thing with them.
00:21:58.000 Their thing is about relationships.
00:22:00.000 Yeah.
00:22:01.000 And the culture of that is probably something they were interested in, too.
00:22:04.000 Yeah.
00:22:05.000 Well, Shaq Taknoon is also their head of defense.
00:22:11.000 So he's a big jiu-jitsu guy as it is.
00:22:13.000 So Shaq Taknoon, how does he relate to MBZ? That's his brother.
00:22:16.000 It's his brother, okay.
00:22:18.000 And they are, you know, big into jiu-jitsu over there.
00:22:22.000 I wouldn't have guessed that.
00:22:23.000 Yeah.
00:22:24.000 Oh, Sheik Tak Noon's a, like, third-degree black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu.
00:22:27.000 Really?
00:22:28.000 Yeah.
00:22:28.000 And how do you think they got into that?
00:22:31.000 So he went to school here.
00:22:32.000 Okay.
00:22:33.000 He went to school, I think, at USD. Oh.
00:22:35.000 And it was like coming to America. 0.54
00:22:37.000 Nobody knew he was like...
00:22:38.000 Like the movie.
00:22:39.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:22:39.000 Yeah, it was like nobody knew he was like this prince.
00:22:42.000 You know what I mean?
00:22:43.000 And he was taking jiu-jitsu classes and stuff, and yeah.
00:22:46.000 Yeah.
00:22:46.000 And then they end up becoming, you know, one of the most powerful families in the world.
00:22:51.000 No doubt.
00:22:52.000 No doubt.
00:22:53.000 So, I think there's an interesting dimension here when we think about commerce.
00:22:58.000 You guys wouldn't have gotten together if it weren't for the shared interest in this business, right?
00:23:02.000 In jiu-jitsu, yeah.
00:23:04.000 Yeah, if it wasn't for jiu-jitsu, Frank Lorenzo and I would have never got into the UFC. If it wasn't for jiu-jitsu, we probably would have never met Sheik Tak Noon. 0.63
00:23:13.000 When you start taking...
00:23:15.000 All these little things.
00:23:16.000 I bet you could tell a thousand stories too.
00:23:17.000 All these little pieces of the puzzle that come together in your life that get you to where you are today is fascinating.
00:23:26.000 Yeah, you got to be open to it though.
00:23:28.000 100%.
00:23:28.000 If your heart is closed to the...
00:23:30.000 Sometimes we think it's the serendipity.
00:23:32.000 I've been increasingly convinced that that's happening every day and it's just the days that you're actually open to it is the days where you actually end up finding the connections that already exist.
00:23:43.000 100%.
00:23:45.000 And it's fascinating, too, how certain types of people gravitate towards certain types.
00:23:50.000 You and I meeting, you know what I mean?
00:23:52.000 Saw some of your stuff, listened to you, and like, this guy's bright, smart.
00:24:00.000 Got some heart.
00:24:03.000 I'm like you.
00:24:04.000 I'm in this for a purpose, right?
00:24:06.000 You got to be called by that purpose.
00:24:08.000 I agree.
00:24:09.000 I can tell you, you're one of these people who you have your unique God-given gifts.
00:24:13.000 God gives every one of us our unique gifts.
00:24:15.000 You have yours.
00:24:16.000 But when you're able to find what you can actually put that skill set to use for, that's true satisfaction.
00:24:22.000 What everybody thinks is because of my relationship with Trump that I'm some crazy political guy or I'm some hardcore Republican.
00:24:29.000 I'm really not.
00:24:30.000 I'm right down the middle.
00:24:31.000 A lot of things about me are conservative.
00:24:33.000 A lot of things about me are liberal.
00:24:36.000 But I love this country.
00:24:38.000 Yes.
00:24:40.000 I think Republican versus Democrat, those terms don't really mean much right now to me.
00:24:44.000 Not anymore.
00:24:45.000 Not anymore.
00:24:46.000 Right now they don't mean much to us.
00:24:47.000 I agree.
00:24:48.000 At the end of the day, the message that needs to be sent and what needs to be fixed is, we are all Americans.
00:24:56.000 And it doesn't matter if you're black, white, Asian, gay, straight, trans, any of this stuff.
00:25:03.000 If you are a citizen of this country, you're an American.
00:25:06.000 We're all Americans.
00:25:07.000 We all have a really good life. 0.96
00:25:09.000 If you want to nitpick all the little shit that's wrong, I mean, you'll drive yourself crazy if that's what you want to do. 0.89
00:25:16.000 I think at the end of the day, what most of us want that have common sense is we want to live a good life. 0.97
00:25:22.000 We want to have family and friends and we want to do things that we enjoy.
00:25:26.000 We just want to live a good life, man.
00:25:28.000 That's it. 1.00
00:25:29.000 All this fucking crazy shit, you know. 1.00
00:25:32.000 You got kids? 1.00
00:25:33.000 Yeah, I got three kids.
00:25:35.000 How old are they?
00:25:35.000 I got 22, 21, and 17. Two boys are older.
00:25:39.000 You want to live a good life and you want to pass on a better life to them.
00:25:41.000 100%, you know?
00:25:42.000 That's what this country's about.
00:25:43.000 Ronald Reagan has this great quote.
00:25:46.000 We're one generation away from losing our freedom.
00:25:49.000 That's right.
00:25:50.000 If you listen to everything that guy was saying in the 80s, it absolutely applies to right here, right now.
00:25:55.000 Yeah.
00:25:56.000 And it's funny because, you know, I'm in a global sport, right?
00:26:00.000 This is a massive sport all over the world.
00:26:02.000 And when I go to places like England, Mexico, Australia, the list goes on and on.
00:26:09.000 These people love their country.
00:26:11.000 Oh yeah.
00:26:11.000 They support their country.
00:26:12.000 They support their own.
00:26:14.000 Totally.
00:26:14.000 It's just like, this country is so broken and fragmented right now, it's actually gross.
00:26:19.000 We're taught to apologize for who we are.
00:26:21.000 It's gross.
00:26:21.000 Right?
00:26:22.000 And so being American today is considered, or being proud of being an American today is considered something to be actually ashamed of.
00:26:29.000 You know, you guys, I was doing the tour here beforehand.
00:26:32.000 You guys opened up a big facility like this in China, is that right?
00:26:36.000 We got one in China.
00:26:38.000 I'm cutting the ribbon next month in Mexico.
00:26:41.000 We got one here, and we're building the biggest one of all time in Abu Dhabi.
00:26:44.000 But have you spent time in China after?
00:26:46.000 Yeah.
00:26:46.000 So tell me about what your perception has been from going over there, of what you see in the culture, both in the fight culture, but also what it's taught you about the broader culture of national pride over there.
00:26:56.000 When you think about China or Japan and any of the places in Asia, that's where martial arts comes from.
00:27:00.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:27:01.000 That's where that stuff was born.
00:27:03.000 So for us to go over there for the first time, It was a cool, unique experience.
00:27:08.000 I'm an insane Bruce Lee fan.
00:27:10.000 Oh, you are?
00:27:11.000 I mean, the quote that I live my life by is in my gym.
00:27:16.000 I'm going to take you in there when we're done with this.
00:27:17.000 I'm going to show you this quote that I've lived my life by my whole life.
00:27:20.000 It's a Bruce Lee quote.
00:27:21.000 And so, you know, the Asian culture I love anyway.
00:27:27.000 And when you go over to China, you know, and, you know, all the things that are said about China, it's communist, it's this, it's that.
00:27:33.000 And the people that are Chinese are very proud to be from China.
00:27:38.000 You know, Weili Zhang is our champion.
00:27:42.000 She's from China. 0.81
00:27:43.000 Our female champion is from China. 0.88
00:27:44.000 And she is a little badass. 1.00
00:27:46.000 And there's nothing she loves more than to represent her country.
00:27:51.000 You know what I mean?
00:27:52.000 I don't care where you go.
00:27:54.000 You don't see any other country ashamed of who they are and where they're from.
00:27:59.000 It's just something that started here in the last five or six years.
00:28:03.000 We teach the kids who are the best kids in the class now to kind of hide their excellence.
00:28:08.000 It's not cool to be the smart kid in high school.
00:28:11.000 It's not cool to be at the top of whatever you're doing.
00:28:14.000 And so in some ways, when America got to be at the top of the world, we treated ourselves that way, like it's something we have to...
00:28:20.000 I apologize for.
00:28:22.000 And now everybody else who looked up to America says, why am I actually looking up to America when I can just be proud of my own country?
00:28:27.000 You see that attitude in China?
00:28:28.000 You see it in India?
00:28:31.000 I'm hoping that's a pendulum that's going to swing in the other direction.
00:28:35.000 That's why I ran for president, actually, is I feel like that animal spirit right inside the heart of our country It actually has been tamed and domesticated into this new culture that celebrates victimhood and apology instead of excellence.
00:28:52.000 And that animal left and went to places like China, lifted them up. 0.73
00:28:56.000 They used to have that culture of victimhood under Mao and otherwise.
00:28:59.000 That's actually come back here to hold us down.
00:29:03.000 And so I think that that is a phase we're in.
00:29:05.000 That's the way I like to look at it.
00:29:07.000 I could not agree with you more.
00:29:08.000 I hope it's just a phase.
00:29:09.000 I think it's just a phase.
00:29:10.000 Well, more people like us need to stand up.
00:29:13.000 Yeah.
00:29:13.000 And talk about this, because there's a lot of people that feel that way.
00:29:17.000 But for some reason, this whole cancel culture and all the other bullshit that's flying around right now, where if you fucking say anything that anybody doesn't like, They're coming after you. 0.98
00:29:28.000 You know what I mean? 1.00
00:29:29.000 Shut up. 1.00
00:29:29.000 Sit down. 1.00
00:29:29.000 Do as you're told. 1.00
00:29:30.000 100%.
00:29:30.000 I feel like it's the beginnings of that changing a little bit.
00:29:34.000 Do you feel that?
00:29:35.000 Oh, yeah.
00:29:36.000 It's the beginnings.
00:29:36.000 I think we're a hair's trigger away from people saying hell with this.
00:29:41.000 Everybody's tired of this bullshit. 1.00
00:29:43.000 Especially young people. 1.00
00:29:44.000 Yeah.
00:29:44.000 Everybody's tired of it, man.
00:29:46.000 And, you know, people are getting braver and braver now.
00:29:49.000 People need to start standing up. 0.64
00:29:51.000 And everybody became real scared, real fucking fast for some reason.
00:29:56.000 But, you know, it felt like everybody was being attacked. 0.81
00:29:59.000 But a lot of this comes from the media.
00:30:02.000 The media started this whole thing.
00:30:03.000 And what started to happen right now is the two most untrusted people right now In this country are politicians and the media.
00:30:13.000 For good reason, because both have been lying for a long time.
00:30:17.000 And, yeah.
00:30:19.000 What do you tell your guys here, the guys training here, young guys?
00:30:22.000 I met a couple of them.
00:30:24.000 I went upstairs.
00:30:25.000 That's what I wanted to tell you.
00:30:26.000 I jumped off track there.
00:30:28.000 In line with what you're asking me.
00:30:29.000 So I have a place up in Maine.
00:30:30.000 So my grandparents and my cousins have a lot of family up in Maine.
00:30:34.000 Love it up there, right? 0.99
00:30:36.000 Now Maine is one of the states that just did this shit with Trump, right? 0.99
00:30:39.000 Where they wanted to take him off the ballot. 1.00
00:30:41.000 Insane.
00:30:42.000 Insane.
00:30:42.000 Okay, let's start there.
00:30:44.000 One Secretary of State just says, okay, this man's not gonna be in the ballot.
00:30:48.000 Unbelievable. 0.98
00:30:48.000 Disgusting, actually. 0.98
00:30:50.000 And I just read this thing. 0.95
00:30:53.000 I'm diving into it.
00:30:53.000 I don't want to speak too much on it because I don't know enough about it, but apparently there's a basketball team up there that is incredible.
00:31:01.000 High school or college team, I'm not sure.
00:31:06.000 They're really good.
00:31:07.000 And they're smoking teams.
00:31:09.000 The state is now going to impose something on them.
00:31:12.000 They're going to be penalized for blowing teams out of the water as bad as they are because they're too good.
00:31:20.000 That's insane.
00:31:20.000 And yet sounds perfectly in the moment.
00:31:22.000 Right?
00:31:23.000 That's exactly what's happening in this country. 0.99
00:31:24.000 Have you ever in your fucking... 0.99
00:31:27.000 I mean, it's just... 0.99
00:31:28.000 It's unbelievable.
00:31:29.000 So I'm going to reach out to the coach of the team out there and see what I could do.
00:31:35.000 If anything, I want to bring that whole team out to a fight in Las Vegas.
00:31:41.000 I want to... 0.99
00:31:43.000 I want to reward these guys for being such badasses when these pussies that control whatever league they're in or whatever are trying to do this to them. 1.00
00:31:57.000 It's disgusting and every one of you that are involved in the state of Maine that are imposing this thing on this team, you guys fucking make me sick. 1.00
00:32:08.000 You are what's wrong with this country right now. 1.00
00:32:11.000 But anyway, I'm diving into this.
00:32:13.000 I want to talk to the coach.
00:32:14.000 I want to reward these kids somehow.
00:32:16.000 Bring them to Vegas.
00:32:17.000 Maybe they can play one of the teams out here or something.
00:32:20.000 That'd be awesome.
00:32:20.000 You know what I mean?
00:32:20.000 Do some big, you know, them versus Gorman, which is a good team out here.
00:32:25.000 I don't know.
00:32:25.000 I want to do something for these kids.
00:32:27.000 You can actually make it like an event out of there.
00:32:31.000 Maybe we do a little tournament out here with some of the best teams and they're one of them.
00:32:34.000 If you want to actually compete and be the best.
00:32:36.000 You come out here and win.
00:32:37.000 Blow away some of these other good teams.
00:32:39.000 Or don't.
00:32:40.000 But at least try.
00:32:41.000 You know what I mean?
00:32:41.000 Exactly.
00:32:42.000 But yeah, I'm going to do something with this thing.
00:32:43.000 I just read about this the other day.
00:32:45.000 It's disgusting.
00:32:47.000 It's exactly what's happening every day across this country.
00:32:51.000 Academics, sports, you name it.
00:32:54.000 Capitalist achievement, right?
00:32:55.000 If you achieve something the honest way through the free market.
00:32:58.000 My view is, you know what?
00:32:59.000 You made hundreds of millions of dollars.
00:33:01.000 Good for you.
00:33:01.000 You built this thing.
00:33:02.000 You shouldn't have to apologize for that.
00:33:04.000 There's nothing I love more than to see somebody take an idea.
00:33:07.000 Because think about how hard it is to take an idea.
00:33:11.000 And then take it to here, right?
00:33:14.000 Totally.
00:33:14.000 I mean, there's nothing cooler than that in life.
00:33:17.000 Yeah, it is.
00:33:17.000 But the fact that instead of teaching young people to say, this is what you should aspire to, and instead teaching them that this is what you should force these people to apologize for, that's what's drained the lifeblood out of this country.
00:33:30.000 It's kind of what got me into politics, man.
00:33:31.000 And when you think about guys, entrepreneurs that build stuff like this, How many other people's lives it affects in a positive way?
00:33:39.000 Oh yeah.
00:33:40.000 I just saw an article yesterday that In-N-Out Burger is shutting down in California, like Oakland or something, because of crime.
00:33:50.000 I mean, talk about...
00:33:53.000 In-N-Out Burger is one of the greatest businesses ever built.
00:33:57.000 Have you gone?
00:33:58.000 You spend any time in In-N-Out Burger?
00:34:00.000 So, you go in there.
00:34:03.000 The food is always excellent, consistent.
00:34:05.000 The places are absolutely clean from top to bottom.
00:34:09.000 The bathroom's clean.
00:34:10.000 The kitchen's clean.
00:34:12.000 When you're standing in line, they have people outside.
00:34:14.000 The service is excellent.
00:34:16.000 Their attitude is always great.
00:34:18.000 There's no better run business than In-N-Out Burger.
00:34:20.000 And it was built in California.
00:34:23.000 It's all over the state.
00:34:23.000 They're starting to shut down.
00:34:24.000 I mean, to own a business in California right now, it's pretty tough.
00:34:29.000 And that's the guy who they're trotting out as their next puppet to run the United States.
00:34:32.000 Could you imagine?
00:34:33.000 Unbelievable.
00:34:35.000 Yeah, by the way, I don't think I still don't think it's going to be Joe Biden who they're going to actually let run as the nominee.
00:34:41.000 So I'm going to pick the guy who's actually created the People's Commonwealth of People's Republic of California.
00:34:47.000 But that's not.
00:34:49.000 You know, one of the things I've seen is I went to New York City after the campaign.
00:34:52.000 You know, I thought I was going to go to New Hampshire, ended up after Iowa.
00:34:55.000 I thought it was clear the right move would get behind Trump and move to the next phase.
00:34:59.000 So instead of going to New Hampshire, I visited some friends and family in New York City.
00:35:02.000 What I see is even a lot of my old friends who used to think in a very different way after COVID, after what you've seen in the wave of crime affecting places up and down from California to New York, I think their views have totally morphed, actually, in a different direction.
00:35:19.000 I expected, I wasn't sure what to expect, actually, because I used to live in Manhattan.
00:35:23.000 You go back there after saying the things I've been saying for a year.
00:35:27.000 I kid you not, we have people on the streets sticking their heads out of cars and driving through Central Park, cheering for me just because they're seeing me walk on the street, doormen into buildings, and they'll say, hey, listen up, I'm with you and I'm voting for Trump.
00:35:39.000 But don't tell anybody.
00:35:40.000 But I had about 10 people on the same day tell me the same thing.
00:35:43.000 I said, you might as well be telling it to each other because I've met 10 other people like you from Uber drivers to doormen at buildings.
00:35:50.000 Same thing with me.
00:35:50.000 That's the same thing, actually.
00:35:51.000 Same thing happens to me everywhere I go.
00:35:52.000 It's a beautiful thing in this country.
00:35:54.000 Because people are hungry.
00:35:55.000 They're afraid.
00:35:56.000 But everybody's afraid at the same time.
00:35:58.000 And if everybody just lets their guard down, we realize it's actually a majority of us that feel the same way.
00:36:03.000 That's why you just said to me, You know, you feel it.
00:36:06.000 You feel it changing and shifting.
00:36:07.000 I feel it too, because everywhere I go, I get the same thing that you're saying.
00:36:11.000 I couldn't agree with you more.
00:36:12.000 And, you know, that's how you and I ended up connecting.
00:36:15.000 I love hearing...
00:36:17.000 I love hearing...
00:36:18.000 I love hearing common sense.
00:36:20.000 Yeah.
00:36:20.000 Common sense is a beautiful thing.
00:36:22.000 There's some principles of...
00:36:23.000 We did a few of those debates.
00:36:25.000 There's probably some principles and some lessons to learn from being in the ring.
00:36:28.000 Yeah, no.
00:36:29.000 And fighting.
00:36:29.000 There's no doubt about it.
00:36:30.000 Yeah, no.
00:36:30.000 That's the other thing, too.
00:36:31.000 And also be willing to fight and take it down.
00:36:33.000 So here at the UFC, right? 0.98
00:36:37.000 I'm assuming I have lots of gay employees. 0.97
00:36:40.000 I'm assuming I have lots of... 0.99
00:36:43.000 Who cares? 0.99
00:36:43.000 I don't give a shit. 0.99
00:36:44.000 Who cares? 0.99
00:36:45.000 Exactly.
00:36:46.000 Good for you.
00:36:46.000 You live your life.
00:36:47.000 Don't bother somebody else.
00:36:48.000 We come here every day and we work on UFC. That's what we do.
00:36:52.000 Common mission.
00:36:53.000 Exactly.
00:36:54.000 And then now my fighters...
00:36:57.000 Do you have a mission statement for UFC? Just off the top of your head, what would you say is the mission of this place?
00:37:06.000 You know what the mission of this place is?
00:37:07.000 We aspire to be the best, not just combat sport in the world, the best sport in the world where we're always trying to take it to the next level, whether it's technology and production, whether it's social media, the live event, whatever it could be, we're always aspiring to be better.
00:37:27.000 So it turns out your skin color doesn't limit your ability to do that or your race or your gender or sexuality.
00:37:32.000 We hire by talent.
00:37:34.000 Are you talented?
00:37:35.000 I don't care what color you are, what gender you are, what your sexual preference is, any of that stuff.
00:37:41.000 It doesn't matter to me how talented and how good are you.
00:37:44.000 And we don't even talk about that stuff here.
00:37:48.000 We all come here for the same reason.
00:37:51.000 We're all here to work.
00:37:52.000 And to be the best at what we can be. 0.99
00:37:54.000 And I truly believe, this isn't just talking shit. 0.98
00:37:58.000 I have the best team in the world. 0.99
00:37:59.000 I have the best team in the world.
00:38:00.000 And we're all aligned, no matter what our political views are.
00:38:05.000 Nothing ever goes out here like, hey, the elections are coming up.
00:38:09.000 Get out there and vote. 1.00
00:38:11.000 I'm voting for Trump and none of that shit. 0.99
00:38:14.000 You know what I mean? 1.00
00:38:15.000 You're all grown men and women. 0.52
00:38:16.000 You know the election's coming up.
00:38:17.000 If you want to vote, vote.
00:38:19.000 If you don't, don't.
00:38:21.000 We had a guy early on when the COVID thing started, Tyron Woodley.
00:38:25.000 He came out and Black Lives Matter everything.
00:38:28.000 I think he had Black Lives Matter socks on.
00:38:29.000 He covered head to toe in Black Lives Matter. 0.96
00:38:31.000 At the press conference leading up to his fight, they would ask him a question.
00:38:36.000 He'd say, Black Lives Matter.
00:38:38.000 They'd ask him about Black Lives Matter. 0.99
00:38:40.000 We didn't say shit to him. 0.99
00:38:41.000 No problem. 1.00
00:38:42.000 Knock yourself out.
00:38:42.000 Then we got Colby Covington, who's the complete opposite of the spectrum, right?
00:38:47.000 We're both of them good fighters?
00:38:48.000 Right.
00:38:48.000 Both of them are good fighters?
00:38:50.000 Yeah.
00:38:50.000 But whether they're good, they're not good.
00:38:52.000 This is America.
00:38:53.000 Yeah.
00:38:54.000 Everybody can have their own opinion.
00:38:55.000 That's right.
00:38:56.000 I'm not telling anybody what to do, what to say, what to think, how to feel.
00:39:00.000 We're human beings in America.
00:39:03.000 Do your thing.
00:39:04.000 Knock yourself out.
00:39:05.000 I got the platform, you know, and people get pissed off.
00:39:08.000 People get offended.
00:39:09.000 People get this and that.
00:39:10.000 We just had it happen with Sean Strickland.
00:39:12.000 I don't know if you saw this up in Canada.
00:39:14.000 No.
00:39:14.000 We're up in Canada.
00:39:15.000 Sean Strickland said a lot of things.
00:39:18.000 I don't agree with 95% of what this guy says.
00:39:21.000 But it's his right to say it.
00:39:23.000 And if you don't like it, tune in on Saturday night. 0.98
00:39:26.000 He's going to be getting punched in the face. 0.99
00:39:28.000 If you don't like him, you get to see him get punched in the face. 0.99
00:39:31.000 So there you go. 0.75
00:39:32.000 Root for the other guy.
00:39:34.000 Don't get too upset and don't take it too serious.
00:39:36.000 Yeah, I love that.
00:39:37.000 I love that.
00:39:38.000 Now, how do you think about, actually, you say you talk about merit, best person for the job.
00:39:41.000 Do you pay people more based on how well they're doing in the job?
00:39:45.000 Do you have systems to sort of say, who do you reward for actually doing a good job?
00:39:48.000 Yeah, there's base salaries, right?
00:39:50.000 You got your base salary or whatever your deal is.
00:39:52.000 And then at the end of the year, there's bonuses.
00:39:53.000 We bonus people for their work.
00:39:57.000 I don't know if I have one employee that isn't like... 0.99
00:40:00.000 Literally a fucking rock star, man. 0.99
00:40:02.000 I mean, everybody. 0.99
00:40:02.000 It's good. 0.99
00:40:03.000 What about the fighters?
00:40:04.000 Did you meet my head of PR? Is she in here? 0.62
00:40:08.000 No?
00:40:09.000 Let's see her before we go.
00:40:09.000 What's her name?
00:40:10.000 Lene.
00:40:11.000 Yeah, we met her. 0.97
00:40:12.000 When you came, she was in my house.
00:40:13.000 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:40:13.000 Checks all the boxes, right?
00:40:14.000 Good.
00:40:15.000 Yeah.
00:40:15.000 She checks all the boxes.
00:40:16.000 Super on top of it.
00:40:17.000 No, but I mean, checks all the boxes for what's going on right now.
00:40:20.000 Oh, you mean, yeah, happens to.
00:40:22.000 Yeah.
00:40:23.000 Happens to.
00:40:24.000 The best.
00:40:25.000 Literally the best PR woman.
00:40:27.000 It's funny you even said that.
00:40:27.000 Like, I didn't register.
00:40:28.000 I mean, she seems like somebody who's with it and actually gave us a good tour of the place.
00:40:33.000 But yeah, I guess now that you mention it, yeah, it does check some boxes.
00:40:36.000 Who cares?
00:40:36.000 The best out of PR in any sport or any company.
00:40:40.000 I literally have her attached to the hip to me. 0.99
00:40:43.000 I don't make a move without her being there because I respect her so much I want her input on everything that's going on.
00:40:53.000 You seem like one of these people who's kind of instinctual.
00:40:56.000 Even when I met her coming in.
00:40:57.000 But there's a certain sixth sense you can have for the kind of person who just is sort of with it.
00:41:02.000 You know what I mean?
00:41:03.000 Cares about their job.
00:41:05.000 When you're interviewing people, are you pretty intuitive about it?
00:41:09.000 100%.
00:41:09.000 I'm the same way.
00:41:11.000 If you work here, you'll go through the whole...
00:41:14.000 Process, and it ends with me.
00:41:16.000 I'm the last person.
00:41:16.000 So they'll take two or three candidates that they think they like and that they think I'll like, and then they come sit with me, and then I make the final decision.
00:41:23.000 You still interviewing most of the people who come in here to work?
00:41:26.000 Oh, yeah.
00:41:26.000 That's good.
00:41:26.000 Anybody that's going to touch my daily...
00:41:29.000 That's good.
00:41:29.000 You've got to have that good instinct.
00:41:31.000 I'm at a point now where I do all the fun shit that I like to do, right? 0.92
00:41:35.000 Yeah, I mean... 0.93
00:41:36.000 So anything that touches me on a daily basis, the interview ends with me.
00:41:41.000 Yeah.
00:41:41.000 Yeah.
00:41:43.000 I'll tell you one thing.
00:41:44.000 How many people do you fire a year, would you say?
00:41:48.000 Not many.
00:41:49.000 Not many?
00:41:49.000 Not many.
00:41:49.000 At this point, you've got that machine running the way you will.
00:41:52.000 Now, the fighters are not employees, right?
00:41:55.000 They're kind of partners.
00:41:56.000 Independent contractors.
00:41:57.000 Yeah, contractors.
00:41:58.000 Independent contractors.
00:41:58.000 How do you decide?
00:41:59.000 You still decide how much they're paid, though, right?
00:42:01.000 Yeah.
00:42:02.000 Yeah, and how do you think about that?
00:42:03.000 So, the way that it works is, you know, there's a...
00:42:09.000 I guess you'd call it a standard level of pay.
00:42:13.000 And depending on who you are and how you make it, how you climb up the ladder.
00:42:17.000 So what happens is when you become a world champion, you become a partner.
00:42:21.000 So when you got the belt, you share in the pay-per-view revenue.
00:42:24.000 Okay, got it.
00:42:25.000 So you can actually become effectively a revenue partner in the business after you work your way into that.
00:42:31.000 Once you win the title, you become a partner.
00:42:33.000 I don't know if there's another professional sport that I think actually does that.
00:42:38.000 I can't, football doesn't, basketball doesn't, baseball doesn't.
00:42:41.000 Well, boxing does.
00:42:41.000 Boxing, okay, okay.
00:42:42.000 Okay, all right.
00:42:43.000 Boxing does.
00:42:44.000 But those are one-time matches, but it's different here where it actually has permanent enterprise value.
00:42:48.000 And whoever is the champion in boxing, you get the lion's share of the revenue.
00:42:53.000 Here, it's dispersed across everybody.
00:42:55.000 We got a guy right now Who's 49 years old.
00:42:59.000 No, I'm sorry.
00:43:00.000 40 years old.
00:43:01.000 And he's on this hot streak, man.
00:43:03.000 And people are...
00:43:04.000 His name is Jim Miller.
00:43:05.000 Okay.
00:43:05.000 And he's been around forever.
00:43:06.000 He's been around since, like, we bought the company.
00:43:08.000 And he's still fighting.
00:43:10.000 And he's on this hot streak right now.
00:43:12.000 He's going to fight on UFC 300. And this is a guy who's been, you know, I guess you could call him a journeyman in boxing, right?
00:43:19.000 Okay.
00:43:19.000 If you asked most people, they wouldn't know who Jim Miller is.
00:43:22.000 And the guy's made millions of dollars.
00:43:24.000 Hmm.
00:43:25.000 Good for him doing this.
00:43:27.000 Yeah, 100%.
00:43:27.000 And he participates as a partner?
00:43:29.000 No.
00:43:29.000 He's not even at that level.
00:43:31.000 He's never made it to that level.
00:43:32.000 And he's already, and still will take millions from doing it.
00:43:34.000 So the money is dispersed.
00:43:36.000 Yeah.
00:43:37.000 Guys that would be considered journeymen in boxing never make that kind of money, ever.
00:43:42.000 Yeah.
00:43:43.000 What do you think is different about this?
00:43:44.000 It's more that it's not a one-time deal, it's the fact that it keeps going, right?
00:43:47.000 No, it's because what we do is we focus on building great fights with great fighters.
00:43:51.000 Yeah.
00:43:52.000 And if you can stay here for a certain amount of time, you make really good money, you know?
00:43:57.000 You can support your family, you can pay your house off, you can, you know, you're not going to be, you know, you're not going to have 30, 40 million dollars, but...
00:44:05.000 You'll have six, seven, eight million.
00:44:08.000 For people who, many of whom may not have had that.
00:44:10.000 Right.
00:44:10.000 And most people won't even, wouldn't even know who he was.
00:44:13.000 Yeah.
00:44:14.000 That's a beautiful thing.
00:44:15.000 Have you built relationships with a lot of fighters over the years?
00:44:18.000 Yeah, absolutely.
00:44:19.000 On both ways.
00:44:20.000 I've got guys and girls that I absolutely love and some that I can't stand.
00:44:24.000 That's kind of how it works, right?
00:44:25.000 Listen, we don't have to love each other to do business together.
00:44:28.000 That's right.
00:44:28.000 That's right.
00:44:29.000 Did you ever think of taking the company public instead of selling it?
00:44:31.000 We are public right now.
00:44:33.000 The parent is.
00:44:34.000 Or UFC itself is.
00:44:35.000 Yeah, yeah.
00:44:35.000 TKO. So, we are...
00:44:38.000 Combined with WWE under the ticker symbol TKO. I see.
00:44:43.000 I see.
00:44:43.000 So the people who bought you, they own like a majority of a publicly traded company.
00:44:48.000 Exactly.
00:44:49.000 How has that experience been?
00:44:51.000 It's been good.
00:44:51.000 You know what happens?
00:44:52.000 You know who Ari Emanuel is?
00:44:54.000 Ari, man. 0.95
00:44:54.000 You referenced him before. 0.95
00:44:56.000 Ari was the biggest agent in Hollywood.
00:44:59.000 Still is, but he's...
00:45:01.000 Was he one of these, the original, what was it, the agency?
00:45:06.000 UTA? Yeah, was he one of them?
00:45:08.000 Or whatever it was.
00:45:09.000 Okay, I've heard his name.
00:45:11.000 He's the biggest.
00:45:11.000 Okay, got it.
00:45:12.000 Ari's the biggest agent in Hollywood. 0.99
00:45:15.000 And basically, he started putting this whole thing together.
00:45:17.000 He came to us, wanted to buy the UFC. Lots of people were kicking the tires to buy the UFC. There were a lot of groups in there.
00:45:23.000 And the Fertittas, I told you earlier, told me, you've got to stay. 0.98
00:45:25.000 And I was like, guys, don't tell me I've got to stay and then stick me with some group.
00:45:31.000 It's going to be a nightmare to work with.
00:45:33.000 So there were two guys that I wanted to work with.
00:45:35.000 Ari was one of them.
00:45:36.000 Ari was the one that ended up getting the deal.
00:45:39.000 And it was the greatest thing to ever happen because I have an incredible relationship with him.
00:45:43.000 We work unbelievably well together.
00:45:46.000 And, you know, that was like...
00:45:49.000 It was back in 16, so in a couple years, it was 10 years, and it's been an incredible 10 years.
00:45:54.000 I've had an absolute blast.
00:45:56.000 He's great to work with, but the question you were asking me is, how is it being a public company? 0.99
00:46:01.000 Ari deals with all the bullshit. 1.00
00:46:02.000 Oh, good. 1.00
00:46:03.000 And I do what I love.
00:46:03.000 That's a good business partnership.
00:46:05.000 100%.
00:46:05.000 Because a lot of the stuff that you're talking about, even you're saying you're going to hire the best person for the job, you're going to do whatever's right.
00:46:11.000 COVID, you're going to do the right thing for the business rather than what the media tells you.
00:46:14.000 It's actually a lot easier to do that as a private company than it is as a public company, because you got the Blackrocks. 1.00
00:46:21.000 I don't know for sure, but Blackrocks probably owns a good number of shares of your company, too. 0.77
00:46:23.000 Nobody fucks with me over here. 0.88
00:46:24.000 I do my thing. 0.92
00:46:26.000 You know, they let me run this business, and, you know, I... That's kind of the understanding you had ever since.
00:46:33.000 That's it.
00:46:34.000 And I have this incredible relationship with my people, so it all works.
00:46:38.000 Nothing's gonna stop you, though.
00:46:39.000 Nothing's gonna stop you.
00:46:40.000 What would be...
00:46:41.000 We'll maybe close on this is, Say you're talking to a younger version of yourself, that 19-year-old at, you know, valet at the hotel in Boston.
00:46:52.000 Okay.
00:46:53.000 Or say it's one of the 25-year-olds who's fighting here today but may have the aspiration to become what you've become today.
00:47:02.000 What advice would you give them of something you would have done differently to get here?
00:47:06.000 There's nothing I would have done differently because it obviously worked out pretty good.
00:47:10.000 Yep.
00:47:11.000 What my advice I would give is don't listen to anyone.
00:47:14.000 Everybody tells you...
00:47:15.000 That's the best piece of advice.
00:47:17.000 Don't listen to me, don't listen to anybody.
00:47:18.000 Don't listen to anyone. 1.00
00:47:21.000 Everybody's full of shit. 1.00
00:47:22.000 Nobody knows you or what you're capable of doing. 1.00
00:47:26.000 And here's the reality.
00:47:28.000 The hardest thing in life is figuring out who you are and what you want to do for the rest of your life.
00:47:34.000 It's a big decision.
00:47:35.000 I'm very blessed and lucky.
00:47:38.000 I always knew who I was and exactly what I wanted to do.
00:47:40.000 And once you figure that out, you wake up every day and you work toward it.
00:47:45.000 That's what you do.
00:47:46.000 It's impossible for you to fail if you know who you are, what you want to do, and you wake up every day and work toward it.
00:47:55.000 See, that's beautiful.
00:47:57.000 I think the hardest part for so many of those young people, maybe for those young fighters or for that younger version of yourself, is actually that first question of even answering who you are.
00:48:08.000 100%.
00:48:09.000 Once you figure that out, then your home stretch, right?
00:48:12.000 It's all smooth sailing from there.
00:48:14.000 Think about this.
00:48:15.000 That's the hard part, though.
00:48:16.000 If you go to any college anywhere in the world, right, and you meet 10 college students, and you say, hey, what are you taking?
00:48:25.000 I'm taking political science right now, but I'm thinking of switching to marketing.
00:48:29.000 You were told that if you didn't go to college, you would never amount to anything, okay? 0.97
00:48:34.000 Then you get to college, and you're taking these classes because you were told you had to go here anyway, but you don't really know what you want to do and don't know who you are, so at the end of the day, you end up with a degree that you can't use because you don't know what the fuck you want to do. 0.97
00:48:47.000 Right? 0.96
00:48:48.000 And the worst part is, in the last 10 years, the people who are coming out are not just coming out with the useless degree.
00:48:55.000 They're coming out with $120,000 of debt on their shoulders that they're not able to pay off.
00:49:00.000 Yep.
00:49:01.000 Because they're not able to.
00:49:02.000 Is a college degree a requirement to work here?
00:49:04.000 No.
00:49:05.000 Yeah, probably for the better.
00:49:06.000 I want gritty, talented people, exactly, that are willing to work.
00:49:10.000 And I'm telling you, I'm so lucky to have the team that I have.
00:49:15.000 The hardest thing is, hopefully you're helping people do that here, is figure out who you are.
00:49:20.000 You said figure out who you are and then don't listen to anybody.
00:49:23.000 But that's what I think so many people, including young people, are struggling with today is, how do I go about figuring out who I am when I'm conditioned?
00:49:32.000 To believe something that I'm taught about myself.
00:49:35.000 That's the key.
00:49:36.000 It's the key to life.
00:49:37.000 You truly want to be happy?
00:49:38.000 You know what I mean?
00:49:39.000 I posted this thing yesterday.
00:49:40.000 Create a life that you can't wake up to every day.
00:49:44.000 You know?
00:49:44.000 And that is, in a nutshell, me.
00:49:46.000 I can't wait to get out of it.
00:49:48.000 Say it again?
00:49:48.000 Create a life that you...
00:49:50.000 Can't wait to wake up to it.
00:49:52.000 Can't wait to wake up to it.
00:49:53.000 I love that.
00:49:53.000 You know what I mean?
00:49:54.000 Yes.
00:49:55.000 That's good.
00:49:56.000 You seem like the kind of guy who fits that.
00:49:58.000 I think we have more in common than I knew about.
00:50:01.000 Oh, I could tell.
00:50:01.000 I saw you and heard you and everything else.
00:50:05.000 Love what you're doing.
00:50:06.000 Congrats with your success.
00:50:08.000 Thank you.
00:50:08.000 On my side, we'll figure out what's coming up next.
00:50:11.000 It's going to be helping this country in whatever way I can.
00:50:14.000 Whether you're an entrepreneur in politics, not just about whatever it is, fighting business, being a teacher, a volunteer, whatever it is, figuring out who you are is the hardest part.
00:50:26.000 But once you got that, nobody's going to stop you from achieving the maximum of your potential.
00:50:30.000 That's exactly right.
00:50:31.000 And if you do become vice president, president someday, it's about unifying this country, making people proud again to be American, and helping American citizens to do better.
00:50:42.000 It's just...
00:50:44.000 That's the way I look at it.
00:50:46.000 And you know the piece of advice you gave at the level of the individual?
00:50:48.000 Figure out who you are.
00:50:49.000 It's the same advice to our nation.
00:50:51.000 So true.
00:50:52.000 Let's figure out who we are as Americans.
00:50:55.000 It means that we're exceptional.
00:50:56.000 It means that we believe we can achieve anything we want with our own hard work and commitment and dedication.
00:51:01.000 Right now, that's what we're going through as a country.
00:51:03.000 Every other country you say, from China to India to other countries you name Australia that are proud of who they are.
00:51:08.000 Right now, it's almost like we have forgotten who we are.
00:51:12.000 Figure that out.
00:51:12.000 It's almost the advice to a young person that you give is the same advice I would give to the country.
00:51:16.000 Figure out who you are and then don't listen to what anybody else from the media to another country tells you to the UN that tells you what you're supposed to do.
00:51:24.000 Figure out who you are.
00:51:26.000 Don't listen to anybody and follow your actual purpose.
00:51:29.000 And that's what it's going to be for our country as well.
00:51:31.000 100%.
00:51:31.000 You know who we are?
00:51:33.000 We're a melting pot of lots of different peoples from all over the world, different nationalities, different religions and races and everything else.
00:51:40.000 And it's like when we were going through COVID, I was like, I'm an American. 0.83
00:51:44.000 I don't fucking hide my house from anything. 0.94
00:51:47.000 We don't hide. 0.99
00:51:48.000 We're first.
00:51:49.000 We get out there.
00:51:50.000 We overcome.
00:51:52.000 We adapt. 1.00
00:51:53.000 We figure out solutions to problems, and we kick fucking ass. 1.00
00:51:57.000 That's what we've done since. 1.00
00:51:58.000 Since the day this country was formed.
00:52:00.000 Since 1776. Exactly.
00:52:01.000 That's what we've been doing, and we're not going to stop now.
00:52:03.000 We're the explorers, we're the pioneers, the unafraid, the people who would not be stopped by some king sitting across an ocean halfway around the world.
00:52:12.000 And so let's not be that country today either.
00:52:14.000 Let's be the country that's unafraid.
00:52:16.000 Boom! 0.99
00:52:16.000 And to people like you, that's going to take us there, man. 0.99
00:52:18.000 Keep doing what you're doing.
00:52:20.000 Likewise.
00:52:20.000 Don't let anybody stop.
00:52:21.000 You don't apologize for who you are, what you're doing.
00:52:24.000 This place is awesome.
00:52:25.000 I'm pumped up from just the tour that we took before we came in here.
00:52:29.000 I want to come to a fight.
00:52:30.000 Anytime.
00:52:31.000 Love to have you.
00:52:32.000 Awesome.
00:52:33.000 We'll make that happen.
00:52:34.000 And maybe if you do that thing with the basketball team in Maine.
00:52:37.000 Yeah.
00:52:38.000 Tell them I got their back, too.
00:52:40.000 Done.
00:52:41.000 Be excellent.
00:52:42.000 And if you do that, maybe I'll come out here for it.
00:52:44.000 I'd love it.
00:52:44.000 Have fun with that.
00:52:45.000 Awesome.
00:52:45.000 It's good seeing you, brother.
00:52:46.000 Thanks for your time, buddy.
00:52:47.000 Thank you for taking time.