In the debut episode of "What's Your Story? With Steph McMahon,” UFC President and CEO Dana White chats about his humble beginnings, the early rivalry between WWE and the UFC, parenthood, and why stand-up comedy is the one thing he will NEVER try again. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts and guest of this episode?
This is What's Your Story with Steph McMahon, brought to you by Fanatics. And this is really exciting. It's our first episode. A pretty quick turnaround. We're doing this interview on Wednesday, and it's dropping on Thursday. Very exciting with none other than the president and CEO of UFC, Dana White.
But first, I would like to introduce my co-host and best friend, Elise Dudzinski, not Govan as it was originally.
Formerly.
Yes, formerly. Yes, yes. And still your email is?
Yes. I'll work on that. Gmail. I feel like it's tricky to change. Yes.
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Chapter 2: What is Elise Dudzinski's background and personal story?
So I had the honor and the privilege of growing up in the world of WWE. Literally, it's been my whole entire life from meeting Andre the Giant when I was three years old to having the Ultimate Warrior stay in our house for three weeks to... becoming a character in the show, an executive in the company, and ultimately a co-CEO and chairwoman for a brief period of time.
And Elise really rode that ladder with me, and totally by my side, first as my assistant, first as an assistant in talent relations, and then you worked with my husband, Paul, and when I saw you there, because his assistant was on maternity leave, I said, oh, yeah, when she comes back, I want Elise. And I never let you go. And you ultimately became Nick, who Nick Kahn was my co-CEO.
You became our chief of staff and you were amazing and incredible. And it's been an awesome journey. And I can't wait for this new one with you, Elise.
Thank you for the introduction. Yeah, I mean. I obviously have always been in a role where I'm a bit behind the scenes. So, you know, doing my best when we were at WWE together to make you look your best, right?
And give me like a horse, like a pile of shit. Shit. Yes.
Yes. I can also say, though, that I constantly would eat what we like to call shit sandwiches.
True. You did.
Many. Yes. Many. You totally said that. But we ate them together. We did. Delicious.
Delectable. Shit sandwiches. That's why I'm wearing brown. No, but it's a beautiful brown. It is not a shit brown. It's not. It's like a mocha. I don't know why I did that to myself.
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Chapter 3: How did Elise and Steph's friendship support them through personal challenges?
All week. Yes. God bless. And my in-laws. But he and I met in college. We have been together ever since. And we have two beautiful children. My son, Chase, is five and a half. And our daughter, Liv. is one and a half. And since this is the beginning, I'm just going to kind of put myself out there.
So when we, without totally like slobbering all over myself, when we were, I was 33 weeks pregnant, we found out that Some stuff was going on with my daughter's growth and we were told that she had skeletal dysplasia and that it might potentially be lethal, which no one ever wants to hear. And for the next six weeks, which, by the way, like the final weeks of your pregnancy feel like two years.
So now let's just be stressed for six weeks.
wondering you know what what she's going to be and who she's going to be and she um she we could have got tests done while she was still in my belly we decided not to because we figured no matter who she is we're gonna love her but we you know I had some time to kind of mentally prepare and go through every possible emotion um and she was born uh one week early with dwarfism
So she is a little person, which is the craziest thing because we have a son who's five and a half years old and he's a normal height or, you know, average height kid. And we didn't know that that was possible to have a little girl with dwarfism. But I mean, she is happy and healthy and she has changed our lives for the absolute best.
And what did Ryan say to you when you first heard? He told me that he said we were made to be her parents.
Yes, without a doubt, we were chosen. And there was, you know, moments where I went through, like, this is not a life I ever pictured for myself. Why me? And he was like, it needed to be us. Um, and we have just learned so much. We, we have, you know, become a part of this community that I never even knew existed. And, um, she's, she's going to be great. I mean, she's the cutest. She is amazing.
Oh my gosh. With her happy feet. Oh my God. Yes. She like clicks her little feet together. It's her cutest. Um, yeah, so she's, she is amazing. And I think. And her story has changed us in the best possible way, right? Like, no matter how bad you think stuff is going for you, like, it could always be worse.
And her story has changed so many people already, our friends and family that have come together over her and her differences. And Chase, we're, you know, trying to explain. He's pretty young and we're trying to explain. And he now says, like, my sister's different, but she's perfect.
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Chapter 4: Who is Dana White and what is his connection to Boston and boxing?
I feel like it's important to know it is and why this is happening. That's right. That's right.
So thanks for that.
Yes. Light. So without further ado then, I think we should introduce our very first guest. All right. All right. I think now that we got a lot out. Yeah. We did. I mean, I have nothing left to share. I know that's not true. Okay. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the most controversial and iconic businessmen in the world.
He is an entrepreneur on the board of Meta and media mogul and president and CEO of the UFC, Dana White. I tried to do like, you know, the Shannon Sharp introduction, but I don't think I nailed it. No, I think. No, it wasn't quite there. Do it again. No. Fine. See, this is what I deal with. No. Ever wanted to meet your favorite WWE superstars up close?
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Don't miss your moment. Where are you from? You're from Connecticut too?
I was born in Massachusetts. What part? Swansea. Where? I grew up in Fall River.
Okay, I know Fall River. Fall River. Yeah, so it's funny when you, you know, people say Massachusetts and, you know, mostly everybody says Boston when they're not from Boston and, you know, they live on the outskirts or whatever, but you know where?
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Chapter 5: What was the early rivalry between WWE and UFC like?
Yeah. So he was like a... He ended up with like a bronze in the training, but so didn't make it to the Olympics, but it was like a big deal. I was born in 89, that's when he stopped. So growing up, it was like we'd watch videos and stuff of him, but I'd never actually saw him box, right? And it was very cool to be like, I'm doing a book report on my uncle who...
At one point, there was like a billboard that said, welcome to Fall River, home of the U.S. Olympic boxer David Govind.
That's awesome.
Which is really cool because it was not the greatest city and that kind of gave him a little hope. So that's my... Gave a lot of people hope. I mean, yeah. So my cool tie to boxing, and they did a remake of this photo, which I don't have, but it's the same group of guys all doing this four years ago. They look very different. Very different now.
Very cool.
Isn't that super cool? And just, you know, obviously did a lot of research before, you know, talking to you today and getting to hear some of your other podcasts. You were on Rogan like 10 years ago, talking about how much you loved boxing, you know, and how you loved it in Boston especially. Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be sitting here right now if it wasn't for boxing. Boxing is what got me here. So, you know, Lorenzo and I always thought that we would be promoting boxing, and then we started taking jiu-jitsu, and then the whole UFC thing happened. But so much connection to you and your family because... You know, I had heard so many times. It's weird.
I was I wasn't thinking about the podcast today, but I was thinking about your brother today. And basically, there was this rumor out there that your brother wanted to buy the UFC and he thought that it could be big or whatever. And your father didn't believe in it. Your father wouldn't do it. I don't know if that's true, but that's the... There's a little bit of truth in that.
The legend out there. Shane's always been a huge fan, right? Always, always. And I was usually on the receiving end of many practice maneuvers because I was like his little brother. But also there was, you know, a different vision, right? Like you have always had the vision for UFC, right?
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Chapter 6: How has Dana White embraced technology and streaming for UFC's growth?
And that shows in all of your decision making. I mean, throughout time, you've had programming on YouTube, you know, 10 years ago, 15 years ago.
I was doing video blogs and stuff like that before it was a thing. And now you're on the board of Meta.
I'm sure you're learning some fascinating stuff, and I'm really curious if you can share any of it in any form or fashion.
My first board meeting was unbelievable.
I bet.
Incredible, and I would say the thing that blew me, there's two things that blew me away, my first board meeting. First of all, how much Zuckerberg knows about his entire business. From every little, listen, I'll be honest, there's some shit going on at the UFC right now that I have no clue about, right? This guy knows every single thing that's going on in every single department.
It's fascinating. Um, and then, uh, was it always like that?
Or do you think that was a part of when he really made it meta and that transition? Because there's parallels of when he started taking jujitsu, right? And when he started maybe looking at things in a slightly different way.
So in my, in my time that I've become friends with Mark, what I've, what I've noticed about him is When he's into something, he's obsessed with it. He's obsessed with his business. There's no doubt about it. And now MMA, he's obsessed with and trains. If you have a conversation with him and we're talking about business, his business, he's hyper-focused and, you know,
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Chapter 7: What lessons does Dana White share about overcoming adversity and fatherhood?
Especially the boys. Yeah.
Especially the boys. Yeah. Not the girl? No. I've heard you believe in the double standard. She can stay as long as she wants to. So you didn't have necessarily the best, from what I understand, the best example of a dad when you were growing up. But you take fatherhood very, very seriously. Yeah. And there's a lot of men don't know, right, how to be a good dad. What advice would you have?
And I did have, listen, there's different ways to look at role models, right? Like you'll hear people say, I never had any role models growing up. Yeah, you did. You just didn't look at it that way.
Yeah, perspective.
I learned a lot from my dad. I learned a lot of things. that I didn't want to be and how I didn't want to act and not just him, but can't put it all on him. I had uncles and aunts and all kinds of people that, that, that showed me, uh, what I did or didn't want to do.
And, and, and I've always been good at that, at looking things, looking at things for what they are and not being a victim, you know, while I was growing up, I didn't realize it was, you know, the way it was. It wasn't until, and even my relationship with my dad, um, I went through that phase when you get into your 20s. I'm like, it's my father. You know, it's my father. It's my father.
Then I had kids, and I was like, holy shit, wait a minute. This is the way you're supposed to feel about your kids? You know, so, you know, anything in life, nobody's life is perfect. Nobody's life is whatever, but you take the good with the bad, and you figure it out.
And you figure out who do you want to be and what kind of a life do you want to live and is the family thing important to you, the kids important to you and all that stuff. It's your life, you know. My dad was one of these guys that in many ways was just very selfish and he wanted to party and wanted to do the things that he wanted to do and that is what it is. We turned out fine. I'm good.
My sister's good. It's a really good point though, to know what you don't want. And I say that to my kids all the time with any experience, right? Absolutely right. With any experience. Yes. Yeah.
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Chapter 8: How does authenticity and personal values contribute to Dana White's success?
I've been coming to this restaurant since I was a little girl. My family would take us here and all this stuff. And I'm, I'm looking at this lady. I'm like, where the fuck is this going? Why is she over here? Whatever. Um, and, um, she says, you know, tells us the history of this place. And she says, uh,
you guys should have a little self-respect and, and you should, you should, you should, uh, you know, you should dress up when you come to a place like this and just start. And I'm like, and then all of a sudden my brain goes off and like, Oh, she's like, she's insulting us. She's like, I said, why don't you shut the fuck up and go back over to your table and mind your business and whatever.
And she looked at me with this look like that was not She was expecting to hear, right? She thought we were going to say, you know what, ma'am? You're right. We should have a little more self-respect. So then she goes over and she goes back to her table and sits down. And I'm like... Can you believe that just happened?
What husband would let his wife come over to a table full of gorillas and fucking say this? So I'm the whole... I'm sitting there through the whole dinner going, I should have said this. And these guys were all like, no, no, no. You handled it fine. Yeah, you did really well. I've been crazy for like three days, but... I knew I didn't.
But I think everybody has had that moment where, you know, you wish you said something else, but it happens.
Yeah. But you said something. I mean, you did. It's not like you were quiet. No, I was not quiet. No. So one time I'll tell a story on my father. We were walking and we were in Westport by this outdoor place, you know, near Starbucks. And we're talking about something as this lady is walking by and she's dressed very nicely and has this hat on and everything.
And he's saying something like, Jesus Christ, or, you know, something like that. And all of a sudden, this woman jumps in between us and puts her finger out and says to my father, don't you take the Lord's name in vain. And I'm like, oh, shit. And he goes, lady, why don't you take your God and stick him straight up your ass? Just like that.
And this woman, I mean, the look on her face was priceless. It was so awesome. I will never forget that.
It's shocking how many nutty people are out there.
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