Dana White hails the UFC broadcast as the “absolute best in sports”, revealing that ‘production’ is one of four key areas that make up his day-to-day.
Speaking on the latest episode of the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Dana White argued that his best attribute is building quality broadcast teams, and that ‘production’ is actually one of the four key areas of his day-to-day job, in addition to the obvious matchmaking, scouting, and card building.
Dana White on how the UFC production team is the “best in sports”
If there is one thing that MMA fans can unanimously agree on, it’s that the quality and consistency of the UFC production can rival almost any sports broadcast or promotion in the world.
Speaking to Kamaru Usman and Henry Cejudo on the Pound 4 Pound podcast, Dana White hailed the team behind the lights, cameras, and action of the UFC:
“I’m at a point in my life where I do all the s*** I like to do and I only want to be aligned with people that I want to do f***** business with, from sponsorships to fighters to everything. [But] if you ask me what I think I’m really good at, it’s building great teams. That’s what I’m good at.”
White described his team as “second to none” when it comes to delivering high-quality production, even over more prominent and established sports: “I don’t give a f*** if you’re with the NFL or anybody, we smoke everybody in the sports business – this team here is the best in the world.”
White also revealed production is one of the four aspects of his day-to-day job that are paramount to keeping the ‘creative juices’ flowing:
“The only things I focus on a daily basis are finding new up-and-coming talent, matchmaking the best fights that we can make, putting them in the places they need to go, meaning is this fight in London or is this fight here, and production.”
“I focus on those things every single day that I’m here,” he said, pointing to the importance of maintaining production quality: “If you don’t f*** that up, you can’t f*** this thing up.
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A ‘filing cabinet’ is the most important room in the company
Interestingly, whilst the UFC’s superstars are formed in the octagon and on the microphone, White also shared how the real ‘magic’ happens behind the curtain and in an old filing cabinet, a.k.a. the War Room, where fights are put together.
“There’s a s**** room across the hall that was supposed to be a file cabinet closet and I turned it into the War Room.”
“Every Tuesday we meet in there, every day me, Sean [Shelby] and Hunter [Campbell] will go in there and just stare at the walls…It’s the most important room in the entire company.”
Ironically, the War Room has also seen its fair share of controversy over the past few years with various content creators accidentally leaking upcoming fights by including wide shots of the walls on video.