On Friday, May 16, 2013, AXS TV will be airing another episode of the “The Voice Versus,” where noted combat sports personality Michael “The Voice” Schiavello sits down for a candid, long-form interview with various subjects. What makes this episode so special, however, is that he’ll be sitting down with UFC President Dana White. I was lucky enough to be able to review the episode before it airs, and let me tell you, it’s worth tuning in if you have AXS TV.
The interview runs for about 53 minutes without commercials, and starts out with the Schiavello letting Dana know that he received pressure from the online community to play hardball with him, but would not. He did however, conduct an interesting and thorough interview and got Dana to open up on a variety of subjects, from how he perceives himself as a person, his family, his life growing up in Boston and some of the perceived gaffes the UFC has made. It’s actually a very interesting interview, and you get some of the gems we’ve come to expect from the filterless White, including describing his approach to interacting with people.
“If you wanna be a good guy, I’m a great guy. If you wanna be a bad guy, I’m the worst bad guy you ever met.”
“I like swearing. It bothers me when people talk about swearing. We’re all adults here.”
He reveals his thoughts on which sport is full of better people, boxing and MMA, and why it relates to his desire to keep as much of the UFC’s financial dealings with its fighters private.
“It’s one of the reasons I keep the money, the numbers out of what guys really make away from the public. As soon as people find out how much we really pay these athletes, that’s when all the creepy, slimy guys start slithering their way into mixed martial arts.”
Dana also opens up about his own experiences with steroids as a young man, and discusses how it felt for him.
“When you do that shit you feel like Superman. Y’know, cuz I did. When I was that age and I did it, I felt like I was Superman, you feel invincible. But the long term effects of it, when you get off it, it does the exact opposite. When you’re on it, you feel like Superman, once you’re off it, you feel like fuckin’ Lois Lane.”
White even reveals one of the craziest requests to come out of negotiating with Vadim Finkelstein (or anybody ever), which was.
“Building an arena. He wanted us to build an arena in Russia.”
This interview is really worth checking out, and you can do so tonight on AXS TV at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT. To order AXS TV, please contact your cable or satellite provider.
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