Speaker 1: Hi, Ike Boris and this is straight talk. Hey guys,
Speaker 1: we're a dear Circuit Crown Sydney. What a place, what
Speaker 1: a joint, how gatful, how good? And welcome Premier. Thanks,
Speaker 1: I'm welcome, Dana, thank you, thanks for coming to our town.
Speaker 2: Oh it's good to be here.
Speaker 1: Thanks for bringing UFC to our town again.
Speaker 3: I love it. Love this town, beautiful, love it. Crowd
Speaker 3: here is great. Tons of fans been cruising around last
Speaker 3: couple of days. Lots of lots of UFC fans here
Speaker 3: in Sydney.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well the mental for it, and I think to
Speaker 1: some extent we've got to thank the premiere for the
Speaker 1: and destination of New South Wales for doing the partnership
Speaker 1: with UFC. In relation to so, thank you Premier. So
Speaker 1: what's behind that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, we love it.
Speaker 5: I love the UFC for years and years, and when
Speaker 5: we were in opposition not in government, we were huge
Speaker 5: fans of it. For some reason, the previous government didn't
Speaker 5: try and grab UFC pitch it into Sydney. But it's
Speaker 5: been fantastic for crowds, great for the economy, and I
Speaker 5: also think there's a lot of young fighters that have
Speaker 5: come through as a result of the big promotions that
Speaker 5: have that have already taken place, so hopefully we can
Speaker 5: get it for for a few more years.
Speaker 3: He's been a champ for us, he's been he's been,
Speaker 3: you know, one of our biggest supporters. And yeah, I
Speaker 3: was just saying before we started this thing, it's incredible
Speaker 3: how fast it's exploded here and not just as far
Speaker 3: as fans go, and and you know, people flying in
Speaker 3: from all over the world for the events, but the
Speaker 3: talent here. You know, we started first started, you know,
Speaker 3: coming into Australia, there were like two guys Elvis Senisik
Speaker 3: was one of them. And now there's multiple world champions, uh,
Speaker 3: top ten contenders. It's just it's blown up out here.
Speaker 3: It's it's insane.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you, Chris some or should refuge
Speaker 1: his premier. I just I just want to ask you,
Speaker 1: what is it you like about the UFC, What do
Speaker 1: you like about mixed martial arts and what has the
Speaker 1: UFC brought say that you think is really able to
Speaker 1: be amplified in here in Sydney, for example.
Speaker 4: I always love boxing.
Speaker 5: I'm like you, I always loved it, thought it was fantastic,
Speaker 5: but you never get the matchups the absolute bouts that
Speaker 5: everyone wanted to see. It to be two or three
Speaker 5: years late, and then the UFC came through and the
Speaker 5: best in each division would be fighting twice a year,
Speaker 5: three times a year, and no one was able to
Speaker 5: duck a fight.
Speaker 4: And I saw what Dana was doing.
Speaker 5: I mean I probably jumped on during the Mendez McGregor era,
Speaker 5: saw it on television, thought it was awesome. I just
Speaker 5: got hooked from there. It was amazing.
Speaker 1: So Dana and Chris just mentioned something like Connor McGregor
Speaker 1: so importantly, how important is it for you, as the
Speaker 1: CEO of the UFC and the founder of the UFC
Speaker 1: to have characters like him from an point of view,
Speaker 1: like he's a great, he's a great at his craft
Speaker 1: and then't me wrong, but I'm just talking about the
Speaker 1: character of the individual.
Speaker 3: Well, the business is star driven, you know, when you
Speaker 3: have somebody, you know, we had George Aperr from Canada
Speaker 3: who ignited that entire country, Brandon Moreno down in Mexico,
Speaker 3: Wiley Jiang who's fighting here this weekend in China, Volkanovski
Speaker 3: and Izzy from this area. It's very star driven. So
Speaker 3: when you Econo McGregor, when you have like econom McGregor
Speaker 3: around a Rousey who are globally, you know, big superstars.
Speaker 3: That's that's what grows the sport, that's what makes people
Speaker 3: jump on board that might not have followed the UFC.
Speaker 2: It's very star driven.
Speaker 1: So but I think UFC is not just the fight game.
Speaker 1: It's sort of a brilliant game. And what I mean
Speaker 1: by that is that the way it's evolved from when
Speaker 1: you first started it, the way you use digital media,
Speaker 1: social media, the way you promote authenticity. You know, you're
Speaker 1: like the real deal, Like it takes something like Showy.
Speaker 1: Two of us are like, he's a legend here in Sydney. Tie.
Speaker 1: But the way you allow them to express themselves. You're
Speaker 1: not sort of sitting on people and not all the same.
Speaker 1: They're all different and that seems to drag fans and
Speaker 1: people love that stuff.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Thanks, we're actually just talking about that. You know, we
Speaker 3: don't stop them from being whoever they are. Sometimes it's good,
Speaker 3: sometimes it's not so good, but it is what it is.
Speaker 3: This is these are all grown men and women who
Speaker 3: have their own opinions and their own style of whatever
Speaker 3: it may be. The women make just as much money
Speaker 3: as the men do. You know, when you look at
Speaker 3: the UFC, it's it's it's very real and.
Speaker 2: Very fair.
Speaker 3: And you know when they talk about like the w
Speaker 3: n B A and in the United States right now, tennis, golf,
Speaker 3: all these other things. When Ronda Rowsey was here, Ronda
Speaker 3: Rowsey made more money than everybody until Connor McGregor hit
Speaker 3: the scene. She was the highest paid athlete in the
Speaker 3: company because she brought in the most money. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: the UFC is uh, I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 3: exactly how to explain it, but yeah.
Speaker 2: We don't.
Speaker 3: We don't tell anybody what to say, what not to say,
Speaker 3: what to do. They all have their own personalities. Whoever
Speaker 3: you are, that's what I'm selling. Wherever you come from,
Speaker 3: that's what I'm selling.
Speaker 1: So when you go to put people into the UFC,
Speaker 1: you've got your contendency or is he looking for individuals
Speaker 1: who are happy to express themselves like you know as
Speaker 1: part or.
Speaker 3: Just the skill skills you can you can be a
Speaker 3: deaf mute if you're a badass, That's what I'm interested in.
Speaker 3: I'm interested in how good are you at fighting? If
Speaker 3: you have a personality like Connor and Rhonda and these
Speaker 3: others that's just you know, it's good for you. It's
Speaker 3: a home run. Yeah, it doesn't suck.
Speaker 1: I think, and I don't know if you've been told
Speaker 1: this before, but some like you is. You are a
Speaker 1: great icon for people who are aspirational. And I think
Speaker 1: that's one of the reason why you've seen is successful
Speaker 1: at least in this country because Australians, a lot of
Speaker 1: Australians are aspirational, particularly the people I see come to
Speaker 1: the fights UFC fights and I've been to a number
Speaker 1: of them. Do you see that as something that drives
Speaker 1: you in your own life because you know, you, you know,
Speaker 1: you didn't start off as a multimillionaire or anything like that.
Speaker 1: You you work through the process and you've got you know,
Speaker 1: you had some good like your sold the UFC and
Speaker 1: you're now working in the UFC, et cetera. But your
Speaker 1: aspirational journey. Do you see how important that is relative
Speaker 1: to the UFC brand and do you live it?
Speaker 2: Hmm? Interesting?
Speaker 3: I I I love everything about this business. I love
Speaker 3: taking people that you see that you think have talent
Speaker 3: and finding out if they can become world champions. I
Speaker 3: love letting people be whoever they are. I love the
Speaker 3: fact that we can find the toughest people from every
Speaker 3: little place on Earth and they all get to come
Speaker 3: in and compete on the world stage. I love everything
Speaker 3: about this business. And yeah, I think that the UFC
Speaker 3: and it's at Fleets are very inspirational. And uh oh,
Speaker 3: these people that come from poverty and and all these
Speaker 3: different walks of life. And you know, like I said,
Speaker 3: it's not like we're in the United States or regionally.
Speaker 3: The whole world gets to compete. And when you, like
Speaker 3: he was saying earlier, when you become world champion here,
Speaker 3: there's no question you went. You ran through the gauntlet
Speaker 3: of the toughest people in the world, and there's no
Speaker 3: debating that you are the absolute best.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the UFC is I love what we have here,
Speaker 3: and I think it's very inspirational.
Speaker 1: And I think what the Premier is referring to is
Speaker 1: sometimes boxes can be managed. And you have a boxing background,
Speaker 1: so you know, it looks going to be many worst
Speaker 1: You're can just manage them through to a point and
Speaker 1: at some point they're going to have to fight up.
Speaker 3: But there's five or six different champions. None of them
Speaker 3: want to fight each other, you know, you know, the
Speaker 3: rankings are always more about money than they are about
Speaker 3: who is truly the best.
Speaker 2: We don't do that here.
Speaker 1: So you're talking a as the audience here, and probably
Speaker 1: you're talking to a global audience as well. But what
Speaker 1: makes Aussie fighters so good? What's your experience?
Speaker 3: I was just telling him again, but you know that
Speaker 3: this our image of Australia and in America was like
Speaker 3: crocodile Dundee type, you know, rough tough people here. Everything
Speaker 3: that exists that can kill you is here in the
Speaker 3: water or on land, from jellyfish to shark, snakes, spiders
Speaker 3: that they're all here. And Australia has looked at as
Speaker 3: this as this really tough place with tough people.
Speaker 1: It was, and then as a fight fan. I then
Speaker 1: look at the Dakistani's and some of these people from
Speaker 1: hestern Europe and I think, to my, so, my, oh
Speaker 1: my god, they're tough people too, Like seriously tough people.
Speaker 1: I mean, do you find that you have to find
Speaker 1: different characters from different regions to satisfy all your different
Speaker 1: customer basis, call it your audience.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 3: I think one of the things that's fascinating about this
Speaker 3: business is I'll give you an example, I just did
Speaker 3: a fight a couple of weeks ago in Los Angeles
Speaker 3: right with an Armenian and the main event was an
Speaker 3: Armenian and and and ah Dagistani Russian. Right now, Back
Speaker 3: in the day in boxing, you'd have had to have
Speaker 3: a Mexican in Los Angeles to to pull a crowd.
Speaker 3: And we were sold out and and and we set
Speaker 3: the record for that new arena. I can go to
Speaker 3: Arizona with a Brazilian and a and a Canadian. I
Speaker 3: can go to you know, anywhere in the world, even here.
Speaker 3: You know, we have an American versus the South African
Speaker 3: in the main event in Australia and it's sold out
Speaker 3: and and it's you know, it's fascinating because people just
Speaker 3: care about who the best in the world is that
Speaker 3: they don't have to be from Australia or from uh
Speaker 3: Los Angeles or whatever. It's it's uh, it's one of
Speaker 3: the cool things about this sport.
Speaker 1: And I think that that and I think that's a
Speaker 1: really good point because your point is that the way
Speaker 1: you structure the fights and said at a moment ago too,
Speaker 1: is you're going to be watching the best matched up
Speaker 1: against the best there's no bullshit around this place.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and it's it's actually weird because when we go
Speaker 3: into places and if if I had the card too
Speaker 3: full of Australians, Australia doesn't love Australia wants to see
Speaker 3: the people they watch on pay per view that they
Speaker 3: don't get the opportunity to see all the time. And
Speaker 3: it's like that when we go to Brazil, it's like that,
Speaker 3: when we go to Mexico, it's like that when we
Speaker 3: go to Canada. This is a very unique sport.
Speaker 5: But like but like boxing, you guys could have just
Speaker 5: stayed in Las Vegas and not moved.
Speaker 4: Was obviously a decision to say we're going around the world.
Speaker 2: The no brainers.
Speaker 3: Back in the day when we started this thing, it
Speaker 3: was you would do Las Vegas, Atlantic City, New York
Speaker 3: and La sometimes that that was what Boxing had done,
Speaker 3: but mostly Vegas and Atlantic City because you know they
Speaker 3: were paying for the events. But this that we we
Speaker 3: we felt differently. We took this thing everywhere all over
Speaker 3: the world. Even when we go to White Knights, we
Speaker 3: go to small towns and our live event is so good.
Speaker 3: For those of you that are watching this, if you've
Speaker 3: never been to a UFC live event. I guarantee you this.
Speaker 3: It is the most exciting live sporting event you will
Speaker 3: ever see. Nobody ever walks out of a live UFC
Speaker 3: event and goes, yeah, I don't ever want to come
Speaker 3: see one of these again. It's the exact opposite. We
Speaker 3: traveled this thing all over the world because we knew.
Speaker 3: Like you told me, your brother in law got you
Speaker 3: into the UFC. That's how it works. Somebody gets into
Speaker 3: it and then they turned three, four or five more
Speaker 3: people onto it, and once you go to the live event,
Speaker 3: it's over.
Speaker 2: We got you.
Speaker 1: Can we look at next this? Can we look at
Speaker 1: this Sunday and the main cards, Due Places and Strickland
Speaker 1: And there's been a lot said about it. I mean
Speaker 1: obvious seen Strickland jump over three or four people and
Speaker 1: get stuck into Due Places, and I interview Due Places
Speaker 1: last week and he's saying that he's confident that he's
Speaker 1: going to take it to the next level. He's saying
Speaker 1: that he's evolved, and Sewan has not evolved. As a fight,
Speaker 1: I'm talking that what are you expecting? Fly works?
Speaker 3: Well, I ran listen Sean Strickland for all of his
Speaker 3: you know, talking that he does when he gets into
Speaker 3: the the octagon. You know, he's got a very very
Speaker 3: good style. Nice jab always stays composed. I ranted the
Speaker 3: duplexity and the elevator at the hotel and his coach,
Speaker 3: and they were telling me, I mean, these guys do
Speaker 3: everything right, that they're actually really smart in how they
Speaker 3: approach everything. He got here. I'll give you an example.
Speaker 3: He got here over two weeks ago. To acclimate to
Speaker 3: the time and all the other things. I think that's
Speaker 3: one of the things that boxing has over us because
Speaker 3: we had such humble beginnings and we're only like thirty
Speaker 3: years old as a sport. These guys don't do the
Speaker 3: things that boxers do. Like when you were a boxer
Speaker 3: at that level making that kind of money and you
Speaker 3: were the main event, the camp was all built around you.
Speaker 3: You had your own camp, your own training partners. You
Speaker 3: would get into a place early. You know, like I said,
Speaker 3: to acclimate, whether it's to altitude or time differences, or
Speaker 3: temperature or humidity, all these different things play a factor
Speaker 3: in the fight. And I think Dupless's camp did a
Speaker 3: great job of getting here early. Ronda Rousey when she
Speaker 3: flew over here to Australia and lost to Holly Home.
Speaker 3: She came straight from filming a movie, got here three
Speaker 3: days before the fight. I had a hard time making
Speaker 3: weight because of it and obviously the time difference, and
Speaker 3: you saw how that fight ended for Ronda. Dupless's really
Speaker 3: him and his team and his coach is brilliant, have
Speaker 3: a great game plan coming into this fight.
Speaker 4: I remember you saying that Australia is the home of
Speaker 4: the upset too.
Speaker 2: It's truely, it really is that. That is true.
Speaker 3: And I think all of the things that I just
Speaker 3: mentioned are part of the reason. They're all factors in it.
Speaker 3: And Dupless's camp knows that, and and have really looked
Speaker 3: at this thing like professional boxing does, and and and
Speaker 3: how they set up their whole camp and their strategy
Speaker 3: to come into Australia.
Speaker 1: And you just it's interesting to mention that Chris the
Speaker 1: Austraight as the home of the upset. Last weekend, I
Speaker 1: was tuning into Easy's fight is well it's fight and
Speaker 1: there was an upset for me anyway, he got knocked
Speaker 1: out and t k O in the second round. I
Speaker 1: think it was is he yeah, yeah? And would surprise
Speaker 1: you because I saw an interview later and you said
Speaker 1: you didn't expect it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, listen, is he looked incredible in the first round,
Speaker 3: absolutely pecking them apart, chopping the calf, kick the whole round.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: At the at the end of that first round his
Speaker 3: face was all busted up, his leg was busted up.
Speaker 3: And is he got caught in the second round. Anybody
Speaker 3: can get caught with a big punch. But yeah, what's
Speaker 3: what's the question you're asking? No, anybody can get caught.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and that's sort of the point. Anybody can you
Speaker 1: get caught? And that's a that's sort of the point
Speaker 1: about dupless it because Strickland is a dangerous, a dangerous fighter,
Speaker 1: and he's a good defensive fighter, but he can get dangerous.
Speaker 3: One now he's going to get in there and mix
Speaker 3: it up with him and you know, yeah, it's going
Speaker 3: to be a great fight.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So Australians love toe to toe and we are we
Speaker 1: are sort of I would say aggressive, but at least
Speaker 1: the fight fans are we like to see it rip in.
Speaker 1: We like to see guys rip in. And I said
Speaker 1: to du PLESSI would you stand to to tone to him?
Speaker 1: He said absolutely. And you know what's something very interesting.
Speaker 4: He said to me.
Speaker 1: I said to him, are you prepared to die in
Speaker 1: the ring? He said, I'm prepared to die? And he said,
Speaker 1: I'm prepared. I know that I have to be prepared
Speaker 1: to kill someone who said that Dricas and I and
Speaker 1: I said, and he looked me straight in the eye
Speaker 1: and with that south that really strong South African look
Speaker 1: that he has, and I actually believed him.
Speaker 3: And uh and uh, all of these guys, I mean,
Speaker 3: if you go in and you're you're you're going to
Speaker 3: stand toe to toe for five rounds and remember you
Speaker 3: can punch me elbow, take a shin to the head.
Speaker 3: I mean, these people are wired differently than the rest
Speaker 3: of us. That that's what makes professional fighters and especially
Speaker 3: in MMA so different as far as humans go. There's
Speaker 3: this many of them right here that become world champions
Speaker 3: and have that type of mindset. They're not wired like
Speaker 3: you and I. They're different. They're special human beings. And yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean I think that's that's all of their mindset
Speaker 3: when they go in and fight.
Speaker 1: So the octagon is is really is a true battlefield,
Speaker 1: like it's a true then I think that's part of
Speaker 1: its appeal. Could actually this and I'll ask you too, premium,
Speaker 1: really unbelievably great fighters. Who is the number one? Is
Speaker 1: it John Jones? Who are we talking about? Who do
Speaker 1: you think?
Speaker 3: You know the answer to this question, it's it's absolutely
Speaker 3: positively John Jones. John Jones is the best ever. You know,
Speaker 3: it's become this running oak almost now. But listen, nobody
Speaker 3: can debate it. Nobody can debate that John Jones is
Speaker 3: the greatest to ever live. He is, uh he And
Speaker 3: I don't just say this in UFC, in MMA ever
Speaker 3: in the history. You know, if you look at his
Speaker 3: skill set and what he's able to do compared to
Speaker 3: boxers or anybody else that's ever fought, John Jones beats everybody.
Speaker 1: I've actually seen him wristle or do jiu jitsu with
Speaker 1: Gordon right, and he's even with someone like him on
Speaker 1: the floor. He's unbelievable. Yeah, he's quite incredible.
Speaker 2: John Jones the best ever.
Speaker 1: So he's only got a couple more years, I guess.
Speaker 1: But how do you do how do you find the
Speaker 1: next person who will be the great the greatest ever?
Speaker 3: Well, what you do is you keep going out and
Speaker 3: one of the things here's what I do for a living,
Speaker 3: every day when I go to work. When you have
Speaker 3: a brand like the UFC, there's all these ancillary businesses
Speaker 3: that come off of it, from merchandise to video games,
Speaker 3: to gyms, et cetera, et cetera. All that stuff is
Speaker 3: whatever it is. When I go to work every day,
Speaker 3: I focus on the core of this business, and the
Speaker 3: core is finding up and coming talent, putting on the
Speaker 3: best fights that we could possibly put on, making sure
Speaker 3: the live event is absolutely perfect, and making sure that
Speaker 3: what you see on television is the best that we
Speaker 3: could possibly do. As long as I focus on that
Speaker 3: every day, you can't mess this business up, it just
Speaker 3: continues to get bigger and better.
Speaker 5: And because you don't protect the thought is because everybody
Speaker 5: has to protect their belts. You do have to make
Speaker 5: sure that you've got a pool system or a farm
Speaker 5: system of people coming through all the time.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, that's what you know. One of the big
Speaker 3: things that I that I work on, whether from the
Speaker 3: Ultimate Fighter to the Contender series, the show I'm Looking
Speaker 3: for a Fight exactly, all of those things are designed
Speaker 3: to not only go out and find the young, up
Speaker 3: and coming talent, but how do we how do.
Speaker 2: We make them big?
Speaker 4: Right?
Speaker 3: Outside, right right out the gate. How do you think
Speaker 3: about this? The Contender series, millions of people see these
Speaker 3: people fight before they even step foot in the UFC. Yeah,
Speaker 3: So it's all about finding talent and making sure that
Speaker 3: the live product that we present is the best that
Speaker 3: it can possibly be.
Speaker 1: I think a lot a lot of people, in particular strainers,
Speaker 1: And because people talk to me all the time about it,
Speaker 1: they see you as as Daniel Waters, somebody's made a
Speaker 1: lot of money some some years ago, and he's you know,
Speaker 1: he's running the running the show these days. And they
Speaker 1: asked the question, what gets him up in the morning,
Speaker 1: Why does he go to work? Why the hell does
Speaker 1: he do it? I mean, I have my own views
Speaker 1: on those things, but I'd love to know what drives you?
Speaker 1: What is it? What's the deal I have this?
Speaker 3: It's like people always ask me, do you ever look
Speaker 3: around and say, oh you did, you know, look at
Speaker 3: what we've done.
Speaker 2: I don't.
Speaker 3: I'm always looking to I think that every day when
Speaker 3: you get out of bed, you should try to be
Speaker 3: better than you were yesterday, whether it's physically, professionally, mentally,
Speaker 3: every day when you get up, try to be better
Speaker 3: than you were yesterday. And the same thing about the business.
Speaker 3: The business is it's not Look how big this event
Speaker 3: was that we did yesterday. What can we do tomorrow
Speaker 3: that's bigger than this. I'm just always trying to take
Speaker 3: everything to another level.
Speaker 1: Where do you get the drive from?
Speaker 3: Though?
Speaker 1: So, but you were some little kid growing up thinking
Speaker 1: to myself, I want to be this dude? Or is
Speaker 1: it just the vitality you get from it?
Speaker 3: Like he has no idea. I have no idea how
Speaker 3: or why or any of that, just what I love
Speaker 3: to do. It's like, you know, I started power slap.
Speaker 3: I saw slapping on on Instagram in twenty seventeen and
Speaker 3: this guy dumpling out of Siberia, Russia. And what I
Speaker 3: saw was is that what I noticed, I wanted to
Speaker 3: see who won. I stayed around long enough to who
Speaker 3: won it. As I started to take a deeper dive
Speaker 3: into it, I said, I think I'm gonna do this.
Speaker 3: And you know, obviously it wasn't very popular idea with
Speaker 3: a lot of people, and a lot of people didn't
Speaker 3: love it. But it's the fastest most successful thing that
Speaker 3: I've ever been a part of. We just did one
Speaker 3: in Saudi Arabia. It was our first one there. The
Speaker 3: next day when I went to meat Shake Turkey, he
Speaker 3: was going crazy over it. It killed it. It did four point
Speaker 3: two million viewers. It was the biggest first of all.
Speaker 3: This thing is a juggernaut on social media. It was
Speaker 3: the biggest one we'd ever done on social media. And
Speaker 3: he just signed up for five more. He ordered five
Speaker 3: more events in Saudi four this year and one in America.
Speaker 3: Why am I doing that? I don't need to do that.
Speaker 3: Why am I doing this? I could have retired in sixteen,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean? I don't know. This is
Speaker 3: just what I love to do. I love to build brands.
Speaker 3: I love to do things that people say can't be done,
Speaker 3: and I'd like to just I don't even think we've
Speaker 3: scraped it's the surface on how big the UFC is
Speaker 3: going to be in the next ten years. We got
Speaker 3: a new rights deal coming up. There's a ton of
Speaker 3: places that we haven't been in a long time, and
Speaker 3: there's some places we've never been, like South Africa, like Spain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I love to build.
Speaker 1: It's if I look at what you built, like it
Speaker 1: is a jugging what it really is? How How big
Speaker 1: are we talking about? Like how many employees would you
Speaker 1: have across the globe?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean god, including you know, uh employees and
Speaker 3: uh people that we contract. I mean.
Speaker 2: Thousands, Yeah, thousands of people.
Speaker 1: So you are sort of to some extent, you are
Speaker 1: helping economies. So I'm going to get back to you,
Speaker 1: Chris Well.
Speaker 3: The economic impact we have when we come into cities
Speaker 3: all over the world is massive.
Speaker 1: And that's what I want to find out, Like, is
Speaker 1: is that the reason? Why? Is that one of the
Speaker 1: reasons Chris, why you do a partnership with UFC, whether
Speaker 1: you said thought I was government does a bunch of UFC.
Speaker 5: Impact It is in part I mean we get a
Speaker 5: big economic multiplier from the UFC coming here. People come in,
Speaker 5: they spend money, tourists, they have a good time. They
Speaker 5: don't just go to the fights. They make a weekend
Speaker 5: of it, which is fantastic for the city. But also,
Speaker 5: I don't have a problem with this, but we spend
Speaker 5: a lot of money on opera and classical music and
Speaker 5: a ballet company. But the truth is there's millions of
Speaker 5: people in Sydney and New South Wales that don't aren't
Speaker 5: particularly into that, but love MMA and love the UFC
Speaker 5: and Ultimately, we want to bring events that they can
Speaker 5: go to, that they can feel part of, and so
Speaker 5: I think it's got to be equitable. I'm very democratic
Speaker 5: about these things.
Speaker 1: That's for interesting. You actually have a view on making
Speaker 1: things equitable in terms of entertainment. Basically, yes, absolutely.
Speaker 5: I mean the second part of this, as we talked
Speaker 5: about earlier, is that we find it hard to get through,
Speaker 5: particularly to young men, about dropping their devices, their electronic devices,
Speaker 5: getting off the sofa, getting out of the house, and
Speaker 5: as I said a lot to the media in New
Speaker 5: South Wales and Australia, they don't a lot of people
Speaker 5: don't understand the life that you have to live to
Speaker 5: be an MMA fighter. You have to be incredibly scrupulous
Speaker 5: with your diet, the fitness. It's all encompassing and it's
Speaker 5: ultimately a very clean, living, outward ambitious life. And I
Speaker 5: think that they're good values, genuinely good values for a
Speaker 5: lot of young people to have and frankly, mark a
Speaker 5: government advertising campaign on me putting out a media release
Speaker 5: is not going to cut it. I mean, if these
Speaker 5: fighters can get through to young people about living the
Speaker 5: kind of life that's positive, it's a fantastic thing for
Speaker 5: the state.
Speaker 1: That's actually that has to be call a really good
Speaker 1: call too, especially for New South Wales. Dana talking about health,
Speaker 1: I see that I was looking at something where you
Speaker 1: did a fast You're into your health and you did
Speaker 1: something with Gary Brecker.
Speaker 2: Yeah you look.
Speaker 1: I couldn't believe it like you. I saw you with
Speaker 1: the show off. Unbelievable before and after. How important is
Speaker 1: health to you in order to do your job?
Speaker 2: It's everything.
Speaker 3: Honestly, before I met Gary Breca, I was having a
Speaker 3: lot of problems. I couldn't do what I'm doing right now.
Speaker 3: I've been on the road now for two weeks. I
Speaker 3: couldn't have done this three years ago before I met Gary. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it's fascinating. I'm into fasting. I literally there's two. I
Speaker 3: went to a couple of saunas here. You know, I'm
Speaker 3: into the sauna now. You do like one hundred and
Speaker 3: eighty five degrees for twenty minutes. You guys got some
Speaker 3: saunas here that are no joke like these old school.
Speaker 3: I was in Chinatown last night in the sauna that
Speaker 3: the last five minutes of doing twenty minutes of a
Speaker 3: sauna let you know who you are and who you
Speaker 3: are not, I'll tell you that right now. But yeah,
Speaker 3: ever since I got into this whole health kick, I've
Speaker 3: never felt better. I feel like I'm thirty years old again,
Speaker 3: and I can do I can do things that I
Speaker 3: couldn't do three years ago.
Speaker 1: And do you get any inspiration from watching fighters live
Speaker 1: their lives? Because they're in a cold baster and as
Speaker 1: on as they're into health, they're into the right food,
Speaker 1: they have dietitians, et cetera, et cetera. Do you get
Speaker 1: inspired by them to take control of your own health?
Speaker 3: I get inspired by anybody who has the discipline. You know,
Speaker 3: It's all about discipline and consistency and getting in shape
Speaker 3: and taking care of yourself. And yeah, I love I
Speaker 3: love doing things that challenge me mentally and physically and
Speaker 3: to push myself. Coal plunge. I got the coal plunge
Speaker 3: set up in the room here in the hotel. It's
Speaker 3: thirty nine degrees. You get into thirty nine degree water
Speaker 3: for three minutes, you know, one hundred and eighty five
Speaker 3: one hundred and ninety degrees sauna and staying there for
Speaker 3: twenty minutes. And when that's how you start your day,
Speaker 3: there isn't too many things that you're going to run
Speaker 3: into the rest of the day that can challenge you,
Speaker 3: like something like that. And I love doing stuff that
Speaker 3: has the potential to mentally break you. I love that stuff.
Speaker 1: And they say that that type of behavior, that sort
Speaker 1: of activity actually develops a certain part of your brain,
Speaker 1: which for people who do these things like wim Hof
Speaker 1: et cetera, their brain has a certain part of their
Speaker 1: brain is actually larger than the rest of the normal people.
Speaker 1: Because doing something you don't want to do actually creates
Speaker 1: a certain sense of sense of achievement for the day,
Speaker 1: no doubt, everything else seems easy after it, no.
Speaker 2: Doubt about it.
Speaker 3: You're living your life like that one hundred percent every day,
Speaker 3: literally every day, even when I'm on the road. We're
Speaker 3: just in Saudi for a week. I had the whole
Speaker 3: setup out there in Saudi. I'm here for a week.
Speaker 3: I got the whole set up here. We're running around
Speaker 3: town looking for the best saunas to get into.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I love doing these things that are physically good for
Speaker 3: you, you know, and but but that have the potential to
Speaker 3: mentally break you. I love trying to mentally break myself.
Speaker 3: And when you overcome that first thing.
Speaker 2: In the morning.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Like I said, there's not much that's going to
Speaker 3: hit you the rest of the day that you can't
Speaker 3: deal with.
Speaker 1: I can give you something that could mentally and you
Speaker 1: can swop places with the premier. Early this week he's
Speaker 1: been in positions. I mean, that's be doing something you
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't want to have had to do in terms of
Speaker 1: the in terms of Sunday, for the for the for
Speaker 1: the fights. We have the girls as well, and we
Speaker 1: just want to look about them with the co main event,
Speaker 1: and we have some under some other people on the
Speaker 1: card to who are you looking forward to seeing? Who
Speaker 1: you're looking forward to showing their craft.
Speaker 3: The fight that hasn't been talked about enough is the
Speaker 3: co main event. You know, Tatiana Swaz and Whaley jang Uh.
Speaker 3: Tatiana is and has been one of the hottest prospects
Speaker 3: you know in the sport now for a while, but
Speaker 3: has had tons of injuries that she's had to overcome.
Speaker 3: And Wally Jang is one of the baddest women of
Speaker 3: all time. She's so exciting and fun to watch. I'm
Speaker 3: very excited to see how that fight turns out. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I think it's a fight that hasn't been talked about enough.
Speaker 3: It's an incredible fight.
Speaker 1: Cole main event, Chris, have you been following the cod Yeah?
Speaker 5: I mean I think the main one Dudels is Strickland.
Speaker 5: Strickland just keeps coming and he shocked Australia last time around,
Speaker 5: and as we spoke about earlier, it's the land of upset.
Speaker 5: So I can't wait to see that about. I think
Speaker 5: it'd be awesome.
Speaker 1: And I got to ask you this, Dana, what about Volk?
Speaker 1: Is he a chance coming back?
Speaker 4: We love Volk.
Speaker 3: Volk's a legend. I mean, if you look at what
Speaker 3: that guy has done in this sport and in that division,
Speaker 3: he's an absolute legend. I get to this place where
Speaker 3: what more does he have to accomplish and achieve? He's
Speaker 3: done it all. I don't know personally. I haven't talked
Speaker 3: to him about where his head is and you know
Speaker 3: what he's thinking about the future. But when you talk
Speaker 3: about a guy like Volk, he's done it all. He's
Speaker 3: an absolute legend, not just here in Australia but worldwide.
Speaker 3: And when we talk about inspirational figures, he's one of them.
Speaker 5: Man.
Speaker 3: If you look at his journey and his story, and
Speaker 3: what he's accomplished in his life. I don't know, it's
Speaker 3: just it's up to him. Whatever that guy wants to do.
Speaker 3: He's the guy that you know, there's been any situations
Speaker 3: where we picked up the phone and said we need
Speaker 3: you and he's he's inn absolute stud, absolute legend. And
Speaker 3: whatever he wants to do next, I'm in.
Speaker 1: Well, Chrisy. He's involved being Alex, being a boy from
Speaker 1: win Dang and Wollongong. You know your territory, not not
Speaker 1: not not where you live or not certainly not your elector.
Speaker 1: But he's a good working class kid.
Speaker 4: Yeah, he's a legendar Alex.
Speaker 1: He's killed it and he's Would you like to see
Speaker 1: him back in the Octoglond.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I'd love to see him back, but on his
Speaker 5: own time. I mean he takes fights at a short notice.
Speaker 5: But I'd love to see him have a big, long camp,
Speaker 5: get ready for a big fight, hopefully have it here
Speaker 5: in Sydney and flatten whoever Dana puts him up against.
Speaker 5: But I think because he's just we've had to fight
Speaker 5: and take it on so quickly and he's enthusiastic. Sometimes
Speaker 5: that's sort of cut against him. But he's an amazing
Speaker 5: guy and he's an inspirational fellow too. I mean he's
Speaker 5: been fantastic for young people south of Sydney and the
Speaker 5: Wollongong area. Daya just not about one hundred k's from
Speaker 5: us here. He works a lot with the pc YS,
Speaker 5: as does the UFC in local communities, a lot of
Speaker 5: disadvantaged young people. The UFC has been fantastic partnering with
Speaker 5: these organizations.
Speaker 4: It's really worked.
Speaker 2: Thanks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, absolutely, And on that note, I'd like to thank
Speaker 1: you Premier for coming in today. I don't thank you
Speaker 1: very much for Dana
Speaker 3: Thanks for having me, good luck to thank you