UFC president Dana White grants exclusive access to the coolest office in world sport
The UFC president grants exclusive access to a sprawling office all Yakuza, cocaine, Samurai, machine guns … and one missing fight poster.
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So Dana White is pointing us towards a long row of old UFC fight posters which, framed and hung, encircle his office dining room.
Yes, the UFC president has a private dining hall at work.
Just as his sprawling corner suite here on the upper floor of UFC headquarters — an office which isn’t simply one room, but eight — also contains a bar, commercial kitchen, gymnasium, sabre-toothed tiger skull, Samurai armour from the 1600s, even a machine gun loaded with cocaine.
Elsewhere, this American fight promoter also boasts an Emmy, signed guitars by his favoured bands – like Beastie Boys and Rage Against the Machine — plus an original 1936 fight ticket from Joe Louis versus Max Schmeling at Yankee Stadium.
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Beside the ticket too, which sits on a cabinet in his main office, also lives a mish mash of stuff such as skulls, Dom Perignon bottles and a faux heavyweight championship belt — awarded by Palms Casino staff when White cleaned them out, for a second time, of almost $2 million.
A gong he explains later as “the casino’s polite way of saying don’t f…ing come back”.
But for now, we stand in the dining room.
Midway through a private tour that over some 40 minutes will see White walk The Saturday Telegraph through a collection of internal office doors which — when opened only by fingerprint security — will reveal a seemingly endless swirl of $40,000 swords, artwork costing $1.2 million, even a black and white photo of Don King’s hair.
Everything really, bar the fight poster from UFC 2.
“Because some motherf...er stole it,” White cackles, nodding again to that row of framed posters encircling his dining room.
“It happened three years ago, when we moved from the old building into this one.
“Around this room, I’ve got every poster from the UFC’s first 23 events. All of them but f...ing number two.”
Yet anything else this promoter worth $500 million wants, he gets.
Take his sabre tooth tiger skull, bought a dozen years ago for $50,000. Or that 16th century Samurai piece so prized, a museum curator accompanied its journey from Tokyo.
Hell, the UFC boss even has a machine gun which, housed in a glass case, and covered in US bills, also holds a clip containing seven small vials of all those things men kill for — oil, cocaine, gold, blood, diamonds, religious symbols and the seeds for making heroin.
“I’m completely fascinated by war stuff,” White concedes. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been into fighting, weapons, armour, all of it.
“I’ve actually got a couple of cannons from Ireland too.
“They were given to the King of Ireland by the King of England.
“But they’re in storage at the moment … I’m not exactly sure where I’d put them.”
But as for his favourite piece?
That would be the small, glass trophy awarded in 2010, when White earned $250,000 by winning the first, and only, blackjack tournament he’s ever entered.
“Wanna be buried with that thing,” he cackles.
With good reason, too.
“After starting out with 50 people, I’m on the last table and there are five guys,” White recalls.
“And funny story, one of them, he comes up to me giving some bullshit small talk, then says ‘you know how this works right?’.
“And I say ‘no, I don’t know how this works’.
“So he starts explaining that whenever these (professional) guys get to the last table, they always split the money.
“Everyone who gets to the last table, they just split the prizemoney between them.
“So I’ve just replied ‘man, you got the wrong f…en guy’.”
And from there?
“Had the whole table playing to beat me,” White says. “It’s why I wanted this trophy even more than the money.”
And why it now holds pride of place in his main office, too.
A large spacious room from which hangs several artworks, including an oversized print which portrays a heavily tattooed Yakuza, or Japanese mafia member, doing something with a young woman that cannot be reprinted on the pages of a family newspaper.
“Which is why I initially kept it in storage,” White continues, grinning.
“It was given to me by a buddy, a Wall Street guy, who rang and said ‘I’ve got you a gift. Just send $200,000 for the shipping’.
“I thought to myself ‘what sort of f...ing gift is that?’.
“But anyway, the artwork arrived and quickly went into storage. But then a while later I was taking to someone who mentioned the piece and said it was worth $1.2 million.
“That’s when I said ‘OK, let’s f...ing hang the thing and offend some people’.”
Truly, nowhere in world sport is there a cooler office than this one.
A truth proved when, from his main corner suite, White moves you off through an adjoining doorway to pass directly into a giant room with two tiers of lounges, giant projector screen and one completely stocked bar. “The bad side,” he grins.
And the good?
That exists by leaving his main suite on the opposite side — again through doors locked by fingerprint security — to pass, first, by a private bathroom and shower, then into a walk-in wardrobe sized only slightly smaller than his famed Octagon.
“Sorry, it’s a shit show in there,” White says, gesturing towards rows of T-shirts, jeans, sneakers, even slides. “Whenever I go on the road, I always pack from here.”
From the wardrobe, you then move through to a private gymnasium boasting treadmills, bikes, boxing equipment, weights and quotes writ large on white walls by the likes of Bruce Lee, Muhammad Ali and Mike Tyson.
Our favourite, Iron Mike’s classic: Don’t be surprised if I behave like a savage. I am a savage.
“Start every day here,” White explains.
Then from the gym, you’re taken through another side door to enter a lunch room with servery, enough table seating for 12 and an oversized kitchen requiring chefs — plural.
And from there, you either turn left for the dining room, or right to head into a private entertainment lounge where, from anywhere on two tiers of lounges, the UFC president watches over events he doesn’t attend live on a giant projector TV.
“For the first 12 years I never missed a fight,” White explains. “But now, I’m too old. Can’t travel the way I used to.
“So when we have fights that are out of the country I run the show from here, 20 minutes from home, while the chefs cook dinner.
“I’ve got it so the room is connected to our (broadcast) trucks too, wherever they are in the world.
“So all I need do is talk and they can hear me. Which is great … I’ve got everything I need right here.”
Well, almost everything, right?
“Oh, that motherf...er,” White laughs. “If I ever find out who stole my UFC 2 poster, man, I coming for them.”
Originally published as UFC president Dana White grants exclusive access to the coolest office in world sport
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