UFC CEO Dana White reveals his viral walkout on comedian Howie Mandel’s podcast was staged
UFC CEO Dana White is coming clean about his walkout on Howie Mandel’s podcast.
In the days leading up to UFC 298 in February, White appeared on a slew of podcasts to promote the event. Certainly nothing out of the ordinary, but one particular appearance made headlines.
Sitting down with actor and comedian Howie Mandel, White declared, “I am so f*cking tired of doing podcasts” before taking off his headset, getting up, and walking out mere seconds into the interview. Mandel and others in the studio sat in stunned silence.
As it turns out, the whole thing was staged as White and Mandel had already met earlier that same day and concocted the scheme.
“So what happened was I did the Sage Steele podcast when she called me Joe Rogan,” White said during an appearance on the Flagrant podcast. “First of all, Sage Steele and I are good friends, I love Sage. She asked me to be her first guest on the podcast, so I go out there. Now, the studio is owned by Howie Mandel where these podcasts take place. She was signed to Bill Maher’s podcast company and they’re all done there in Howie Mandel’s studio.
“So we get done with the podcast and Howie Mandel walks in and he’s like, ‘100 podcasts a week happen here, I’ve never watched any of them. I watched the whole podcast, love who you are, what you stand for,’ and all this stuff. We hit it off, started talking. Great dude.
“So he’s like, ‘Let me show you around the studio.’ He’s involved in all kinds of shit. He owns social media companies and all this other stuff. Howie Mandel owns a lot of shit that people don’t realize. Smart guy, great guy. So we’re walking through and stuff and he goes, ‘Would you do me a favor?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what’s up?’ He’s like, ‘Would you come in and get up and walk off my podcast?’ I go, ‘I would be f*cking honored to walk off your podcast because I’m so f*cking sick of doing podcasts, it’s not funny.’
“We go in there and do it, right? He’s like, ‘Take this to the grave.’ I said, ‘Done, I’ll take it to the grave.”
Why did Dana white spill the tea?
So why didn’t Dana White honor his agreement to take it to the grave? According to the man himself, as he was making another public appearance, a group of loyal UFC fans began an anti-Mandel chant. That’s when he decided to come clean and prevent any unwanted backlash being directed at Mandel over the pre-planned incident.
“I go do this thing with the Nelk Boys, we’re doing this ‘Monkeybomb’ f*cking tour, the whole f*cking crowd starts chanting, ‘F*ck Howie Mandel!’” White said. “I go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout, I can’t do this.’
“Howie Mandel’s the f*cking greatest dude ever. Sorry, Howie. It’s just when I go out and people just start f*cking sh*tting on the guy — and I’m sure he could give a flying f*ck — I couldn’t do it. So Howie Mandel’s f*cking awesome.”
