Dana White Reveals WWE's Vince McMahon Shut Down a Previous UFC TV Deal with NBC

WWE and UFC are now part of the TKO family after Endeavor acquired WWE earlier this year, bringing UFC's Dana White and WWE's Vince McMahon under the same larger umbrella. White and McMahon have a long history, and while things are amicable now, it wasn't always that way. In a new interview with Triggered, White revealed that his relationship with McMahon has been an interesting one, and then went on to discuss a particular scenario in the past where McMahon shut down a proposed TV deal between NBC and the UFC. White then said that the scenario is one of ten where Vince stuck it to him just to do it (via Fightful).

"It's been an interesting relationship with Vince McMahon. I never saw Vince as competition, but I'm thinking Vince, in his heyday, he saw everyone as competition. He was one of those guys that would fucking stick it to me, just to do it," White said. "We were about to do a deal with NBC, and it ends up, we get to the one yard line, and Vince has the final say of who can go on USA Network and who can't if you're a combat sport."

"Lorenzo [Lorenzo Fertitta] and I flew out to Connecticut, sat down with him, we do all the small talk, 'We're doing a deal with NBC.' Vince sits back like Vince sits. 'We're about to do this deal, we're about to have fights on NBC and everything else, but you need to sign off on it.' Vince says, 'Yeah, I'm not going to do that.' We're like, 'Why?' 'Eh, I'm just not interested in it. I don't like the idea of you guys being on USA Network.' The whole deal blows up," White said.

While White adds that everything worked out just fine, it was one of several moments in time where McMahon stuck it to him in some way or another. "At the end of the day, it all worked out better, we ended up on FOX. That's just one of ten times where Vince did it," White said.

Things have obviously changed quite a bit since then, and White was nothing but complimentary of working with him now. "Now, Vince and I are in business together, and Vince couldn't be a better partner now. Now, Vince has been an incredible partner. Literally keeps me in the loop with everything going on, making sure I'm cool with decisions that could affect the UFC," White said.

That doesn't mean there will be a ton of crossover between the two companies though, as when White was asked about it by AP News he said, "There won't really be any type of crossover."

"If you look at the WWE, they have an entertainment value and they have these guys that are incredible athletes that go in there and do their thing. It's well known that it's scripted," White said. "When you look at the UFC, this is as real as it gets. That's our tagline. You have these guys that are incredible athletes that have to be well-rounded and well-versed in all these different aspects of martial arts. Then you have the entertainment side of it too, but it's real fighting, it's real. There are no predetermined outcomes in the UFC."

"You have the power of the fanbase of WWE. You have the power of the fanbase of UFC. You have the power of the viral," White added. "We can reach all these people in so many different ways. There is a lot more resources now. WWE has a lot more resources. It's a phone call away now. All they have to do is pick up the phone now and say, 'Hey, how did this happen? I need this. I need this contact. How did you do this?' You all work together to make sure that everybody wins. We've been together on the same weekend many times. Come out of a UFC event, you have Monday Night Raw. Who knows. These are all things that can be figured out on the business side," White said.