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Two of the UFC’s greatest pound-for-pound fighters of all time—light heavyweight champion Jon Jones and two-time champ Amanda Nunes—are set to defend their respective titles this Saturday, July 6, in UFC 239. ESPN+ will be streaming the action love from Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.
In his third title fight in the past six months, Jones will take on Thiago Santos—a quick and powerful striker who hasn’t lost a fight since 2012.
Nunes—the UFC women’s bantamweight and featherweight title holder—will face former champion Holly Holm, who may be known best for an upset defeat that handed Ronda Rousey her first UFC loss back in 2015.
There’ll be plenty of action in the undercards too. Jorge Masvidal, the No. 4-ranked welterweight, will fight No. 5 Ben Askren. Former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold will duke it out with sixth-ranked light heavyweight Jan Blachowicz. And earlier in the night, Julia Avila will square off with Pannie Kianzad in a women’s bantamweight bout, with both fighters seeking their first UFC win.
We sat down with UFC president Dana White in his lavish office—complete with a private gym and kitchen—just a few miles away from the arena to discuss how streaming is defining the future of his fast-growing, globally popular sport.
Last year was the UFC’s 25th anniversary. How has mixed martial arts changed in that time?
The first UFC event was planned as a one-off, but it was so successful that it became a franchise. In the early days, the UFC was made up mostly of fighters who were disciplined in one thing—like a boxer taking on a wrestler. There were very few rules and no weight classes. You’d see mismatches, with big guys taking on little guys. Nobody had seen anything like it, and politicians latched onto attacking cage fighting as something barbaric. When I took over in 2000, it was so demonized that the UFC was banned in 36 states at one point.
So we knew we had a huge uphill battle. But we also knew that there was something here—that with the right changes we could create the greatest combat sport in the world. When you look at any UFC event today and see our athletes and how skilled they are in multiple different martial arts, the precision and passion that goes into our sport, I think you can see what we saw when everyone told us this thing was a fad and wouldn’t last.
In those early days, how hard was it to watch a fight?
Back in the early 2000s, when we were banned from pay-per-view and couldn’t get on free TV, I used to dream of a day where we could somehow get people all over the world to watch our fights, all at the same time. I felt then, like I do now, that if people would give mixed martial arts a chance, they’d get it.
But I wasn’t thinking about streaming and apps and people watching on their phones and tablets. That stuff really didn’t exist back then.
So we embraced regulation and worked with athletic commissions, and we worked hard to get onto pay-per-view. We were one of the first sports to have a reality TV show [The Ultimate Fighter]. We were one of the first sports to stream in Facebook.
Now we’re with ESPN—and they’re working on using technology to bring sports to the entire planet. We’re finally getting to something close to what I dreamed about back then.
There seem to be more female fighters, more international fighters, and more weight classes in UFC than ever before. Has streaming helped usher this growth?
When we think about how to grow our sport, we really think about both people and technology.
When you have somebody who looks like you, talks like you, comes from where you come from, and they’re the baddest fighter in the world, people rally behind that.
This is why we’re opening UFC Performance Institutes around the world. They’re massive facilities, fully staffed, where people can come and learn about and participate in our sport. They offer everything from strength and conditioning coaching to nutritional advice and physical therapy. We have one in Las Vegas for UFC fighters to use for free. And we’re going to build three around the world [in Mexico City, Puerto Rico, and Shanghai] that will be open to the public. Each will be a place where young fighters can come in and train and learn.
Some of these kids will fall out, some will become fighters, and some will become trainers and managers. All of them will become UFC fans.
The Performance Institute goes hand in hand with what we’re doing with apps and streaming. It’s all about reaching people and making the sport more inclusive.
There’s more to the UFC than the matches. Dana White’s Contender Series, for example, is about fighters early on in their career competing for a UFC contract.
Our first TV show, The Ultimate Fighter, really changed everything for us. It was on cable, and it was a way for people to give us a chance outside of a pay-per-view fight. But it was also a chance for us to show the humanity and the lifestyle of our fighters.
Our fighters aren’t a bunch of savages. They’re educated, they have families. Some have great personalities and some don’t. Everyone has a story and a reason for getting in the Octagon. The Ultimate Fighter was a home run for us. It’s really what helped the sport go mainstream.
And the Contender Series—we again get to show you who these fighters are as people, UFC-ready and just looking for a shot.