Name: Georges St-Pierre on Dana White, and a Fight That Could Have Been
Uploaded: 2024-08-13T01:04:28.000Z
Description: Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Georges St-Pierre on Dana White, and a Fight That Could Have Been' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-13. Transcript available.

Watch the stand-up comedy video 'Georges St-Pierre on Dana White, and a Fight That Could Have Been' from Theo Von Clips on Comedy Buff. Published 2024-08-13. Transcript available.

Was there a time when, has there been like a fighter or something since then
you look and you're like, man, it would have been fun to fight them? Or do you
have like moments like that?
There's a lot of guys that I wish we would have fight, you know, and that would
be big fight. It would have made a story, but, you know, like it takes three
entity to make a fight. It takes one fighter, the other fighter, it takes the
promoter as well. And very often the promoter didn't reach our demands, you
know what I mean? And everything needs to be aligned for the three entities.
Yeah, I know people always talk about you and Khabib fighting, you know, did
that interest you kind of?
So it was the fight that I would have come back for at the time. Not now, now
time has passed, but after I retired, there was one fight I would have, you
know, I would have had to go, it would have been Khabib.
What was the most, what challenge, what excited you about that the most? I mean,
obviously he was undefeated.
Well, he's undefeated, he's got a perfect career, he's the, the competitor, the
competitor inside of me would have done, would have taken the fight, you know?
Yeah.
You know, and that's one of the fight I would have, I would have done it, you
know, like, like, but, but it needed to be at the right time.
And, and, and when it was time to do it, UFC didn't want to do it.
Yeah.
So they wait a few years after when we were both retired and the train was, was
passed.
Yeah.
The moment was gone.
And when they asked, when Dana called me, I said, I thought it was weird.
I was like, are you like, is Khabib want to fight, want to fight?
He said, because he said no in all interviews, he said, no, no, he's, he's, he's
down, he's down.
I'm like, okay, let me think about it.
I'll get back to you.
And I thought it was weird.
So I call his manager, Ali Adelaziz, and Ali said, Hey man, the timing is not
good.
It's bullshit.
It's not true.
And after I, I've said, I've told the media what happened.
And then I went, I don't do three, three, three people calls when I, and I
thought it was hilarious, but because he's right.
You know, he's not going to call a guy and say, Hey, no, the other guy doesn't
want.
No, that's not business.
He's exactly.
He's a promoter.
He's going to say, Hey, this guy said this, this, this about you.
Do you want to fight him?
And you want to take, you want to use the emotions to make you tune in.
It's like when you, it's like playing your mom against your dad.
It's like, Hey dad, mom said I can do this.
And then you go to, Hey mom, dad said I can do this.
Neither one of them said they could, but now you're outside playing.
Exactly.
It's all a game.
It's all a freaking game.
And it's a lot of pressure.
I think on Dana, probably.
I bet it's a lot of pressure because not only is he the promoter, but he's also,
you have to answer all the questions.
And he's in a, he's in a business.
He's in control of a business.
Yeah.
It's not up to him.
If someone signed a contract that suck, he's not going to say, Hey, you worth
more money.
You should have, you know what I mean?
I mean, man, he's a businessman.
He's going to take it and take advantage of you.
So it's not, it's not because what I'm saying is it's not, he's a, and then he's
a good guy.
I've, I've met him and when you, you met him, of course, met him many times,
but I met him while I was competing.
So I, when I was competing and Dana called me, I always, before I hang up the
phone, I was like, shit, take a inhale, try to think of what is the possible
thing that he's going to ask me.
Because you need to be quick when he called you, you don't want to say
something or you just say, you don't, you don't answer or you, you, you're like,
you're always like, because this is a game.
It's a chess game, man.
With a fight game, everything you say, everything you do is going to have a, an
outcome.
So you're like, okay, what is he going to say?
This is it.
Then you prepare.
If you're ready, you take the call.
If you're not ready, you let, okay, I'm going to prepare myself.
So that's how it is.
Let me call Mike Brown.
Let me get somebody to massage me during the, during the off rounds.
But, but, but the, the, the thing, the thing with Dana is my relation has
changed over the year because now it's more friendly.
He calls me, I'm not even going to hesitate to say, hey, Dana, what's up?
Like, whatever, I'm ready for any, anything.
But when I was fighting, it's normal to have that reaction, be like, because he's
the boss and you know, whatever you, he's going to ask you, whatever you say.
Right.
It's going to be the whole world going to know.
So you cannot retract what you say.
So when he calls you, when I was fighting, I was like, shit.
Sometimes I started, I started in a stance.
I was like, man, I'm not taking the call right now, or I'm going to call him
back.
Think about what the.
Have a little strategy.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's almost like when your boss says, what are you up to this weekend?
Right now, if your boss, but your boss, they want you to work at four 30 on
Saturday.
Right.
And you do not want to, but if you tell them that you're, oh, nothing much,
then you're halfway
to working.
Right.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's interesting when you're the owner, it's also hard to be, I bet at
times it's probably
maybe it not, I'm not putting words in his mouth or anything, but I bet it's
tough for
him to also be a person, you know, and maybe it's easier after the fact because
running a business
is totally different than being a human being sometimes.
He takes a lot of heat sometime and he does a lot of stuff that he needs to do
for the best
of, of the business, best of the UFC interests.
And it's normal that he's running a business.
And it's worked out because look at the UFC is created opportunity,
opportunities for so many guys.
I had a lot of clash with Dana when I was.
You did?
I didn't even, I didn't even know that.
No, no, we, we did, we did add a lot of clash, clashes when, when I was
fighting because
I, I attained a certain level of, of power that he couldn't control me as much.
All the other, some of the guys, you could say, you do this.
Oh yeah, yes, sir.
Like me, it's like, no, it's not going to work.
Cause I, I was, I was making him a lot of profit, a lot of, a lot of money.
So when you, you know, there's a lot of things that they asked me and I, and I
said, hell no,
I'm not doing it because it's not for the best of my interests.
Right.
So when, same thing, when you get negotiate for a fight, my, my thing was like,
if I'm
negotiate for a big fight, why am I going to do all the interviews, all the,
the promotion
if I don't touch a piece of the pie?
Right.
You know what I mean?
So give me a piece of the pie.
So it will encourage me to do more promotion.
Yeah.
Because if you don't touch any piece, a piece of the pie, if you don't have
nothing, why
am I going to do this?
It's going to, I'm just going to waste my time while I'm supposed to train and
rest.
I'm going to do interviews and your time has become more valuable because, uh,
you're
the champion, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's, I think there's, it's interesting when you get to a certain level, how,
um, the
negotiations kind of change, you know?
It has to.
It's pretty fascinating.
You have to be, uh, to, to, to, to look at it in that way.
And were you able to get like pay-per-view points and stuff back then in your
fights?
Yeah.
I'm, I'm very lucky.
Oh, congratulations, man.
Yeah.
Thank you.
But the, the thing is, there's a lot of guys in the business that, in this
industry that are not,
well, uh, managed, you know, they, they, they, they, they don't ask for what
they're worth.
And, and they, they're kind of afraid or, or, you know, they don't take right
decision.
And it's not Dana's job to say, Hey, I think you should ask for a raise or it's
normal.
No, he's not going to do that.
He's the boss.
He's, he's, he's, he's on the other side of the, so that the fight game, you're
fighting
for a contract.
This should be your manager's fight.
You have someone that look for the best of your interests and that's one, one
fight.
And the fight, the other fight is in the octagon.
Yeah.
So.
Well, it's fascinating.
You know, I think that a lot of that happens with art, when art or talent turns
into business,
there's this other element that comes on, you know, and sometimes you have to
trust
your instincts and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong, but
that's how
you hone your instincts to be sharper too, is by using them, you know?
And, um, and yeah, I bet it's tricky probably for Dana, because I bet there's a
lot of guys
that he super cares about and, and, but he also has to run a business, you know?
So I can't imagine that's gotta be, um, it's gotta be tricky, you know?
And I think also you hear the nicest stuff.
Like you'll hear like all the stuff he does from his employees or places that
he tries to
help out.
During COVID, he didn't, he didn't lay off nobody, it's amazing.
Oh, he's hell.
I called him the other day, asking him for some help with something, you know?
I know that, um, so, you know, he's a great guy.
I think he's also a great business man.
A hundred percent.
And so that's probably where it's tricky.
He's a great guy and, and fighters, like, I mean, guys that are listening to us
now,
they get, when they're, they're in middle of a competition, you know, like,
like when
they're, they're competing, they might be, they might not have that
relationship with
Dana because they, Dana is on the other side.
So it's always like a fight relationship, but once they're going to retire,
they're going
to see a total different person, you know?
Like, same thing with the first step brother, like, uh, these guys, they're all
great guys,
you know?
And, and, and, um, every time I meet them, you know, it's a, Hey, what's up?
Big hug, Dana, the first step brother.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
We're, we're all friend here.
Uh, everything we did that, the clashes that we had, it was because we were
fighting for
the best of our interests and it's normal.
It's just business.
And I think if you want to be successful in, in, especially as an athlete in
mixed martial
art, you need to build a team.
Yeah.
You can't do all that by yourself because you don't, you don't have all the,
the, the,
the, the, the, the credential to do all the jobs.
You need to, to have lawyers, you need to find a team of people that you can
trust and people
that have competence because sometimes people, they hire people who trust, but
they turned
out to be incompetent, it's bad because it's going to make you buy, it's going
to make you
do like, uh, uh, how do you say like air, air bike, you know, they're not going
to, you're
going to be, you're not going to go forward.
You're going to, you're going to, and if you have someone who's competent, but
someone that
you cannot trust, maybe he's going to, he's going to, he's going to screw,
screw you down
the road.
It's tough, man.
Running, starting to run a business or work with people, it's, it's hard, but
then you also
like, I mean, I, one thing is like people criticize Dana and the UFC, but no
other promotion has
been able to sustain itself and establish itself and make it go that, you know,
and flourish.
Um, so I think it's, um, it's fascinating.
And I think it is probably, I think he'll be studied one day in the sense by
business people.
I mean, I can't even imagine because you have so many guys that are really
putting their
lives on the line and then you ha you know, I just can't imagine it.
It's gotta be a lot, you know?
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.

Georges St-Pierre on Dana White, and a Fight That Could Have Been

Was there a time when, has there been like a fighter or something since then
you look and you're like, man, it would have been fun to fight them? Or do you
have like moments like that?
There's a lot of guys that I wish we would have fight, you know, and that would
be big fight. It would have made a story, but, you know, like it takes three
entity to make a fight. It takes one fighter, the other fighter, it takes the
promoter as well. And very often the promoter didn't reach our demands, you
know what I mean? And everything needs to be aligned for the three entities.
Yeah, I know people always talk about you and Khabib fighting, you know, did
that interest you kind of?
So it was the fight that I would have come back for at the time. Not now, now
time has passed, but after I retired, there was one fight I would have, you
know, I would have had to go, it would have been Khabib.
What was the most, what challenge, what excited you about that the most? I mean,
obviously he was undefeated.
Well, he's undefeated, he's got a perfect career, he's the, the competitor, the
competitor inside of me would have done, would have taken the fight, you know?
Yeah.
You know, and that's one of the fight I would have, I would have done it, you
know, like, like, but, but it needed to be at the right time.
And, and, and when it was time to do it, UFC didn't want to do it.
Yeah.
So they wait a few years after when we were both retired and the train was, was
passed.
Yeah.
The moment was gone.
And when they asked, when Dana called me, I said, I thought it was weird.
I was like, are you like, is Khabib want to fight, want to fight?
He said, because he said no in all interviews, he said, no, no, he's, he's, he's
down, he's down.
I'm like, okay, let me think about it.
I'll get back to you.
And I thought it was weird.
So I call his manager, Ali Adelaziz, and Ali said, Hey man, the timing is not
good.
It's bullshit.
It's not true.
And after I, I've said, I've told the media what happened.
And then I went, I don't do three, three, three people calls when I, and I
thought it was hilarious, but because he's right.
You know, he's not going to call a guy and say, Hey, no, the other guy doesn't
want.
No, that's not business.
He's exactly.
He's a promoter.
He's going to say, Hey, this guy said this, this, this about you.
Do you want to fight him?
And you want to take, you want to use the emotions to make you tune in.
It's like when you, it's like playing your mom against your dad.
It's like, Hey dad, mom said I can do this.
And then you go to, Hey mom, dad said I can do this.
Neither one of them said they could, but now you're outside playing.
Exactly.
It's all a game.
It's all a freaking game.
And it's a lot of pressure.
I think on Dana, probably.
I bet it's a lot of pressure because not only is he the promoter, but he's also,
you have to answer all the questions.
And he's in a, he's in a business.
He's in control of a business.
Yeah.
It's not up to him.
If someone signed a contract that suck, he's not going to say, Hey, you worth
more money.
You should have, you know what I mean?
I mean, man, he's a businessman.
He's going to take it and take advantage of you.
So it's not, it's not because what I'm saying is it's not, he's a, and then he's
a good guy.
I've, I've met him and when you, you met him, of course, met him many times,
but I met him while I was competing.
So I, when I was competing and Dana called me, I always, before I hang up the
phone, I was like, shit, take a inhale, try to think of what is the possible
thing that he's going to ask me.
Because you need to be quick when he called you, you don't want to say
something or you just say, you don't, you don't answer or you, you, you're like,
you're always like, because this is a game.
It's a chess game, man.
With a fight game, everything you say, everything you do is going to have a, an
outcome.
So you're like, okay, what is he going to say?
This is it.
Then you prepare.
If you're ready, you take the call.
If you're not ready, you let, okay, I'm going to prepare myself.
So that's how it is.
Let me call Mike Brown.
Let me get somebody to massage me during the, during the off rounds.
But, but, but the, the, the thing, the thing with Dana is my relation has
changed over the year because now it's more friendly.
He calls me, I'm not even going to hesitate to say, hey, Dana, what's up?
Like, whatever, I'm ready for any, anything.
But when I was fighting, it's normal to have that reaction, be like, because he's
the boss and you know, whatever you, he's going to ask you, whatever you say.
Right.
It's going to be the whole world going to know.
So you cannot retract what you say.
So when he calls you, when I was fighting, I was like, shit.
Sometimes I started, I started in a stance.
I was like, man, I'm not taking the call right now, or I'm going to call him
back.
Think about what the.
Have a little strategy.
Yeah.
Yes.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
It's almost like when your boss says, what are you up to this weekend?
Right now, if your boss, but your boss, they want you to work at four 30 on
Saturday.
Right.
And you do not want to, but if you tell them that you're, oh, nothing much,
then you're halfway
to working.
Right.
Yeah.
So yeah, it's interesting when you're the owner, it's also hard to be, I bet at
times it's probably
maybe it not, I'm not putting words in his mouth or anything, but I bet it's
tough for
him to also be a person, you know, and maybe it's easier after the fact because
running a business
is totally different than being a human being sometimes.
He takes a lot of heat sometime and he does a lot of stuff that he needs to do
for the best
of, of the business, best of the UFC interests.
And it's normal that he's running a business.
And it's worked out because look at the UFC is created opportunity,
opportunities for so many guys.
I had a lot of clash with Dana when I was.
You did?
I didn't even, I didn't even know that.
No, no, we, we did, we did add a lot of clash, clashes when, when I was
fighting because
I, I attained a certain level of, of power that he couldn't control me as much.
All the other, some of the guys, you could say, you do this.
Oh yeah, yes, sir.
Like me, it's like, no, it's not going to work.
Cause I, I was, I was making him a lot of profit, a lot of, a lot of money.
So when you, you know, there's a lot of things that they asked me and I, and I
said, hell no,
I'm not doing it because it's not for the best of my interests.
Right.
So when, same thing, when you get negotiate for a fight, my, my thing was like,
if I'm
negotiate for a big fight, why am I going to do all the interviews, all the,
the promotion
if I don't touch a piece of the pie?
Right.
You know what I mean?
So give me a piece of the pie.
So it will encourage me to do more promotion.
Yeah.
Because if you don't touch any piece, a piece of the pie, if you don't have
nothing, why
am I going to do this?
It's going to, I'm just going to waste my time while I'm supposed to train and
rest.
I'm going to do interviews and your time has become more valuable because, uh,
you're
the champion, you know?
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's, I think there's, it's interesting when you get to a certain level, how,
um, the
negotiations kind of change, you know?
It has to.
It's pretty fascinating.
You have to be, uh, to, to, to, to look at it in that way.
And were you able to get like pay-per-view points and stuff back then in your
fights?
Yeah.
I'm, I'm very lucky.
Oh, congratulations, man.
Yeah.
Thank you.
But the, the thing is, there's a lot of guys in the business that, in this
industry that are not,
well, uh, managed, you know, they, they, they, they, they don't ask for what
they're worth.
And, and they, they're kind of afraid or, or, you know, they don't take right
decision.
And it's not Dana's job to say, Hey, I think you should ask for a raise or it's
normal.
No, he's not going to do that.
He's the boss.
He's, he's, he's, he's on the other side of the, so that the fight game, you're
fighting
for a contract.
This should be your manager's fight.
You have someone that look for the best of your interests and that's one, one
fight.
And the fight, the other fight is in the octagon.
Yeah.
So.
Well, it's fascinating.
You know, I think that a lot of that happens with art, when art or talent turns
into business,
there's this other element that comes on, you know, and sometimes you have to
trust
your instincts and sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong, but
that's how
you hone your instincts to be sharper too, is by using them, you know?
And, um, and yeah, I bet it's tricky probably for Dana, because I bet there's a
lot of guys
that he super cares about and, and, but he also has to run a business, you know?
So I can't imagine that's gotta be, um, it's gotta be tricky, you know?
And I think also you hear the nicest stuff.
Like you'll hear like all the stuff he does from his employees or places that
he tries to
help out.
During COVID, he didn't, he didn't lay off nobody, it's amazing.
Oh, he's hell.
I called him the other day, asking him for some help with something, you know?
I know that, um, so, you know, he's a great guy.
I think he's also a great business man.
A hundred percent.
And so that's probably where it's tricky.
He's a great guy and, and fighters, like, I mean, guys that are listening to us
now,
they get, when they're, they're in middle of a competition, you know, like,
like when
they're, they're competing, they might be, they might not have that
relationship with
Dana because they, Dana is on the other side.
So it's always like a fight relationship, but once they're going to retire,
they're going
to see a total different person, you know?
Like, same thing with the first step brother, like, uh, these guys, they're all
great guys,
you know?
And, and, and, um, every time I meet them, you know, it's a, Hey, what's up?
Big hug, Dana, the first step brother.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
We're, we're all friend here.
Uh, everything we did that, the clashes that we had, it was because we were
fighting for
the best of our interests and it's normal.
It's just business.
And I think if you want to be successful in, in, especially as an athlete in
mixed martial
art, you need to build a team.
Yeah.
You can't do all that by yourself because you don't, you don't have all the,
the, the,
the, the, the, the credential to do all the jobs.
You need to, to have lawyers, you need to find a team of people that you can
trust and people
that have competence because sometimes people, they hire people who trust, but
they turned
out to be incompetent, it's bad because it's going to make you buy, it's going
to make you
do like, uh, uh, how do you say like air, air bike, you know, they're not going
to, you're
going to be, you're not going to go forward.
You're going to, you're going to, and if you have someone who's competent, but
someone that
you cannot trust, maybe he's going to, he's going to, he's going to screw,
screw you down
the road.
It's tough, man.
Running, starting to run a business or work with people, it's, it's hard, but
then you also
like, I mean, I, one thing is like people criticize Dana and the UFC, but no
other promotion has
been able to sustain itself and establish itself and make it go that, you know,
and flourish.
Um, so I think it's, um, it's fascinating.
And I think it is probably, I think he'll be studied one day in the sense by
business people.
I mean, I can't even imagine because you have so many guys that are really
putting their
lives on the line and then you ha you know, I just can't imagine it.
It's gotta be a lot, you know?
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lot.
I think it's gonna be a lo