UFC president Dana White has revealed a secret he had promised to take with him to the grave and explained why he made the decision.
As the man tasked with running UFC's operations on a daily basis, White has plenty of big calls to make and is extremely busy.
Earlier this year, a video of White storming off a podcast after just 30 seconds went viral on social media.
The 54-year-old appeared on 164th episode of 'Howie Mandel Does Stuff' but took his headphones off and fled after being told he is "an amazing businessman" and "an inspiration".
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He said he was "so f***ing tired of doing podcasts" and many people were unsure as to whether the video was staged or real.
White has now come out and confirmed that, much like when Sage Steele confused him with Joe Rogan, it was all a joke and explained how the prank came to be.
He made a pact with Mandel to never let anyone know that it was set up.
"First of all, Sage Steele and I are good friends, I love Sage," White said on the Flagrant podcast, as per MMA Fighting.
"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 sh*t. 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**king honored to walk off your podcast because I’m so f**king 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.”
White was living up to his end of the deal until he went on tour with YouTube sensations the Nelk Boys.
He was subjected to anti-Mandel chants and so not long after, he's decided to come clean with the true context of the story.
White added: “Howie Mandel’s the f*cking greatest dude ever. Sorry, Howie. It’s just when I go out and people just start f*cking shitting on the guy — and I’m sure he could give a flying f**k — I couldn’t do it. So Howie Mandel’s f*cking awesome.”
Topics: Dana White, UFC
Josh Lawless