If you asked UFC President Dana White what led to the UFC signing their deal with ESPN, the last answer you’d probably expect to hear is, “a cocaine scandal.” But apparently, that’s seriously how it happened.
White recently sat down with Grant Cardone to talk about a number of topics. Among them was a “crazy” story about how the UFC was able to get their current broadcast deal with ESPN.
According to White, former ESPN President John Skipper wanted nothing to do with the UFC. However, a certain string of wild events led to Skipper being forced out of ESPN right when the UFC’s deal with Fox was running out, paving the way for the the biggest MMA organization to sign a new monster deal with the Worldwide Leader in Sports…
And it was all due to Skipper’s cocaine use and a threat from his dealer to spill the beans.
Here’s how White explained it, via TMZ:
“You ever hear of John Skipper?” White asked Cardone during the sit-down chat. “John Skipper ran ESPN. Now, I think he runs DAZN. Runs ESPN, beloved, looks like the squarest dude on the planet.”
“Older guy,” White continued. “Hates UFC. Hates it. Hates UFC. Big soccer guy. For whatever reason, different people like different things. And I’m not s***ing on John Skipper. But this is a fact, this happened and this is a true story…
“John Skipper’s cocaine dealer is gonna rat him out,” White said. “So he has to tell Disney ‘My cocaine dealer is gonna go public’ or whatever, so he has to step down from ESPN, right at the time we’re trying to make a new TV deal.”
“Who do they put in as the new president?” White continued. “Jimmy Pitaro, who ran Yahoo! Sports for years. I’ve known him a long time. He’s a great dude, and he loves the UFC. Now you got him, you got a guy named Kevin Mayer, who is really close to [Endeavor CEO] Ari [Emanuel], and we ended up doing the ESPN deal when our deal was up.”
The next time you’re enjoying a UFC broadcast on ESPN, just remember that it was all made possible by John Skipper’s former drug dealer.
