Dana White and arguably the most important female UFC fighter of all-time, Ronda Rousey, discussed White’s quick change from “never” having women in the UFC to eventually selling major PPV cards off the back of one.
It’s a discussion that really on Rousey could have and she
“Everything in life is about timing,” White told Rousey on an episode of her ESPN+ series Rowdy’s Places. “When I was saying we’ll never have women in the UFC, I was having a hard enough time getting men fighting in a cage accepted let alone women. You approached me, and we had like a 45-minute conversation, and halfway through it I started going, ‘Oh my God, I think I’m gonna do this. And she’s definitely the one to do this with.”
White also explained a lot of the change in mind had to do with Rousey herself.
“There’s this thing that people have, you can’t put your finger on,” White told Rousey. “They just have it. And you had it.
“I’ll see somebody like you, and I’ll say she has the potential to be huge, but you have to actually go out and do the work and become that. You know. You’ve been through the process. And you were probably the best ever at the process.
“You think about when we first met, and you walked around these things, and nobody knew you, to you couldn’t walk anywhere. You were so big, and it happened like that. We know the formula, and we know when we’ve got the person, but you have to have somebody that’s willing to become that person.”
Now there are multiple women’s divisions in the UFC and there was even a two-division champion in Amanda Nunes, another favorite of White’s. Some of the most dominant champions the UFC has are women.
Dana White reveals why he changed his mind about having women in the UFC