Dana White revealed that his dramatic walkout from Howie Mandel’s podcast was a pre-planned stunt done as a favor for Mandel, but he later disclosed the truth to stop fans from unfairly criticizing Mandel.
Dana White isn’t an actor, but sometimes he plays one on TV… or at least on podcasts.
Back in February, leading up to UFC 298, the UFC CEO was on a pre-fight “car wash.” He made appearances on various podcasts and radio shows to promote the event. During this, White joined comedian Howie Mandel’s podcast. Seconds into the interview, he proclaimed, “I am so f*cking tired of doing podcasts.” Then, he removed his headphones and walked out.
Mandel and his other guests sat there in stunned silence. White exited. Now, months later, White revealed it was all a setup. He did it as a favor for Mandel after meeting him that day.
“So what happened was I did the Sage Steele podcast when she called me Joe Rogan,” White said on the Flagrant podcast. “Sage Steele and I are good friends. I love Sage. She asked me to be her first guest, so I go out there. The studio is owned by Howie Mandel. She was signed to Bill Maher’s podcast company, and they’re all done in Mandel’s studio. We finish the podcast, and Howie Mandel walks in. 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 shit. He owns social media companies and other stuff. Howie Mandel owns a lot of shit people don’t realize. Smart guy, great guy. So we’re walking through, 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*cking honored to walk off your podcast because I’m so f*cking 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.’”
Obviously, White didn’t take that secret to his grave. So why reveal it now?
Turns out, White was at another appearance when fans began an anti-Mandel chant out of loyalty to him. He couldn’t let that stand. Now, White is telling the true story behind the podcast walkout. He assures everyone that Mandel did nothing wrong and deserves no backlash.
“I go do this thing with the Nelk Boys, we’re doing this ‘Monkeybomb’ f*cking tour, the whole f*cking crowd starts chanting, ‘F*ck Howie Mandel!’” White said. “I go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout, I can’t do this.’
“Howie Mandel’s the f*cking greatest dude ever. Sorry, Howie. It’s just when I go out and people start f*cking shitting on the guy — and I’m sure he could give a flying f*ck — I couldn’t do it. So Howie Mandel’s f*cking awesome.”