“The Sickness Is Real” – Dana White Comes Clean on Gambling Habits on Camera for UFC’s New ‘Fight Inc.’ Documentary

UFC CEO Dana White is not just the UFC head honcho, he is also a huge businessman and believe it or not, a gambler. The boss loves to roll the dice and test his luck so much so that he missed the UFC 291 press conference. White is pretty calculative with his gambling. He put high stakes on blackjack and won millions in it.

White’s love for gambling is something that even UFC fighters know of. He loves it so much that he even had a private gambling manager in his yacht once. The video of that has resurfaced recently and it has the UFC king even admitting to his addiction to gambling.

Dana White has an incurable sickness

An Instagram page “Full Send MMA” recently uploaded a video of White playing poker in his private yacht. The video is from UFC’s new Fight Inc. documentary, and is captioned, “Dana White getting a private blackjack dealer on a yacht in Italy is a next-level flex.” White is even talking about his “sickness” in the video and says, “ Came on vacation without a plan. The sickness is real.” The 54-year-old knows how obsessed he is with gambling, but it’s not as bad as it seems because he has won millions through these games.

The video was recorded in 2023 during White’s 54th birthday when White missed the UFC 291 press conference. It shocked the fans that White indulged in a night of blackjack on his private cruise rather than attending the presser. He was enjoying a Medetarrenian cruise on board a $865,000-a-week yacht with his family. The UFC CEO was seen playing with his son Aidan who also showed off his skills in the game.

The most interesting part is that White has not only won millions in gambling but sometimes he has lost too, and once he was so drunk that he lost $300,000. Even the legendary Mike Tyson once talked about White’s gambling habits publicly.

Mike Tyson’s revelations on White’s prolific gambling

While speaking in an episode of Hotboxin last year, Mike Tyson, revealed that the UFC CEO did not have access to many places in Vegas. He said, “Listen, this is crazy. All I hear is Dana White, he can’t go here. And he’s banned here. Dana’s banned in this hotel; he can’t come here.”  Tyson was laughing while talking about White’s prolific gambling and White was sitting right in front of him on that episode.

White later clarified that the word ‘banned’ meant the hotels would not let him play after a specific limit. He explained that he was one of those people who went straight to Red Rock and started playing.

Not only does White love gambling while playing poker and blackjack, but he also bets money on his pet bull named “Twisted Steel”. What do you make of this habit of the UFC boss? Let us know in the comments below!

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