EXCLUSIVE: Dana White Previews UFC 330, Islam Makhachev Already The GOAT? | TMZ Sports

All right Dana we're only a couple days away now UFC 330 you're going back to Philadelphia for the first time since 2019 so it's been some time Dana you're gonna go get some food you get cheesesteaks or anything when you're in town? I literally just came from Geno's cheesesteaks right now. Are you settling a debate here Dana is that is Pat's Geno's is that though is it Geno's? That's been my spot forever since since my first cheesesteak it was Geno's and you know I created a relationship with the guy I love him and he takes good care of me when I go over there they got like this private area in the back that they sit you in and we sat there and hung out and it was great. I love it I love it I know this has been a big topic this week Dana with Islam and his legacy and he's already tied with Anderson is for 16 straight UFC wins incredible he wins he sets the record I mean is he already in I know you've been asked this a bunch of times is he already in that conversation the way you see it as far as the greatest of all time in your organization? Me and my friends were just talking about it right now if he doesn't have that one loss probably consider him the GOAT right now. Yeah do you consider obviously Habib came late and he fought everybody but he came later and he already had accumulated a bunch of wins what Islam has done is really remarkable in some ways do you despite the loss do you view that even as more impressive than what Habib did in the UFC? Yeah he's obviously accomplished more than Habib because he's fought longer who knows what Habib could have accomplished if he stayed in the game and realistically if Habib had done what everybody pretty much knows Habib could have done definitely would be the GOAT. Do you see it as I mean you look back to like you know watching like an old fight last night I was like Tank Abbott and he looks like a guy that was on like a barstool that was fighting and then you know you get the next generation and they're more refined and more refined I mean Islam the ground game is unstoppable but his stand-up game too Dana I mean is this just the kind of the next iteration of somebody like Habib who not great standing up great on the ground but Islam can do it all. Yeah I think what's incredible is when you look at Habib's father who said you know Habib will go in there and dominate and he'll win the championship and then Islam will come in behind him I mean everything that guy said happened and and believe me everybody said everybody's father says it right all these trainers say it that this guy's gonna be the guy Habib's father literally nailed exactly the way it would come out. Yeah talking about calling your shots Ian Gary obviously his opponent the challenger here he's a polarizing guy you got a lot of people like him you got a lot of people who don't seem to like him but people talk about him. With a win do you think he becomes one of the biggest biggest UFC stars in the world is that what kind of what's on the line here aside from the title? Well when you talk about everything that's on the line for Islam this weekend you know breaking Anderson Silva's record he holds a ton of records in the UFC already and if Gary can come in and beat him I mean it's it's this is Ian Gary's biggest fight ever I mean this is huge for him. Do you think people are they under stating the risk to Islam here Dana do you I mean he Gary's a good fighter obviously he's got the height advantage to reach advantage his stand-up is really good he's good at stopping takedowns do you think that he's in some ways been disrespected by like the fans of the media who have said I yeah this is no challenge to Islam. Yeah I don't think disrespected but yeah he's definitely being overlooked which is crazy he beat Bilal Mohammed. Yeah absolutely and there was a way there was a there was a there was a path to victory that you see for him in there. Absolutely absolutely in my opinion you know he's the number one contender right now but he is the most dangerous guy right now for Islam especially with what Islam's looking at right now I mean there's there's potential goat talk for this kid he's he breaks Anderson Silva's record on Saturday and the list goes on and on it's a it you know it's one of those fights that that's like set up for a spoiler. Yeah it does feel like that how about McKenzie and and kind of just the star that she's become talking about stars Dana and that you know you sign her she now is champion obviously she's got big social media presence I mean she's really come into her own and become a big star she was just here a couple days ago that's why it's kind of top of mind here but she's become a big star. Yeah yeah she's awesome she's a great kid she's tough I love the way she fights and and taking on Jillian Robertson I'm actually a Robertson fan I like I like her yeah and she actually has the record for the most finishes and in the women's flyweight division maybe in the women's division. Yeah I think in the women's division period I I do believe. Which sets this up to be another great fight with another great story. Right and I know a lot of times people want these fights to stay on the feet but like one of those when you're talking about just like the best of the best in that area in that discipline that that should be a really fun one and with McKenzie. When you have two really good jujitsu you know fighters especially at this level for a world title it was like when BJ Penn fought Joe Daddy Stevenson I mean everybody was so excited to see those two go to the ground and many other fights like that in UFC this is one of those. Yeah and you want to talk about somebody who has developed their game I mean you know I didn't know if McKenzie could throw a punch when she first stepped in there and now the way she looks I mean her stand up looks pretty solid pretty good. World champ so yeah yeah. That's it. All right Craig Brassari you said I heard you say. Cocky Craig. Cocky Craig is his new name. You're making this guy too big of a star Dana gee I mean he's gonna. Yeah he's a rock star. What are you gonna tell me? A guy built a arena on the South Lawn of the White House and now he's just throwing cocky ideas at me every day now. You teased that cocky Craig had an idea I mean yeah is that yeah is that we talking I know you can't give it away here unless you want to are we talking I mean what else could you do are we don't like an aircraft carrier or in the sky what are we thinking? No you know it's it's it's not not anything like we'll never do anything bigger than the White House the White House and being there that night was literally the one of the greatest nights of my life it was it was an amazing experience this what what cocky Craig came up with is a great idea and if we can make it happen I have a couple calls after this weekend to see if we can get it done and then he's gonna fly out and and and start you know doing some what we call he's in here cocky Craig Brassari in here by the way which he hates his new nickname hates his new nickname you're gonna go do some recon work on on the on the on the possible event but hopefully I can get this thing done next week and some of the stuff that I have to do and then he can go go walk the site and hopefully we can announce something soon. Do you think and I asked you last time hey when do you think you're gonna be you know done you want to walk away and you said no not anytime soon do you think when you look back and not to talk about old stuff here with the White House but it was just so damn good do you think when you look back was that gonna be the best night in your UFC life for all you did for this promotion and taking it you know from its deathbed and you know everything will that be will that be the highlight? There's no doubt about it there's no doubt about it it was it was such an incredible night and the way that the story played out with the storm breaking and going around the White House obviously my relationship with the president and the lead-up to all that you know what Borsari pulled off you know not just there but on the ellipse too. The amount of people that showed up the you know the highlights from the thing it's just America's 250th birthday it just yeah nothing's ever gonna beat that. Are they making an album Dana? The Marine Band was so good. Are they making an album? They were incredible. Yeah. That was one of the things that Kaki Craig Borsari pointed out to me first he said wait till you hear this band. Hey when's the album coming? Oh it's out. Oh is it out? Amazing. Where can people get it? Yeah. Anywhere you can find music Spotify Apple yeah it's out everywhere the albums out. Oh that's awesome I mean. They obviously did a job of promoting that. Well you know. I didn't even know. Kaki Craig he can't do everything. Oh it came out on July 4th. I didn't know that all right. It's a great story if we would have made a good story. I mean especially the whole thing was good but especially the guy who was singing for Gaichi as Gaichi walked out. That was that was awesome. I mean every time there was literally a point in time I knew that the band was gonna do all the music that night and and at one point the Red Hot Chili Peppers was playing one of my favorite bands of all time and I'm like is that the DJ? There's no way that's the president's band. It was doing the Chili Peppers. I thought it was the Chili Peppers. That's incredible and to think that these are like these are these are Marines that are that are service members is so so cool. People you talked about the weather Dana people think you use like secret military technology apparently to split the storm. Can you put that to bed? One of my longtime friends his name is Skipper Kelp he he does the he does the scoring on on Zupa boxing for us. The biggest conspiracy theorist I've ever met in my life. Every night we go to dinner I got to listen to this crazy that he comes up with and all this stuff so I'm sure Skip probably believes that we use some, he's shaking his head yes, that we use some you know some secret military stuff to break up the storm. I can promise you that did not happen. We thought it was hitting us. The president thought it was hitting us and Cocky Craig was uh was like hand-in-hand working with the military you know we weren't using like the Channel 4 weather guys. We had military meteorologists all over this thing and this guy was telling us we're gonna get hit. That may be the biggest thing to come from this interview that we did here. They that we're putting that to bed. They won't believe you but we're trying. Skip doesn't believe me. He's right here. He was there. He doesn't believe it. I get how these things happen and how they start. There was absolutely no military you know. We thought we were getting hit. Well I believe you for whatever that's worth. Well if you watch the documentary the whole team is out there like batting down the hatches and like getting everything ready because we know we're gonna get hit. Stuff's gonna get damaged. Everything's gonna get wet. So we were just ready to roll with however it went and then the storm around. Well it was so damn cool of a story. That's why people think it was something crazy happened because it's like this couldn't have just actually happened. So that was so cool. Anything else you want to talk about? Break? Anything else you want to say before I let you go? I don't think so. I think we got it all. I love it. Thank you brother. Next big news is gonna be you know Cocky Craig's idea. We'll see if we can get this thing done this week and then we'll start talking. I hope Cocky Craig's contract's not coming up soon because you're gonna have a hell of a time negotiating. He's not going anywhere. Then you're gonna have to pay him a lot of money. We already do. You can't go anywhere and make more money. Have fun data this weekend. We'll be watching. Thanks. Thanks brother. Bye.