Dana White Says Cocaine Scandal Led To UFC-ESPN Deal

A cocaine scandal that rocked the structure of ESPN 5 years ago eventually resulted in a substantial windfall for the UFC … this according to Dana White.

The manager of the battling org. defined the wild tale in an interview with Grant Cardone this month … insisting it was all “a true story.”

White described that back in 2017, the UFC’s handle Fox was going out … and when they had actually at first relied on ESPN about consummating a brand-new pact — the org. wasn’t interested.

“You ever become aware of John Skipper?” White asked Cardone throughout 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.”

White says Skipper basically obstructed talks on a deal from ever going through … however all of a sudden, out of no place, the ESPN prez revealed his resignation.

At the time, Skipper stated it was because of a battle with “a substance addiction.” He later on exposed in a 2018 interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he had actually been a user of cocaine, which “someone from whom I bought cocaine attempted to extort me.”

“They threatened me, and I understood immediately that threat put me and my family at risk, and this exposure would put my professional life at risk as well,” Skipper stated. “I foreclosed that possibility by disclosing the details to my family, and then when I discussed it with Bob, he and I agreed that I had placed the company in an untenable position and as a result, I should resign.”

White stated that choice led the way for a huge ESPN-UFC contract … that’s now taken his business to brand-new heights.

“John Skipper’s cocaine dealer is gonna rat him out,” White stated. “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.”

ESPN and UFC ended up agreeing to a 5-year, $1.5 billion deal.