UFC CEO and President Dana White recently shared his views on Jiu-Jitsu – revealing a clear preference for no-gi over gi.
Despite dabbling in Jiu-Jitsu prior to his UFC tenure, White’s immersion in the sport primarily stems from his influential role within MMA – rather than from too much personal experience.
Specifically, as the sport rose in popularity, UFC Fight Pass – Dana White’s promotion’s streaming service – signed broadcasting agreements with numerous leading professional grappling promotions worldwide.
Alongside existing rights to showcase elite competitors through Polaris, Quintet, and EBI, the UFC expanded its footprint in the Jiu-Jitsu realm with the highly successful UFC Fight Pass Invitational.
In other words, it’s clear that White prefers no-gi much more than gi Jiu-Jitsu – as he emphasized on a recent episode of the Lex Fridman podcast:
In my opinion, and all the Jiu-Jitsu fu*king people are going to go crazy over this…
But in my opinion, no-gi is way better than gi.
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Though, White did train Jiu-Jitsu for a short while as well:
I remember thinking, holy sh*t… I can’t believe that I’m 28 years old and this is the first time I’m experiencing this.
Such an eye-opening, mind-blowing experience.
The most humbling thing you can do as a man.You realize, holy sh*t, all that sh*t talking I’ve been doing about me being a badass – you realize you’re not.
