Dana White joined Philadelphia Eagles safety Reed Blankenship and Philadelphia Eagles cornerback Cooper DeJean on a podcast and the conversation took an unexpected turn when the UFC CEO pushed both players toward jiu jitsu.
Asked whether he thought Blankenship and DeJean could hold their own against each other in a fig ht, White pivoted the conversation toward grappling instead. “Have you guys ever done jiu-jitsu?” he asked.
Neither player had.
White’s response was immediate and emphatic. “Try jiu-jitsu class. You’ll become ad*icted, I guarantee you,” he said. When DeJean, 23, and Blankenship, 27, both admitted they had never trained, White laid out exactly what they were missing.
“So, what you will say is, how have I walked around for 27, 23 years and not known this? That another human being could do this to me,” White said. “It’s like, you know, when you took the red pill in the Matrix and you saw what it was really like. I’m telling you, you guys try jiu-jitsu class sometime and it’ll blow your mind.”
White noted the sport’s reach well beyond combat sports circles, pointing to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and actors like Tom Hardy and Mario Lopez as examples of high-profile devotees.
“So many guys in Hollywood do it,” he said.
The offer didn’t stop at a recommendation. White connected the dots for both players based on where they train. Blankenship, who plays for the Houston Texans, got a direct line to White’s matchmaker.
“You’re in Houston, right? So, my matchmaker Mick is in Houston and he has a jiu-jitsu school down there. I’ll connect you with Mick,” White said.
For DeJean, who splits time between Philadelphia and Arizona in the offseason, White worked through his mental list of contacts in both cities, landing on a name in Philly.
“Mickey Gall’s in Philly. Sorry, Mickey,” he said, half-apologizing for putting a fighter on the spot.
By the end of the segment, White had turned a passing question about football players’ toughness into a standing offer. “UFC tickets whenever you want and jiu-jitsu lessons for both of you,” he told the players.
