Dana White is well-known for his high stakes wagers. White commonly enjoys playing blackjack, but he is hesitant to place a wager on a live sporting event. In fact, the UFC president detests it. This may be a result of one boxing match.
Dana White was certain that Jermain Taylor would defeat Kelly Pavlik in 2007 to defend his WBO and WBC middleweight belts. It was the undefeated Taylor’s fifth defense. Pavlik unexpectedly knocked out Taylor .
And in a discussion on the Full Send Podcast, White described how the disappointment ruined his vacation that September.
“The biggest sports bet? $1million. I lost. I f***ing hate betting on sports. Hate it, hate it.”
“Remember Jermain Taylor, the boxer? Good looking f***ing kid came up through the Olympics and married [basketball player Erica Taylor].”
“I thought Jermain Taylor was going to kill him. Jermain Taylor got destroyed. I was in Cabo [Mexico], relaxing having fun. That ruined my fun. Ruined my whole trip.”
Dana White reportedly lost $1M betting on this one pic.twitter.com/hK9br3Hgq6
— calfkicker (@calfkickercom) October 8, 2022
Pavlik used hooks and uppercuts to knock Taylor to the ground in round seven. Taylor was ahead on all three scorecards when the bout was stopped.
And while White claims he tries to stay away from sports wagers – this isn’t exactly true. Earlier this year he was caught redhanded watching Canelo against Bivol during a UFC event.
This isn’t the first time White was caught watching Canelo while Namajunas was in the octagon.
In November of last year White was captured watching boxing during Namajunas vs Weili Zhang. At the time he offered up an excuse – he had to watch the because he made a bet. He revealed that he bet $100,000 on Canelo finishing the boxing match with a KO. Dana White is estimated to have won roughly $41,000.
Dana White decided to watch Canelo Alvarez lose to Dmitry Bivol rather than the clash in front of him – and this time nobody can blame him.
Dana White has been banned from four different Las Vegas casinos, including twice from the Palms Casino.
The 52-year-old is widely known as a blackjack master and has earned millions in a single night.
Joe Rogan once said during his podcast:
“Dana White is a notorious gambler, but he wins millions of dollars sometimes. I think he said he lost as much as one million dollars and he‘s won as much as seven million in a night. They’ve banned him from a bunch of casinos because he’s really good at blackjack.“