Ari Emanuel
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
I think it was three or four months into our deal coming off Fox, ESPN fires John Skipper, who was always shining me on that he never wanted.
And Bob Iger and Kevin Mayer say we want it because we're going to go direct on ESPN.
And we make a deal for both.
You're coming on Saturday to the pay-per-views, which we have stopped now since we're going to Paramount.
And we have these just normal fights every weekend, our fight nights.
So I did my job.
It was emotionally trying, but we got it done.
And what then happened, which was incredible and horrible all at once, COVID happens, world shuts down.
Dana goes, we're putting the fights on.
I said, I got your back.
He goes, get me an island.
I call my partners in the Middle East, in Abu Dhabi, and Khaldun, who owns Man City.
And I said, we need an island.
And we need planes and we need testing.
Everything.
Everything.
Because they're not going to be honest.
We need this.
And he says, yes.
So we bring fighters in from Europe.