Dana White admits Howie Mandel podcast exit was staged, explains why he decided to come clean: “I can’t do this”

Dana White Says Howie Mandel Podcast Exit Was Planned

UFC CEO Dana White appeared on the Flagrant podcast to explain how the viral podcast exit came to be (via MMAFighting.com).

“So we’re walking through and stuff and he goes, ‘Would you do me a favor?’ I said, ‘Yeah, what’s up?’ He’s like, ‘Would you come in and get up and walk off my podcast?’ I go, ‘I would be f*cking honored to walk off your podcast because I’m so f*cking sick of doing podcasts, it’s not funny.’

“We go in there and do it, right? He’s like, ‘Take this to the grave.’ I said, ‘Done, I’ll take it to the grave.”

White ended up revealing the truth anyway, and he explained why he couldn’t keep it a secret.

“I go do this thing with the Nelk Boys, we’re doing this ‘Monkeybomb’ f*cking tour, the whole f*cking crowd starts chanting, ‘F*ck Howie Mandel!’” White said. “I go, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, timeout, I can’t do this.’

White said that even though Howie probably doesn’t care, he couldn’t stand for seeing an “awesome dude” get disrespected the way that he was during that tour. Many online figured that Dana’s exit was staged, but clearly the fans who White mentioned didn’t get the memo.