Everybody has an opinion on Dana White. Just bring up his name next time you are out on the town and see what happens. “Guy’s an idiot,” “ignorant loudmouth,” “super nice guy,” “one of the most real people in Vegas,” “totally down to earth” and the age-old classic, “asshole.” Those are just a few samples from people I encountered in the run-up to this interview, but one conclusion is clear: The jury is all over the place, except in the middle. That’s one area in which you’ll never find an opinion about the UFC alpha male. That’s because whatever he does or says, he’s all in. Maybe that’s why he recently made the list of 2010’s most influential people in both Time and Esquire.

I ruminated on these character assessments while I waited to meet Mr. White himself. It’s a few weeks before the next colossal fight weekend (Quinton “Rampage” Jackson vs. Rashad “Suga” Evans in UFC 114 at MGM Garden Arena, May 29), and I’m sitting in the lobby under the vaulted ceilings of the Ultimate Fighting Championship headquarters on West Sahara Avenue, watching clips of fights on the three giant plasmas. On one screen, a fighter is getting ripped to shreds. The coup de grâce is a knee to the skull, followed by a cascade of blood down to the Octagon floor. It’s another clue that I’m not about to meet Roger Goodell, a suit-and-tie Brylcreem guy who lays down the NFL law with the clean precision of a corporate lawyer.

Dana White’s image is closer to an NFL lineman than a sport’s CEO. But there is one parallel with the latter: I’m kept waiting 20 minutes past our appointment, and it’s not stacking the deck toward the pro-White side of the debate. Just when I start to get restless, his ultra-hospitable assistant, Chari, arrives to summon me upstairs, and it’s clear by her “so sorry” expression that I’m not the first individual bumped around by the hectic schedule of the UFC czar.