MMA Fighting - Reaction | Dana White Addresses NYE Altercation, Won’t Face Punishment From UFC, Endeavor

Episode Date: January 11, 2023

UFC president Dana White unexpectedly showed up at Wednesday's UFC Vegas 67 media day to address the video release that showed him slapping his wife Anne on New Year's Eve. White reiterated his wrongdoing, said multiple times that nobody should be defending him, and also revealed he will not face any repercussions from the promotion, or parent company Endeavor. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Damon Martin react to White's scrum, how he's handled everything better than everyone else involved, what he did well, what was a miss, if there were any surprises, and if there's any expectations that more will be said in the future from those involved. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Damon Martin: @DamonMartin Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Ugh, what? Sounds like Ojo time. Play Ojo? Great idea. Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements. What you win is yours to keep groovy. Hey, I won! Feel the fun!

The morning will begin when passenger Fisher is done celebrating. 19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly. Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close, you call 1-8665-3-3-2-60 or visit comex Ontario.ca. With Amex Platinum, you have access to over 1,400 airport lounges worldwide. So your experience before takeoff is a taste of what's to come. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Mycac here for MMAfighting.com reacting to some new developments in regards to UFC president Dana White.

I'm sure we've seen the video by now. It was New Year's Eve, video released by TMZ that showed him and his wife, in some sort of dispute. At a nightclub, she seemed very distressed in the video. He grabs her wrist. He says something to her. She slaps him.

He slapped her, what appeared to be multiple times in the video. And since then, there has been no other response from Dana White from the UFC, from their parent company in Denver, Endeavor, not Denver,

Endeavor, Turner Sports, anybody involved with Dana White in the UFC, other than, the TMZ interview that was released with that video from Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Until Wednesday. On Wednesday, the UFC Vegas 67 Media Day is about to begin. And unexpectedly, Dana White shows up to the Media Day.

He was the first person on stage. He opened things up, spoke for a couple of minutes, saying that I'm here. I wanted to talk to all of you. and the focus at the end of the day should be on the fights this Saturday and the fighters. This is nothing to do with them. He then answered questions from the media for several more minutes. And multiple times throughout the scrum, he reiterated what he said on TMZ.

No excuse. He reiterated his embarrassment, said multiple times he will not be able to bounce back from this in the public, as well as at his own home. and one thing that he said that truly stuck out to me, and I'm sure the two gentlemen I'm going to introduce and everybody else that heard it, and he repeated this throughout, and he said it right away. He opposed anybody who defended him. Don't defend me on this.

This is on me. I was wrong. Do not defend my action. So a lot to unpack here. So let me bring in my colleagues, Alexander K. Lee and Damon Martin, and AK, as we record this, this scrum from Dana White wrapped.

maybe 30, 40 minutes ago. And look, we know Dana White, we've been following this man for a long time. We've seen how this has played out over the last week plus. He did not have to do this. I mean, he probably did in the grand scheme of things, but he certainly personally,

did not have to do this. And he did. He faced the MMA media. We didn't think this is going to happen for a very long time. He did it right away, right before their first card of the year. and he answered the questions.

And again, he said multiple times, do not defend me. You are wrong if you defend me in this situation. So right off the bat, your reaction to this media day scrum. Yeah, look, if you want to look at it in the most cynical way, you would say, what a brilliant move by Dana White to sort of control the narrative here to go on the offensive by showing up in a situation where nobody expected him to show up. I don't think anybody would have asked him to show up. I don't know if any of us in the media were like,

Dana better show up for that first fight week of 2023 to address this. We were all kind of like, we're okay with Dana. You know, he's released a statement and he's probably going to go into hiding. And we were kind of like all accepted that. We're not saying like that's the best way to handle it. But we had all kind of accepted it. Most of our criticism following the incident. And this is not to say that what I'm about to say,

is worse than what, you know, that what Dana did, which was, you know, striking his wife. But right behind that is, you know, his business associates ESPN, the UFC, endeavor, not saying anything. So that's what really threw us off. That's what really drew most of our criticism. So, again, we were not demanding Dana White, you know, come answer now. We wanted an answer, we wanted statements from those companies. So for him to show up really throws everything off, first thing I'll say from the most

positive standpoint is that his messaging is on point. His messaging of don't defend me. There's no excusing this. I hope people take those words to heart because it is 100% the correct thing to say that part of his media scrum. We can't reiterate this enough because the other, the other group of people that I think a lot of us in the media were frustrated with were fans and fighters who were so quick to step up and defend it in a way it was mystifying to us like we just couldn't understand why when he himself in the initial interview with TMZ had said something simpler don't defend me i made a miss i screwed up this is all on me so again kind of bringing it back to how i started this if people want to say this is just uh you know uh protecting his brand

and and uh you know uh controlling the narrative and he's just saying what people want him to hear you can maybe assume that. That's fine. Again, I've been very critical of Dana White in the past and certainly his truth-telling abilities. But in this case, if you want to look at it at the surface level of he's fully acknowledging that he did something wrong, that is a hell of a lot better than a lot of public figures have handled domestic violence cases in the past. Again, I'm not absolving Dana White of what he did. I'm not saying that today's media scrum was perfect. Again, we're going to get to some of the less fine points in a moment, I'm sure. But the initial messaging, I was wrong. Don't defend me. I live with this rest of my life. Very accurate. And again, credit to Dana for coming out in a situation where it certainly probably wasn't required and we definitely did not expect it. Damon, what did you think of this whole thing?

We were talking a little bit before we hit record and you brought up a really good point, which I'm sure you're going to share right now. But overall, what did you think about this? Yeah. It's kind of mind-boggling to me how Dana White, the guy that did this really egregious, awful thing, being domestic violence and striking his wife in a video that we have now all seen, has found a way to handle this situation better than anyone else around him. I don't understand how this is possible. This is a horrible, horrible thing. We all agree on that.

The entire world agrees on that. You do not put your hands on a woman, ever. We all agree. That's like the, that's like the most base. It's like, I know this is the terrible. It's like when people say really dumb things publicly and they bring up really controversial subjects, you just scratch your head and you say, how do you not know better than to say that? And inevitably, someone comes out and defends them.

It was all they weren't really saying that. You're like, what are you doing? We all know it's wrong. you do not put your hands on a woman. Fighters are coming out saying, well, she hit him first and everyone. And then there's people just dead silence being mostly Endeavour and ESPN. And by extension, Turner Sports with TBS making the partnership with Power Slap.

Dana White doing the TMZ interview on day one was already a little suspect because TMZ is ultimately a partner of the UFC. We all know this. They are in bed with the UFC, and that's kind of an easier way to kind of go out there and give your statement. Even in the even, and to his credit, to Dana's credit, even in that interview, one of the guys from TMZ said, now we heard there was a lot of alcohol involved. And Dana's like, yeah, there was, but that doesn't make it any better. No excuses. Like even then he was saying, don't try to make excuses for me.

Then today on Wednesday, he comes out and says after a number of fighters, have disturbingly defended his actions. He comes on and says, don't do that. Don't defend me. There's no defending this. It's horrible. I'm going to have to carry this label with me with me for the rest of my life. How is it that the guy who did this awful thing is handling this better than anyone around him?

It doesn't make any sense. And I'm not absolving the UFC in this, but he is the president of the UFC. So it's a little harder for me to imagine Hunter Campbell or someone else from the company. But it would seem almost disingenuous for one of them to put out a statement, considering he's their boss, right? But how Ari Emanuel, a guy who has been very vocal in other hot button subjects? I mean, he more or less said when Mel Gibson came out years ago and had very, very horrible, controversial things and say he basically said,

it's not worth the money you're going to make off this guy to do business with him, be done with him. It's back in the early 2000s. had a big statement on Kanye West with his old anti-Semitism and rightfully so like I was like good for you Ari like come out and say this the fact that he said nothing no statement I mean this is for an awful situation this was the biggest layup in the universe to just come out and say we condemn these actions now we can all sit here and say it's lip service because there's no real punishment involved there's no repercussion for this but at least say we condemn these actions it's

horrible, it's awful, you don't do this, we do not condone this, whatever. They said nothing. It just, it boggles my mind how Dana White is handling this better than anyone else. I don't understand, I don't understand how this is possible. And he brought up the don't defend me thing on his own. This is on his opening monologue, so to speak. And he said one thing that I didn't say to TMZ was, and I've seen the tweets and everything out there, don't defend me. He brought this up on his own. And of course, it was asked

of him multiple other times and he said the same thing. So, A.K., look, I think he handled himself great. And I agree with everything both of you guys said. And he could have just stayed in the shadows and let this thing just fade away, which let's be honest, especially with some of the reactions we've seen from the fighters and from a minority of fans who is a pretty eclected group, it probably would have happened. It probably just would have faded away. So outside of him just showing up and doing this today, did anything surprise you from the scrum at all today?

Yeah, I did wonder if he would have taken the opportunity after having to get, you know, gotten a better lay of the land. Because like we said, a lot of the points he said at the scrum were echoed from the TMZ interview. Don't defend me. This is on me. mistake things like that you know he may have elaborated more he may have reworded they're very similar i had again the i the cynical side of me had wondered in the time since then seeing that there was still a lot

of fans who supported him that many of his fighters that any of the fighters who spoke up seemed to be in support i don't know if i know any i dustin poor i actually doesn't poor i actually was one i was interviewed and obviously there was no excuse other than that shan o'malley had kind of come forward and and and i don't know if he was joking or not but even if he was what a time was what a time was i was terrible thing to be sarcastic about saying that Dana White was okay that he hit his wife back. Jamal Hill, I have no idea what happened to him. He lost his absolute mind defending domestic violence. Totally crazy.

And then again, no statements from Endeavor. No statement from UFC. No statement from the ESPN. At that point, you wonder if Dana or his team would be like, listen, you're not looking that bad in the situation. You got the first statement out there. There's a lot of support for you out there. We push back stupid power slap league.

This is going to blow over. You don't need to say anything more. So I am a little surprised that he did stick to, again, pretty much just elaborated on what he had said to TMZ, stuck to those guns. Because it could have gone a lot worse. His first public appearance, whether it was this week or in the future, it could have gone a lot worse.

He could have just ignored the whole issue. He could have been more defiant. but as I said before, the messaging was really where it needed to be. Damon kind of touched upon this, though. If there's one thing that, you know, I think all of us weren't fans of, yes, the whole idea that UFC can't work without him, that him being punished would punish fighters and everyone else. That's a little narcissistic.

Again, I don't know if that's just coming from him or if that's kind of what his team and management want him to say that like, listen, you got to remind people you are essential to this business. Whatever you say, remind people you're essential to this business. You've got to look out for yourself too. Because it came off a little bit like that. Came off a little bit like, despite everything I'm saying, it's important that I don't face any real consequences.

You have to imagine, you have to imagine, at least, again, I may be wrong, but you have to imagine there's some messaging in there from Endeavour telling him that. Like, we can't do this without you. Because why else would they stay silent? Like, why else would they not at least put out a statement saying, we condemn these actions, we do not condone domestic violence, whatever you want to say? because listen is Dana you know can Dana be a narcissistic person does he yeah of course when you're in that position of power yeah that's kind of common right like we all kind of come to see that with people in

these positions of power when it seems like they're untouchable whether you're talking about him or Elon Musk or any of these other guys that feel untouchable they all have this kind of air of narcissism and I get it I'm not excusing it but I get it so but you got to imagine there's got to be messaging somewhere saying we can't do this without you Dana. You know what I mean? We can't. So that was probably my biggest issue with this whole thing. And listen,

it's an abhorrent thing what he did. And trust me, as a guy who grew up in domestic violence of my own household, the last thing I would ever do is excuse that. I've said, you know, since the second I saw this video, it's sick in me and it's disgusting

and no one should excuse this. Absolutely not. But again, to his credit, in terms of owning it, and taking responsibility for it, Dana has said and done all the right things. The one thing I disagree with him on, though, is this whole, what happens if I go away for 30 or 60 days? That hurts.

How does it, I mean, come on. The UFC is like a well-old machine right now. You and I'm not trying to make light of this, but there's been a million press conferences where Dana gets asked about some prelim fighter, and he has zero clue you're talking about. Like he just said, oh, yeah, they look good. You know he has no idea who this person is. He's not concerning himself with the third fight of the night from somebody who didn't come from the contender series. He's worried about, and I get it.

He's worried about the main event, co-main event, things like that. It's not like he's the talent scout out there finding all these fighters. It's not like, you know, he's, we've heard a million times even when he, when Lorenzo was around, Lorenzo ended up doing a lot of the contract. We know Hunter Campbell, you talk to any fighter on the UFC roster nine times out of 10 or 99 times out of 100. They're dealing with Hunter Campbell at the UFC. I'm not saying Dana's not involved in Dana is an important part of the machine, but to pretend like it all falls apart if you're not there, I think that's a, that's a, again, that's a, a, a, a couple of was a bridge too far.

That was probably my only real issue with the whole thing is when he said, it was like, will you have any kind of, but he, all he had to say at that moment was, it's not my place. Like, I can't, I'm not, it's not my place to punish me. Like, it's Endeavour. They own the company. Endeavor should be the one punishing him and saying, you got to step away for three months or six months or a month or whatever the you know whatever it is him saying that's that's my only real

issue with this whole thing otherwise everything he said he said right any answer questions and credit to the media that was in assembled there they all got shocked by this i'm sure they didn't expect dana to show it but they asked him questions they didn't shy away from asking him questions and actually you know making him own up to it uh good for them because they were not the TMZ you know we're you know getting paid by the UFC to talk to you kind of thing But yeah, that was my only real issue with this whole thing was the whole how does the UFC survive without me. I think we're past. I'm not saying Dana's not important.

He is. But he goes away for three months. Do the wheels fall off? I highly doubt it. No. And you could do it in different ways. You can just not put him in front of a camera and not have him do interviews and not have him do certain things. And maybe a pull power slap off for three months.

Like that one still boggles my mind that they're still going forward. forward with this power slap league, but it is what it is. I'm not going to harp on it. And I agree with both of you. I think the biggest miss of this whole thing was if I step away, it doesn't hurt me. It hurts the UFC. And, you know, maybe behind the scenes, certain deals like he has to be there. Like, Damon, you're a sons of anarchy fan, right?

Gailin. Absolutely. Galen wouldn't do a deal with the sons unless Clay was involved, even though we knew Clay was who he was. And he just wouldn't move forward with any kind of deals to help them. out unless Clay was at the head of the table. So maybe there's something like that. I have no idea. I'll tell you what the most surprising thing was to me. And Damon, you could probably attest to this because you do a lot of interviews for the site. Dana White went on the record and basically said

that anybody on the roster can react to this however they want. Free speech, he's on the record saying this. And I'm stunned that he said that because truth be told, this has been weighing on my mind for a while because I'm trying to do more interviews and there's like the journalistic part of me that wants to ask these fighters, their reaction to this. Because I've talked to a lot of them off the record and a lot of them are horrified by this,

especially the female fighters who have reached out and said, you guys are covering this really well, you're doing it fairly and you're not hiding at all. And that's just the way we have to cover this because that's what you're supposed to do. That's what would be done in any other sport. But the fact that Dana was like, listen, if a fighter has a bad thing to say about this,

then cool. Like, they should have a bad thing to say about this. So I was really surprised to hear him say that. And who knows if there's any truth to that or whatnot. But last question I'll ask, AK, will there be, in your opinion, any more response from this? Will there be anything else? Or outside of just him showing up post-paper-view

and somebody just asking him how his family's doing or something like that, do you think there'll be any further response from this? other than what we got on Wednesday? No, there'll be some, listen, there'll be some lingering comments, lingering questions, maybe more media appearances, maybe he does something formal with ESPN, who has been noticeably quiet,

I want to say, anyone from ESPN on social media talking about the story and talking about the scrum, most of it again coming from media outlets not associated with it, not directly connected to the UFC. So I could see him planning some sort of, you know, proper sit down

and really hit an, really good. get this message out there really show that he's not hiding, you know, in case whatever he did today wasn't enough. I could see that happening. Otherwise, until, you know, it will flare up again if, I say if blindly hoping that this is somehow never happens again, that, you know, there is some domestic violence incident with one of his athletes, which, you know, then it's going to come up all over again. Then we have this whole discussion. But he kind of mentioned that today too. He said going forward, it's not going to, you know, what I did is not. not going to affect how the UFC deals with these cases in the future.

It'll be case by case. Everything's different. But pretty vague answer, probably the right stance to take at this point for him and for the company. So for now, I don't want to say it's going to blow over, but he has done his part as much as he can do to make this blow over for him. The rest of it is with, again, the huge organizations he works for. And I think they've already made it pretty clear.

they don't have much to stay on the matter. Yeah, I would still like to see him because like we've all talked about, he's handled this better than anybody else has. I would still like to see him kind of on his own or however it's worked. Make a charitable donation to help with DV and all that. Cut a PSA. I'd love to see that be done, even if it's on his own, even if he's not getting pushed to do that.

But other than that, you can't really complain. about how he has handled all of this. Like, there are certain things along the way since the TMZ interview that have irked me, but it is what it is. He came on and he faced the music today, and I give him a lot of credit for that. So what else say? Yeah, he needs to do all that going forward. He needs to do all the good PR, all the, again, whether people want to believe it or not,

whether they believe it's sincere or not, it's very important that he does these things because even if the intention, even if the intention behind it is insincere, he has a platform where he can and the resources where he can sort of help with this sort of thing. And that is like my most optimistic takeaway because the fact that he's not facing consequences sends a really poor message, a message that I feel like very badly undercuts everything that he tried to say today, everything that he said in his statement, because as much as he can say, yes, it's sustained and he personally wears the rest of his life. And that's a horrible thing.

if he truly does feel remorseful and truly does feel guilty, terrible thing to live with, terrible thing that he did and he knows it. But from a financial standpoint, from a business standpoint, this sends the message that you don't face consequences for these actions. And I worry that so many of the people who were ignorant about this and who ignored the message that he said right from the start, we'll focus more on that, more on, well, he got away with it. You know, he got away with this horrible, horrible thing he did.

And I hope that's not to take away. I hope, again, the PR, the message that he put out, the words that he said today outside of the company can't survive without me thing. I hope the don't defend me. I'm 100% wrong. It's all on me. I hope that is what people take away from this. And not that, unfortunately, a powerful man did something very, very, very bad in public.

And as far as we know, is facing no public or internal consequences. Damien, you think there'll be anything more from this? Well, two quick things. One, let me speak to your point earlier about the whole the fighter messages. While you and I and everyone on this call knows, everyone listening knows, the UFC will absolutely, you know, there will be blowback when you do certain things in the UFC.

And so there's a, we understand the healthy fear why certain fighters don't speak out. But I will say, again, this is me giving credit to Dana White. We've seen plenty of nasty things said about the UFC and Dana White over the years and fighters still stay in the UFC. We can't sit there and say that fighters can't speak their minds because they've done. I mean, the greatest example, of course, is Tito Ortiz. Tito and Dana despised each other.

And yet he continued to give Tito fights. He put him in the Hall of Fame. Like all these things, again, I'm not saying it's across the board because there are certain people, let's say Frank Shamrock who's still not in the UFC Hall of Fame. And I think that's a personal grudge. But you can't say you can't say anything. Like, I understand. Like, you got to use kid gloves and this is a more personal incident than a business thing.

But it is weird to me. because we've seen plenty of fighters say wildly crazy things about the UFC and Dana White, and there's been really not, you know, they still stick around the roster, whatever. So let me get that off first, too. As far as handling going forward, I don't think Dana's going to shy away from this. I mean, you know, this is different than like, let's say, and I know it's a weird example, but this is different than like when people continuously badgered him about Jake Paul. And he finally was like, I'm just sick of talking about this guy.

Like don't, he's not in my business. I have nothing to do with him. Stop asking me about him. He's, if he's serious and he owns up to this, when another fighter sadly gets involved in a domestic violence situation, which given the nature of how 2023 is started, it probably won't be long, unfortunately. I think he's going to, I think he's going to address it.

I don't think he's going to shy away from it. So I don't think, like when I say, is this the end of it in terms of him publicly addressing it? No, I think when the next press conference, comes and he shows up and there's a follow-up question. Maybe Endeavour does a earnings call, which they will do for quarter one here in a couple months. And maybe finally, Ari Emanuel will actually have to speak on the record about this whole

day and a white situation. And maybe he's asked for his reaction. Then he'll, I don't think he's going to, listen, I don't think he's going to shy away from from it now because he didn't need to do this today. So, you know, I don't think he's going to be, I don't think he's going to go out and do a million different things. but when he shows up in press conferences and someone has a follow-up question or maybe there's a reporter who hasn't been around who has a question about this,

I don't think he's going to shy away from it. Again, he's not, for a guy who did it and did a horrible thing, he's not handling this, you know, he's not handling this much better than he could have, honestly, like doing what he's doing. He's saying all the right things. Hopefully he's doing all the right things at home to repair the damage he's done with his family. He said his oldest son is very not happy. So that's a situation he's got to deal with at home.

But again, this all comes back to the people around him. Endeavour, TBS, Turner Sports, ESPN, just giving him a pass. He's not asking for a pass, people. He's telling you, don't defend me. Don't, don't do it. And they're all just like, what do you talk? Where did he say this? No, he didn't say this.

What? It's just, it's mind boggling to me how the guy who did this, did it right? in terms of his record, how he's handling the reaction to this, and everyone else around him is blowing it. Beyond any possible measure, they're blowing it. Well, we will see what happens. But last thing I want to say on this before we wrap this thing up is talking about this, whether it's us or anybody else within the media that wrote articles about it or whatever,

because data mentioned it all. And he mentioned people that he doesn't like. talking about this, probably talking about one of our colleagues, talking about it a lot. And I'm sure Dana has seen it all. And he said, they have every right to do that. And he mentioned all of this. So he knows what people are saying. He listens and sees what everybody is saying about him. So talking about this and us bringing this up and keeping this as a story, in my opinion, this has led to at least something happening, right? Because we've been wondering, what's going to happen? What's going to happen? We've heard nothing since TMZ. At least he came out and

did something about this. And I'm giving him a ton of credit for it. I know you guys are as well. I know a lot of people in the space are as well. And who knows if this will be the end? I'm guessing it's not more. Like I said, more can probably be done here from a PR perspective, but only time we'll tell if it does. And AK Damon, thank you very much. And thank you. you all for listening and watching i am mike hack stay tuned to m-mafighting dot com for any more developments on the story to the vox media podcast network