nine years in the past – within the wake of pictures surfacing of former Baltimore Ravens working again Ray Rice brutally assaulting his fiancée – UFC president Dana White took the chance to talk out in opposition to home violence.
“There’s one thing that you never bounce back from and that’s putting your hands on a woman,” White informed Fox Sports Live in 2014. “Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.”
Despite White’s strong stance at the time, the 53-year-old was recently caught on camera in a physical altercation with his wife, Anne, at a New Year’s Eve party in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Footage published by TMZ 0n Monday showed Anne slapping White at a nightclub. White then returned the slap and tried to strike her again before others intervened.
Speaking to TMZ the next day, White confirmed the “horrible” incident. “There’s never ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.”
“This is one of those situations that’s horrible, I’m embarrassed – but it’s also one of those situations that right now we’re more concerned about our kids,” White persisted. “We have three kids and obviously since the video popped up, we’ve shown the kids the video, and we’re more focused on our family right now.”
The UFC president maintained that the altercation was the “first time” that such an incident occurred. “I’m literally making no excuses for this thing at all. It’s never happened before,” he stated.
In a separate remark to TMZ, Anne printed that the couple were “drinking too much on New Year’s Eve and things got out of control, on both sides”.
Despite White’s try to keep watch over the narrative, his determination to bodily attack his spouse raises questions on whether or not the UFC president is are compatible to proceed working the arena’s biggest combined martial arts group.
White has served as UFC president for greater than 20 years, taking on the mantle in 2001 when his trade companions, on line casino tycoons Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, bought the UFC for $2m. During White’s tenure, the UFC grew into a world juggernaut and was once sooner or later got for $4bn in July 2016 – the richest sale within the historical past {of professional} sports activities on the time.
Yet regardless of the UFC’s persisted good fortune and emerging benefit margins, Endeavor, the media and leisure corporate that owns the UFC, noticed its stocks fall just about 6% after information of the altercation become public. This, coupled with the general public members of the family nightmare of getting the president of a fight sports activities entity strike his spouse in public, may power Endeavor to distance itself from White.
It is tricky to consider a commissioner for a significant sports activities league such because the NBA or NFL hanging their spouse with out going through important penalties. Even White, when requested about whether or not NFL commissioner Roger Goodell must surrender following his mishandling of the Rice home abuse case in 2014, prompt Goddell “should just get up and leave on his own”.
Nevertheless, it’s not going that White will face penalties for his movements from the UFC, because the group’s dealing with of home violence incidents has been inconsistent at perfect. Despite White’s declare that warring parties “never bounce back” from hitting girls, there are many examples of UFC warring parties who persisted to struggle for the group through the years regardless of allegations of home or sexual attack.
In 2018, Greg Hardy – the previous NFL defensive finish as soon as convicted for assaulting his ex-girlfriend – made his UFC debut at the similar match that still featured Rachael Ostovich, a fighter who was once additionally a sufferer of home violence. When White sooner or later confronted complaint for his place on Hardy, he blamed the media for stirring hassle.
“I’m no longer taking part in this bullshit with you guys. [Hardy] is at the UFC roster. length. End of tale,” White said at the time.
MMA is a sport that has long been plagued by domestic violence. In 2015, HBO’s Real Sports revealed that the amount of domestic violence arrests involving MMA fighters was more than double the average national rate, and was far ahead of NFL players. The sport continues to serve up high-profile domestic assault cases. In 2021, former UFC light heavyweight champion Jon Jones was arrested following an alleged incident involving his wife with their children present just hours after he was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. He was initially charged with domestic violence but had the charge dropped following a plea deal with prosecutors.
A few weeks later, UFC Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell was arrested on a domestic violence charge in southern California involving his wife. No charges were filed following the arrest. White’s physical altercation with his wife is merely the latest in a long line of domestic violence cases that have marred the UFC and the sport as a whole.
Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, and UFC have not responded to the Guardian’s request for comment. ESPN – the UFC’s broadcast partner – redirected the Guardian to the UFC’s public relations team.
In an ironic twist of fate, White also happens to be the face of a new “aggressive open-handed hanging” league called Power Slap. The so-called sport will feature matches where two competitors stand across from each other and trade slaps across the face. Power Slap, which was created by White and Lorenzo Fertitta in partnership with the UFC and Endeavor, is expected to debut its eight-episode series on TBS next week.
“I noticed some pictures of slap combating on social media and I used to be straight away hooked,” White said in a UFC press release announcing the slap-fighting league. “From the primary day I noticed it, I felt like this might be giant.”
Beyond the obvious controversy of having a man who slapped his wife serve as the figurehead of a new slap-fighting league, medical professionals have expressed their skepticism regarding the organization’s health and safety measures and whether it will protect competitors from traumatic brain injuries.
Warner Media, the parent company of TBS, did not respond to a request for comment on White at the time of writing.
While White’s latest project is his new slap-fighting league, he remains synonymous with the UFC brand. However, his latest controversy could mark a turning point in the organization’s history – one that compels us to consider a UFC without Dana White at the helm.
As White himself once said: “You do not jump again from hanging your fingers on a lady.”