UFC boss Dana White paid social media influencer Bob Menery $50,000 after he introduced him to YouTube stars the Nelk Boys.
White has developed a close friendship with the social media sensations over the last few years, inviting them to countless events, helping them land Donald Trump as a podcast guest and gifting key member Kyle Forgeard a massive bag of $250,000 in cash for his birthday this year in a move that drew controversy online.
But the relationship between White and Menery, who was the initial contact between the two sides, has soured after the podcaster was removed from Nelk's successful Full Send podcast. Menery has been taking aim at Forgeard for the fallout, and included White in a montage of guests that he reportedly got on the show in the early days when he was co-host.
White hit back at Menery picking him out, posting an Instagram story where he wrote: “Keep me out of your crybaby bulls***. You are an absolute p**** and I told you that and you are delusional and blew the biggest opportunity of your life now move on like a big boy. Yes you introduced me and Kyle then f***in' cried about it forever so I gave you $50k so you would shut the f*** up, so now shut the f*** up. It’s embarrassing.”
Forgeard and White have a close friendship, and the UFC president has clearly sided with his pal in his ongoing dispute with Menery, who was fired from the show back in August. He claims that the Nelk star's insistence that he was paid $1.2million for his involvement with the podcast is false, and has sent a number of heated messages on social media about the issue.
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"Bob is saying on social media that we owe him money," Forgeard said in a lengthy Instagram video addressing the situation. "That is a complete lie, we don't owe Bob Menery a cent. He's also saying that he had the worst deal, a terrible deal for the podcast but guys in the 10 months that he was on the show he made $1.2m - in ten months!
"This is Bob's deal; 30 per cent of the ad revenue, he never owned it, he claims he had ownership of the show. On top of that he had $7,500 an episode, usually around $30k a month if that's four episodes, 50 per cent of all podcast merch which is insane and first class flights, hotels, transportation all covered by us. The production, the staff and the equipment; all covered by us. Bob had no expenses, everything production-wise was covered by Nelk, all Bob had to do was show up."
Forgeard also disputes Menery's claim that he was the one who initially landed White on their show, putting the UFC boss in a lengthy list of guests that the Full Send team got on the show.
