This is the online version of our daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Subscribe to get irreverent and incisive sports stories, delivered to your mailbox every morning.
UFC president Dana White spoke to the media on Wednesday for the first time since he was seen hitting his wife twice in public after she slapped him during a dispute at a nightclub in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
And you know what? He made things worse because his explanations for why he won’t be punished for hitting his wife were disgusting and just utterly stupid.
But hey, at least he talked to the media, I guess. The cowards that run Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC and the group that could issue a punishment for White if they had any standards or morals, have had nothing to say about the boss of one of their companies hitting his wife, which is just mind boggling and awful.
So let’s stick with White and what he had to say. He seemed to be actually annoyed that he was even asked about a punishment, saying:
“What should the repercussions be? You tell me. I take 30 days off? How does that hurt me? I told you guys when we were going through COVID, COVID could last 10 years. I could sit it out. It’s much like COVID actually. Me leaving hurts the company, hurts my employees, hurts the fighters. It doesn’t hurt me. I could’ve left in 2016. You know what I mean? I don’t know. Do I need to reflect? No, I don’t need to reflect. The next morning when I woke up (I reflected). I’ve been against this. I’ve owned this. I’m telling you that I’m wrong.”
First of all, it’s not “much like COVID” at all and that rambling line was just amazing to hear.
Secondly, he shouldn’t even be the one talking about the punishment because he shouldn’t be the one handing out the punishment – that should handled by the weak people over at Endeavor.
Thirdly, the UFC would be just fine if he was forced to step away for a month, two months, six months… however long. To think it wouldn’t be and that his employees and fighters would be in trouble if he was suspended for any length of time is just a sign of unabashed narcissism with no hints of truth.
White then went on to say the dumbest thing possible about his “punishment”:
“What is my punishment? Here’s my punishment: I have to walk around for however long I live – Is it 10.4 years, or is another 25 years? – and this is how I’m labeled now. My other punishment is I’m sure a lot of people, whether it be media, fighters, friends, acquaintances, who had respect for me, might not have respect for me now.”
Yeah, those aren’t really punishments at all. Those are consequences. You can’t do something awful and against the law and be like “I know I robbed that bank but my punishment now is that people know I’m a bank robber and I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life” and then not face any repercussions for robbing the bank.
That’s not how it works. At all.
Some fighters agreed and brought up their own examples of how that explanation isn’t even close to being a good one.
When I was suspended from winning bonuses for 3 fights for cursing at the crowd and wrecking a hotel room, I think the better punishment would have been to be known as a crowd cursing hotel wrecker 😂 @danawhite https://t.co/lcIYqyt2n9
— Al Iaquinta🗽 (@ALIAQUINTA) January 12, 2023
Did White just take a lit match to the UFC’s book on rules of conduct because what would stop a fighter going forward from pointing at what White said and trying to use that as a way of avoiding punishment?
If the leader can duck out of serious matters with no repercussions at all then what should stop everyone else in the organization from doing the same in the future?
Again, this really comes down to Endeavor not having the guts to act like adults and lay down some sort of punishment of their own. Not one person over there could say something publicly about this and offer some sort of punishment? Nobody could even come out and at least say something like “We here at Endeavor do not stand for domestic abuse and do not approve of what Dana White did.”
Really?
How sad.
But not surprising, unfortunately.
Quick hits: 13 ridiculous moments from the NFL regular season… Netflix’s PGA Tour documentary trailer rules… NFL power rankings… And more.
– Here are the 13 most ridiculous things from the NFL season, including Aaron Rodgers’ weird hair and Tom Brady’s goofy shirt.
– The trailer for Netflix’s PGA Tour documentary series ‘Full Swing’ is here and it’s spectacular.
– Get ready for the NFL playoffs by checking out our latest power rankings.
– Remember former Laker, Smush Parker? He’s attempting to pull of something pretty cool.
