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 has rightfully been under fire all week after a video emerged of him slapping his wife, Anne, twice at a bar in Cabo San Lucas last weekend after she slapped him during a fight.
The video was truly disgusting and something that will stick with White for the rest of his life.
But do you know what else has been disgusting? The silence by all the companies in business with White, especially the one that owns the UFC — Endeavor.
Over the past few days I’ve reached out to Endeavor for a statement on the situation and also to find out if there are any plans for White to face some sort of punishment. They cannot be happy seeing the CEO of a company they own hitting a woman in public, but we wouldn’t know their feelings about the situation because, despite my requests being passed around, they’ve said nothing.
Which is gross.
Imagine if this situation didn’t involve White, but rather a commissioner of a more mainstream league like the NFL or MLB. This story would be everywhere and I’d have to imagine that comments would be made and punishments would be handed down. Swiftly.
That’s not the case here. This is being handled by people who would apparently rather stay quiet than speak out about a man hitting a woman because, well, money is more important to them. Their silence is equally deafening and sad.
The UFC itself has handled this poorly, too, which isn’t a surprise. White is the big man in charge and nobody under him is going to say anything. I know this because my emails to UFC’s media relations team have gone completely unanswered. They did tell other reporters to refer to White’s comments released by TMZ Monday, which was an embarrassment of an interview handled with the softest of kids gloves, to say the least.
Endeavor bought controlling interest of the UFC in 2016 and the rest of it in 2021. They are Dana White’s bosses in this matter and could easily punish him if they wanted to. They just don’t want to, which is absolutely mind-boggling. How do you just let the CEO of your company hit a woman in public and not have a damn word to say about it?
Then there’s ESPN, which has a TV deal with the UFC, but could still say something about Dana White. Instead, they have ignored media requests this week and have barely covered the story.
And let’s not forget TBS, which is launching Dana White’s Power Slap League on their network next week. For real. They could come out and say something, anything, but have instead remained on the quiet train with everyone else. Maybe they should cancel that league altogether? Just a thought.
This is all gross and sad, but it could be a little better if someone, anyone, decided to step up to the plate and do the right thing rather than staying silent until the story goes away.
Apparently that’s not going to happen.
Because they’re all a bunch of cowards.
Quick hits: Zac Taylor’s human moment should be applauded… College hoops team forgets jerseys… What we know about the U.S. blackmail scandal… And more.
– Zac Taylor spoke Wednesday about the moments after Damar Hamlin’s collapse and the Bengals’ coach should be applauded for how he was there for the Bills.
– Texas A&M started last night’s game against Florida down 1-0 before tipoff because they left their jerseys at the team hotel. For real.
– Here is everything we know so far about the U.S. Soccer blackmail scandal.
– Duke coach Jon Scheyer became a meme during last night’s blowout loss to N.C. State.
