The silence continues.
After TMZ released the video of UFC president Dana White slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve, the MMA world waited for the UFC, Endeavor, ESPN, Disney and TBS to release statements on the matter. That never happened.
The UFC was silent. The UFC’s owners at Endeavor did not make a statement. ESPN told Bloody Elbow to ask the UFC because they only handle “distribution.” Disney, who owns ESPN, offered nothing. TBS, who broadcasted White’s Power Slap show on Wednesday, didn’t make a statement but delayed the premiere of that show for a week.
However, we found out via White that the delay was because “We pushed it back a week because I was supposed to come back (from vacation) and do this whole media tour, which obviously wasn’t going to happen when I got back.”
The UFC held its first event of 2023 on Saturday, January 14. That event, UFC Vegas 67, took place at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. The fight card streamed in its entirety on ESPN+. Bloody Elbow reached out to the sponsors who advertised on the octagon fight surface that night to see if they had any comment on the New Year’s Eve video of White slapping his wife. The sponsors we contacted:
Manscaped, Sweet Sweat / Sports Research, Draft Kings, Crypto.com, Universal, Toyo Tires, Vechain. Monster Energy and EasyPost.
None of the sponsors besides EasyPost, which had an automated response to our email, acknowledged or responded to our request for comment.
White once said, “There’s one thing that you never bounce back from, and that’s putting your hands on a woman. Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.”
Despite that, White has faced no repercussions for his actions — and unless something unexpected happens — it appears it will be business as usual for White and the UFC in 2023.
