Dana White News

Christopher Taylor - September 24, 2021

Dana White had his camera rolling for today’s UFC 266 weigh-ins, which included the highly anticipated staredown between Nick Diaz and Robbie Lawler. Diaz (26-9 MMA) and Lawler (28-15 MMA) are set to rematch on the main card of tomorrow night’s pay-per-view event in Las Vegas. The pair originally collided seventeen years ago in a welterweight bout at UFC 47, with the Stockton native emerging victorious by way of second round knockout. This time around Diaz and Lawler will be competing at middleweight, a decision that was made earlier this week.

Adam D Martin - September 24, 2021

UFC president Dana White says that only “an idiot” would book Nick Diaz to step in the Octagon vs. UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. Diaz returns to the Octagon this Saturday night at UFC 266 when he meets longtime rival Robbie Lawler in a middleweight rematch. Ahead of his comeback, Diaz spoke to ESPN in an interview and said that he thinks the UFC should have matched him up with Usman instead of Diaz. Speaking to Yahoo! Sports, White responded to the comments from Diaz, explaining quite simply why the UFC never seriously entertained a Diaz vs. Usman fight.

Adam D Martin - September 23, 2021

UFC president Dana White reacted to Conor McGregor’s botched first pitch at the recent Chicago Cubs Game, saying “I’ll never do it. Never.” McGregor was a special guest earlier this week at Wrigley Field in Chicago and he threw out the first pitch ahead of the Cubs’ game, which turned out to be a terrible throw that saw the ball completely miss the plate. It was an awful throw by McGregor and he has been getting flak on the internet from fans about how bad his arm is, but as far as White goes, McGregor’s terrible throw just shows you that throwing a pitch is a lot hard than it looks.

Adam D Martin - September 22, 2021

UFC president Dana White explained why this weekend’s highly-anticipated Nick Diaz vs. Robbie Lawler 2 fight will now take place at 185lbs. Diaz and Lawler will meet in a rematch 17 years after they first fought at UFC 47 in 2004, where Diaz scored a KO over a young Lawler. All these years later and these two are now set to rematch this Saturday night at UFC 266 in Las Vegas. Originally, the fight was set to take place in the welterweight division. But as we draw closer to the fight, Diaz now wants the fight to take place in the middleweight division. Remember, Diaz hasn’t fought since 2015 against Anderson Silva and that fight was at middleweight. The last time that Diaz fought at welterweight was way back in 2013 and he apparently doesn’t want to cut weight again, according to UFC president Dana White when speaking to reporters this week.

Adam D Martin - September 17, 2021

Olympic gold medal wrestler Gable Steveson says that he wished Dana White tried harder to sign him to the UFC when he was shopping around. Following his impressive performance at the Tokyo Olympic games, Steveson was pursued by several companies including the UFC and the WWE, where he eventually signed. However, while speaking to The MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, Steveson admitted that he was hoping White would have tried harder to sign him. Although Steveson is happy to join the WWE, he still wanted to see White make a stronger pitch to bring him to the UFC.

Adam D Martin - September 17, 2021

UFC president Dana White confirmed that the rematch between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whittaker is being targeted for January. Adesanya defeated Marvin Vettori via unanimous decision back in June at UFC 263, and the hope was that the UFC would be able to get the middleweight champ back in the cage one more time before 2021 was up. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the travel and quarantine rules for fighters in Australia and New Zealand, it has become difficult for the UFC to get this fight booked. In fact, as White told The Daily Telegraph in a recent interview, he is now targeting the Adesanya vs. Whittaker 2 fight to take place next year.

Adam D Martin - September 17, 2021

UFC president Dana White explained why YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul should fight Anderson Silva next, and not Jorge Masvidal. White and Paul have not seen eye to eye, especially in regards to the topic of fighter pay, as Paul has said numerous negative comments to White regarding what he pays UFC fighters. After recently beating former UFC champion Tyron Woodley, Paul is now busy trying to figure out who his next opponent will be. He recently came out and called out Masvidal for a fight, but White blocked that opportunity since “Gamebred” is under contract with the UFC. Instead, White suggested that Paul take on the UFC legend Silva instead.

Adam D Martin - September 16, 2021

UFC president Dana White reacted after former flyweight title contender Joseph Benavidez announced that he has retired from the UFC. Benavidez announced on Wednesday that he is stepping away from MMA. Now 37 years old, Benavidez lost his last three fights against Askar Askarov and Deiveson Figueiredo twice, and after taking so much damage in those fights, he decided that it’s time to walk away. As such, the Xtreme Couture-based product revealed that he is done with fighting.

Adam D Martin - September 15, 2021

UFC president Dana White praised former UFC middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, saying he “might actually be the GOAT of combat sports.” Silva knocked out Tito Ortiz in a boxing match this past Saturday night for Triller Fight Club, this coming after defeating Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. with a split decision upset earlier this year. Even at age 46, Silva is still competing and looking great. As far as White goes, it’s proof that the former UFC middleweight kingpin could possibly be the greatest combat sports fighter of all time, as he told media following Tuesday night’s Contender Series.

Adam D Martin - September 15, 2021

Dana White weighed in on the Conor McGregor – Machine Gun Kelly altercation at VMA’s, calling it a “misunderstanding or whatever it was.” McGregor and MGK got into an incident at the MTV VMAs this past weekend in New York. The incident involved McGregor throwing his drink at MGK and the two then jawed back-and-forth with each other before being separated. According to reports, the incident took place because McGregor had exchanged some DMs with MGK’s partner, Megan Fox. It was so highly publicized that the sportsbooks are now even offering odds up for a potential “celebrity boxing” match between McGregor and MGK following the heated incident.

Harry Kettle - September 15, 2021

UFC president Dana White has dared Jake Paul to call out Anderson Silva after shutting down the idea of a fight against Jorge Masvidal. In the wake of his big win over Tyron Woodley, many have questioned what Jake Paul’s next move is going to be as he continues to venture down the path of an extended pro boxing career. According to the man himself, he’s interested in fighting Jorge Masvidal – but that won’t be possible due to his current contractual agreement with the UFC.

Adam D Martin - September 12, 2021

UFC president Dana White was slammed by Triller promoter Ryan Kavanaugh for the UFC’s ironclad contracts that blocked a GSP boxing match. Triller had hoped to book the UFC legend Georges St-Pierre against the boxing legend Oscar De La Hoya in the boxing ring, but White blocked the fight from happening. Even though GSP hasn’t fought for the UFC since 2017 and has made it clear he has no plans on continuing his MMA career, White still blocked him from the boxing match with De La Hoya.

Adam D Martin - September 8, 2021

Taking the MMA media to task, UFC president Dana White blasted the “scumbags” in the media for telling UFC fighters they are underpaid. White was a recent guest on Travis Browne’s podcast and the two discussed a variety of topics, one of which was fighter pay. Browne defended the UFC for its pay structure, suggesting that he was actually paid even more than he was supposed to during his career, but there has been a lot of chatter in the media as of late that fighters are underpaid.

Adam D Martin - September 8, 2021

UFC president Dana White shared a history lesson for UFC heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou, saying “It’s pretty simple how this all works.” Ngannou is currently involved in a contract dispute with the UFC that is keeping him out of the Octagon at the present time. “The Predator” defeated Stipe Miocic by KO back in March to win the heavyweight belt, and for his first title defense, the plan was for Ngannou to fight former UFC light heavyweight champion, Jon Jones, in a superfight. However, Jones could not come to an agreement with the UFC and the fight against Ngannou was scrapped.

Adam D Martin - September 8, 2021

UFC president Dana White shared his take on the current state of America, saying “I believe that this country is a f*cking mess right now.” White’s good friend Donald Trump finished up his stint as the president of the United States earlier this year and he was replaced in office by Joe Biden. It’s been a hard two years for everyone around the world due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but according to White, the United States is in really bad shape right now, and he went on a rant in his recent interview with former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne (h/t Jed I. Goodman for quotes).

Adam D Martin - September 1, 2021

UFC president Dana White explained why he gave a losing fighter on the Contender Series a UFC contract, the first time he has done so. On Tuesday night at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, the fifth season of DWCS began and the card was fantastic as there were four fights and five contracts handed out. The big winners on the night were AJ Fletcher, a Dustin Poirier training partner who scored a crazy flying knee KO; Azamat Murzakanov, who scored a first-round KO; and Joanderson Brito, who showed off incredible submission defense in a technical decision win over Diego Lopes.

Adam Martin - August 29, 2021

The November UFC 268 pay-per-view card was officially announced and the event is absolutely stacked, with Dana White gushing over it. During Saturday’s UFC Vegas 35 card, the first seven fights for UFC 268 were officially announced. Check out the card below as it is incredibly stacked with two title fights at the top of the docket. The first features the rematch between UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman and Colby Covington, then there is a rematch between UFC women’s strawweight champion Rose Namajunas and Weili Zhang. In addition to those fights, Justin Gaethje vs. Michael Chandler, Sean Strickland vs. Luke Rockhold, Frankie Edgar vs. Marlon Vera, Germaine de Randamie vs. Irene Aldana, and Bobby Green vs. Al Iaquinta were also added to the card. On paper, this is one of the best PPVs the UFC has put on in years.

Adam D Martin - August 29, 2021

Middleweight veteran Sam Alvey will likely get another chance in the Octagon despite his rough losing skid, said UFC president Dana White. Alvey lost a controversial split decision to Wellington Turman on the UFC Vegas 35 preliminary card. The controversy came because, in the third round of the fight, Turman lost two points for repeated eye pokes. However, two of the judges still thought that Turman won all three rounds of the fight, so despite having two points deducted, he won 28-27, 27-28, and 28-27 on the scorecards for a split decision victory over Alvey.