Taking a page out of his good friend Donald Trump’s book, UFC president Dana White took the time during his pre-fight interview with Megan Olivi to chastise the real culprit behind all of UFC 210 shenanigans, the media.
Dana’s specific gripe against reporters covering the NYSAC’s statement that Pearl Gonzalez was going to be pulled from her fight against Cynthia Calvillo is completely ludicrous of course. But seems perfectly in keeping with how White believes the MMA media should function. I mean, how dare a reporter write a story about something a member of the sanctioning body made to them directly? Naturally, this whole Dana uproar has its roots in a tweet from Ariel Helwani:
I'm told the Calvillo-Gonzalez has been canceled. Per NYSAC, female fighters are not allowed to have implants, thus ruling out Gonzalez.
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 7, 2017
The ongoing tension between Helwani and White has become near caricature at this point, with Dana White’s criticisms and threats seeming more outlandish as ever. Nowhere else is sports does such an adversarial relationship with the media seem to benefit a sports franchise more than the UFC. If that clip seems absurd, rest assured, White wasn’t contend to roast the media on the television portion of his show. He continued disparaging them during the post fight press conference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut0rWDWqcCU?t=5m
And later on in the press conference…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut0rWDWqcCU?t=14m
And after all of the mishaps during fight week from the NYSAC? Well according to Dana, they were “fantastic”. The whole week’s success was a testament to how well his team handled these problems… … … What the fuck?
It’s truly admirable that Dana White continues his amazing track record media hostility and bold face lies to the public, and only finds greater and greater success.
- PS: Megan Olivi does a great job on FS1. She is nearly the only likable part of the of the program. So my heart died a little, when she said “let’s go with that MMA media.”
