UFC president Dana White seems to be unhappy with the direction of Barstool Sports.
UFC president Dana White is not a fan of corporate takeovers. White was in the public eye, as he most often is but this time his comments regarding Penn Gaming and Barstool Sports were taken a bit out of context. White was a guest on The Pat McAfee Show recently where he spoke about a whole bunch of topics. He spoke about prominent UFC topics, he was promoting his other league Power Slap, and then he went off on a tangent regarding the media website Barstool Sports.
Over the past couple of years, Dana White has become more and more aggravated with the MMA media. However, one man that he continues to speak with on a fairly regular basis is Robbie Fox from Barstool Sports. He now seems to be walking back that relationship and putting some blowback on Barstool.
“Once you start to get suits involved in your business and these f–king corporate guys who think they know what they’re f–king doing, and most of them don’t know jack sh-t.,” he said. “You’re gonna see it with Barstool over the next couple of years. They came in and they bought it out. They bought Portnoy out. I had a situation yesterday with Barstool, you know, and it’s turning into a corporate f–king sh-t show too. It’s what happens when you get these f–king suits involved in your business.”
Dana White clarifies his comments regarding Barstool Sports
It seems as if White was going to be ending his chummy relationship with Barstool, and perhaps Robbie Fox. However, he clarified his comments following a Power Slap event. During the press conference, he insinuated that he was talking about a company called Penn Gaming and not Barstool Sports exactly.
“No, that’s not true,” he said. “Listen, what I said today on Pat McAfee was not about Barstool Sports. It was about Penn Gaming. Okay. It was about Penn Gaming. And basically what I’m saying is that when you build a company like Barstool Sports the way that it was built with a guy like Dave Portnoy, once you get a bunch of suits involved, and these guys, it just changes the dynamic of the whole thing.”
Dana White comments on the rumors that he has ended his friendship with Barstool Sports pic.twitter.com/a4KZQdPUoF
— Robbie Fox (@RobbieBarstool) May 25, 2023
White is never happy speaking with the media at all. He was even putting together a documentary that showcases the flaws in the MMA media landscape. It is unclear if he will be changing his relationship with Barstool Sports or any other media conglomerate in the future but he seems to laugh this one off.