Ahead of UFC 257, Dana White went on a warpath to bust illegal streamers of the event. As it turns out, he was unable to catch the person that he and authorities had apparently been watching.
It is no secret that White is not a fan of illegal streamers. After all, who knows how many more sales a UFC pay-per-view event would get, if it were not for those pesky pirates and their online wizardry.
That is why, ahead of the highly anticipated rematch between Dustin Poirier and Conor McGregor, Dana decided to crack down on streamers. He made all kinds of threats regarding the people he was going after, and what he would do when he caught them.
By far, his most notorious line came from when the UFC Bossman revealed he had hand picked a streamer that he was going to bust. He claimed to be watching said person’s house, and listening to their phone calls.
Dana White on piracy: pic.twitter.com/zL7fw00P7b
— Jason (@JasonAmadi) January 21, 2021
Dana White Didn’t Get Him
Despite all of these apparent resources that Dana White put into stopping this pirate, they did not actually catch this person. The UFC President was asked about the status of his investigation at the UFC 257 post-fight press conference.
According to Dana, the swashbuckling pirate that he had in his crosshairs decided to abandon ship. Reportedly this guy posted a message saying that he was not streaming the fights, directing viewers to legal buying options instead.
“I told you guys that we found the guy and we were watching him,” White said.
“He put out a statement that night, said ‘I will not be streaming the McGregor vs. Poirier anymore, but I will show you how to buy it legally’ and put out this huge statement.
“Now his whole streaming service has been deleted and it’s gone. Disappeared. One down and s —t load to go.”
Despite not catching the person red handed, Dana White is still marking this down as a win in his book, for stopping the person from streaming altogether. He says the war is not over either, as he plans to take out one pirate at every event.
“Every event I’m going to go after one of these guys. One of these or more, we’ll see,” White added.
“And who you are, guy that did this, good move. We had you, pal. I don’t know if he knew or something, but we had you. All you had to do was pop up that stream and you were in big trouble. So he did the right thing.”
The irony in this situation came during UFC 257, when numerous users reported trouble either purchasing or watching the event on the ESPN+ app. It even left many threatening to switch over to this dreaded illegal stream.
Do you buy what Dana White is saying about this pirate? Or was this whole thing a ploy to scare off the streamers?
