Ahead of the massive UFC 257 card, Dana White offered a cryptic threat to people who plan on illegally streaming the event. Now he dives deeper into what his plans are, and address a potential rematch between Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov.
For years, the price of being an MMA fan has only increased, which has led to a correlating rise in illegal streamers. This is the worst kept secret in MMA, and one that fans allude to on a regular basis.
With the return of Conor McGregor on the horizon, a fan said they were going to partake in this method of illegal streaming. This led to the UFC President to issue a warning to those who wanted to try this.
View this post on Instagram
Dana White Likes To Make Pirates Cry
Following this cryptic threat, fans were wondering what Dana White meant by his comments. He opened up about them in a recent interview, where he was asked what he meant by the message.
While Dana did not unveil some miraculous technology that will stop streamers in their tracks, he did claim to have busted several offenders. He says those pirates cried, and he is looking forward to making others do the same.
“We’ve been one of the leagues that have been so proactive on piracy,” White said.
“I love how cool and tough these guys act on social media, because let me tell you what, we’ve caught a lot of people. And let me tell you what they do. They cry. They cry and they beg not to be prosecuted and all this other stuff.
“We just overcame a huge hurdle in the piracy world, and we’re going to catch some of these guys in 2021, and I look forward to the crying the begging. We’ll see how tough they are when they get caught.”
When asked if he was taking this personally, White said no. However he then proceeded to tell an interesting story.
“I love this one. Listen to this one,” he began. “So if you go through my Instagram and look on all the comments, there’s a guy saying ‘DM me if you want to get the fight this weekend.’
“He’s stealing people’s information. So people that are DM’ing him, he’s stealing your information. He’s taking your money from your bank and charging your credit card.”
“These guys are f–king scumbag criminals! Don’t listen to them!” White proclaimed. “That is f–king illegal. These guys are scumbags, they’re criminals, and they’re bad guys. DM them, see what happens. I love it.”
Later in the interview, another passing comment was made about illegal streamers. Here Dana made it clear that he does not expect them to ever completely go away.
“They’re never all going to go away. They’re going to be out there, and we’re not trying to get rid of all of them. I just want to catch a few, that’s all I’m looking for. I just want to catch a few,” White laughed.
“You can’t shut the whole thing down, that piracy industry is going to go on forever. Let me catch a few and watch what happens. And I will, oh it’s coming. They think they’re slick, and they think they’re whatever.
“Same thing was going on with piracy in homes and in bars, and we caught a lot of people.”
View this post on Instagram
The Potential of a Khabib vs Conor Rematch
That was an awfully passionate response from Dana White. That is understandable too, to a certain extent, when you consider how much money the UFC loses out on from big PPVs.
One such event that could promote a ton of attention is, of course, the rematch between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor. When asked how he thinks that would do, Dana said that it could do better than their first fight.
“(UFC 257) is already trending huge. And this is Poirier Conor 2, where I was just telling you guys earlier that some people don’t believe that Poirier has (a chance to win),” White explained.
“Khabib vs Conor is massive… I believe that (Conor vs Khabib 2) could do between two-and-a-half and three million pay-per-view buys.”
What do you think of this assessment from Dana White? Do you think there is any weight to his threats at illegal streamers?
