Dana White revealed a Vince McMahon story to clarify the recent controversy surrounding Josh Emmett’s seating.
Team Alpha Male gym head honcho Urijah Faber had spoken out against the treatment of Emmett at a UFC event. There were few details that were brought to light after Faber raised the issue, but now White has come out to share the full story.
Dana White recounts the time when Vince McMahon banished him to the back seats
Longtime WWE head Vince McMahon was in attendance for the International Fight Week card of UFC 276 in Las Vegas, Nevada. He was sitting cageside with friends and family enjoying a good view, in stark opposition to White’s treatment at Wrestle Mania as he revealed following the season premiere of the Contender Series, via MMA Fighting.
“They reached out to me and said that he wanted to come to the fight. I gave him much better seats than he gave me when I went to see Ronda. That dude had me in the f****** — I’m not even s******* you. First of all, Ronda says, ‘You have to be at this event. I want you to be there,’ and all this stuff. I said, ‘Ronda, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.’ She’s like, ‘Alright, I’m going to let you know you’re coming. Cool, cool.’
“I fly down to f****** New Orleans. No going in the back and any of that s***, [they said] ‘They’re at the will call window for you.’ I go to the f****** will call window and [they said], ‘We don’t have any tickets for you.’ I call some people, ‘Yeah, we found them. OK, we’ve got your tickets.’
“When I tell you I was in the f****** rafters … people were coming up to me and going, ‘Why are you sitting in these seats?’ I said, ‘This is where they sat me, so f*** them I’m going to sit right here.’
“I think it was Pat McAfee today, he said, ‘You had to be in decent seats. You were on camera.’ The cameraman had to f****** crawl over about 75 people, kick somebody out of his f****** seat three rows ahead of me so he could just get that shot. They let me know what they thought of me at that event.”
White provided clarity on Josh Emmett’s seating situation
When asked about Faber taking issue with Emmett’s seating situation, White addressed the controversy by sharing the full side of things.
“First of all, Uriah Faber was not up to speed with what happened at that event. So all these fighters get tickets. How many fighters have you heard, ‘Oh my God, they f****** put me up in the f******, they did this and that?’ You never hear that.
“You know why? Because it never f****** happens. I’m not saying we’re f****** perfect because we’re not, we make mistakes here and there.
“What happened was Josh Emmett gets his fighter tickets from us. He also got tickets from his sponsor. He took his tickets from his sponsor, not the tickets from us. That’s where his sponsor seats were.”
White’s story lines up with Emmett’s comments about the incident in a recent interview he did with MyMMANews.
