UFC president Dana White has taken a leaf out of his friend Donald Trump’s playbook, and launched an attack on the media for its reporting on the promotion.
UFC recently resumed competition without live audiences. However, many publications – including the New York Times and the Guardian – expressed concern about Covid-19 safety protocols at the fights as well as the fact that UFC tried to silence fighters and journalists covering the events.
“We were trying to figure out solutions to the problems [of enforcing coronavirus protocols] and [asking] how do you bring sports back safely and health and safety is an issue for us,” White said in an appearance on Fox News’s Hannity show. “Every single weekend when we were leading up to these events, we had so many, you know, New York Times and so many other media people trying to sabotage the events so that it couldn’t happen.”
White also called Kevin Draper, the New York Times reporter, who covered UFC’s return to action “a dickhead”. White followed Trump in complaining that media outlets were not giving him positive coverage.
“I mean, this guy just got in the New York Times, interviewed the president of [UFC broadcaster] ESPN, Jimmy Pitaro, for 45 minutes, wasted 45 minutes of his time and never used one of his quotes,” White said. “You know why?Because they were positive.”
Both Trump and White have homed in on individual reporters who have criticized them. Last week, White used a UFC press conference to attack Draper’s reporting.
“Fuck that guy. Fuck that guy,” White said. “That guy who’s never covered the sport was writing a story about Endeavor [UFC’s parent company] and then the UFC was one of the Endeavor … you know. And what happened when this guy and this paper covered the UFC – when they’ve never covered it before? What do you think happened?
“This fucking story was huge. They did killer traffic. Now they’re writing stories, three a week, and they’re posting live results. I don’t care what this guy thinks or what he has to say, what he writes. Good for him, he’s pulling traffic.”
During his appearance on Hannity on Monday, White said he was unsure when fans will be able to attend fights again.
“It’s crazy. It’s, it’s tough to know,” he said. “You know, you get different information from from different people and different sources. You know, we’re going to end up living in a world where ... you’re going to have to sign a waiver to go to a sporting event and, you know, and say, ‘Hey, I know that, you know, the Covid-19 virus is out there and, you know, I’m going to take the risk and go to the sporting event.”
