Dana White has been told by one of his former fighters that he is "threatened" by the "cheat code" that YouTube star Jake Paul possesses in the fight game.
The UFC boss is a harsh critic of Paul's, and the pair have had an ongoing feud in recent weeks that has included various accusations and challenges labelled at one another.
But former heavyweight contender Brendan Schaub has said that the reason White is so angry with Paul is that he is not beholden to his promotion, and could potentially be a threat to his business model.
Paul and White's feud famously turned ugly when the YouTuber-turned-boxer called on the UFC to increase their fighter payout minimums, which cause the UFC boss to level a number of insults at Paul.
"Say what you want about Jake Paul," Schaub said during an episode of his podcast. "But he has taken the fight game [and] flipped it on his head.
"Dana is coming after him - listen, Dana only goes after people that he's threatened by.
"He has all the money in the world, so when you threaten his business model, which Jake Paul is doing - he's completely flipped the game.
"He's the chink in their armour. He's a cheat code in this fight game."
Paul offered to fight Jorge Masvidal for just $50,000, a fraction of the millions he makes in boxing, if White was willing to increase fighter pay minimums to that amount from their current $12,000.
He also wants the UFC to introduce long-term healthcare for their fighters and agree to a 50 per cent revenue split, to which White responded that he was "too stupid" to have come up with such ideas.
Paul's offer included a deadline of January 6, which came and went without White so much as opening a dialogue aside from one social media video, and it doesn't appear that the pair will be entering into any fight discussions.
White denied the offer from Paul in a social media video, saying "You never responded to the challenge.
"You publicly stated that I use cocaine. I do not. So I told you, you could randomly cocaine test me for the next 10 years.
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"I believe that you’re a cheater and I believe that you use steroids, so I want to randomly steroid test you for the next two years.
"And that thing that you came out with today, nobody on earth thinks that you really wrote that.
"You’re too stupid. And for those of you that don’t know, if you’ve ever watched one of his fights and you see the stare-down, the guy that’s standing in the middle with the warlock nose and the big wart on his face, apparently that’s his manager.
"That guy used to be an accountant for me and let’s just say this: He no longer works for me, and I think he’s a scumbag.
"But, if you two think that you can do it better than we do, we’re doing the whole thing wrong and you’re treating the fighters better than we do: Knock yourself out.
"Go start your own business. It’s easy to do. You can’t sell pay-per-views."
Paul has since flirted with making his debut in MMA regardless, tagging the PFL and Bellator in a post where he could be seen practising kicks.
