UFC boss Dana White is used to going on ESPN (which is broadcast partners with the UFC) shows and having the hosts ask layup question after layup question while seemingly gushing over the sheer presence of having White on their show.
That didn’t happen Tuesday morning, however, when White appeared on First Take and was asked a few questions about fighters being upset about pay, the way the UFC has treated fighters over the years, and the possibility of a fighters’ union being born.
The man asking those questions was Domonique Foxworth, a former NFL player who served in many different positions with the NFL Players Association and in 2008 became the youngest player to be named vice president of the NFLPA Executive Committee.
So Foxworth knows a thing or two about player unions and leagues, which put him in a great spot to press White on some major issues that the UFC has now with some big-name fighters. Many think now is the time for fighters to finally unionize and do better than the 18-20 percent revenue share they currently have with the UFC, which is pathetic for the fighters.
Foxworth and White went back and forth, with White, who recently said the media members that cover the UFC are thebiggest “wimps” in the world, acting very much like a baby throughout the exchange:
Laughing my ass off at the chaos this caused. pic.twitter.com/FuJy3DEhe8
— Medium Nog (@MediumNog) June 9, 2020
This was the part that really got me. When asked to talk about labor issues from the past, and not just Jon Jones and Jorge Masvidal situations, White had this to say:
“Does anybody feel like they make too much money? Nobody does. If we were talking about a thing where these guys had old contracts from three years ago and it’s like ‘that was three years ago that I did this deal, let’s [renegotiate].’ They signed these less than a year ago. This was months ago.
By the way, I don’t know if you know this but we’re in a pandemic and no other sports are going. Oh, by the way, every other sport out there is arguing about money right now. I haven’t laid off one employee. I haven’t asked any of my fighters to take less money, and you don’t hear me out here crying about, ‘No, I don’t get any gates, I don’t have this, I don’t have [that].’ You don’t hear me crying about anything. I’m running my business. I’m paying everybody. Right now, if you think it’s easy to be a business owner right now here in today, you are right out of your mind. There has never been a harder time to do business than right now. Guess what? I’m pulling it off.”
Oh, boo-hoo Dana White. Sorry you had to get pressed about a serious issue and that you don’t like when that happens, especially when that is on ESPN.
But fighters for years have been woefully underpaid. Fighters had to bow down to Reebok and lose money from that deal the UFC made. And fighters have had to deal with lack of healthcare from the UFC when their career is over.
Now we’re supposed to feel bad for Dana White because he’s trying his darnedest during a pandemic?
Yeah, no thanks.
Though I would like to see Foxworth interview White some more.