Tag: Dana White

Settlement reached in UFC antitrust lawsuits as promotion agrees to pay fighters $335 million

After a decade of litigation, the UFC closed out a pair of antitrust lawsuits with a $335 million settlement just as a trial was set.

The UFC and a group representing approximately 1,200 former fighters have reached a settlement on a pair of antitrust lawsuits, which will no longer go to trial.

Less than one month prior to its previously scheduled trial start date of April 15, UFC parent-company TKO Group Holdings Inc. and the group of former fighters officially reached a settlement March 13 that was revealed Wednesday in an SEC disclosure.

The general terms of the settlement include a $335 million payment by the UFC with exact terms expected in a longer-form document in the coming days, a TKO statement to the SEC stated. The payment is tax-deductible and will occur over time in periodic installments. It is unclear exactly how the payments will be divided.

“We are pleased with the settlement and will disclose more when we file with the Court in 45-60 days,” the plaintiffs wrote on X shortly after news of the settlement was first reported by John Nash. “We Love All of these guys!”

The UFC also released a statement (via Kevin Iole): “We are pleased to have reached an agreement to settle all claims asserted in both the Le and Johnson class-action lawsuits, bringing litigation to a close and benefitting all parties. The final terms of the settlement will be submitted to the court of approval.”

Following news of the settlement, TKO Group Holdings Inc. stock raised over five dollars in less than an hour.

Five separate class-action lawsuits between December 2014 and March 2015 were eventually consolidated into one (Le, et. al), with a second separate lawsuit filed in 2021 (Johnson, et. al).

The lawsuits sought $894 million to $1.6 billion in damages and centered around alleged violations of the Sherman Act. Class-action lawsuits allow for treble damages, meaning the court could’ve tripled the amount it required the UFC to pay.

The group of former fighters claimed the UFC contract structure and business practices suppressed fighters’ abilities to negotiate and explore other promotional options, creating a monopsony. The efforts were headed by former fighters Cung Le, Kyle Kingsbury, Kajan Johnson, Jon Fitch, Brandon Vera, and others.

The plaintiffs also sought injunctive relief. As of Wednesday, it is unclear if such changes are part of the final terms of agreement.

Dana White: Dustin Poirier’s knockout of Benoit Saint Denis at UFC 299 ‘the sh*t that makes you a f*cking legend’

Dana White had high praise towards Dustin Poirier after UFC 299.

MIAMI – [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] had high praise towards [autotag]Dustin Poirier[/autotag] after UFC 299.

Poirier (30-8 MMA, 22-7 UFC) knocked out surging lightweight contender Benoit Saint Denis (13-2 MMA, 5-2 UFC) in Saturday’s co-main event at Kaseya Center.

Many were surprised to see former interim champion Poirier accepting a fight against lower-ranked Saint Denis, which is why White respects “The Diamond” that much more.

“The fight that he took tonight with Benoit, I mean, when the talk first started, everybody was like, ‘Oh, this is a bad fight for Poirier,'” White said during the UFC 299 post-fight news conference. “Then Poirier came out and said, ‘You know what, I didn’t sign’ and all this – this is the sh*t that makes you a f*cking legend. These are legendary fights – when you go in and face a guy who’s a savage and looks like you can’t win this fight or people think you can’t win this fight, and then you go in and do it in spectacular fashion the way that he did tonight.

“A lot of these fighters, you’ve heard it many times in the past, ‘They want me to lose,’ or ‘They’re trying to make me lose.’ I heard some nutty sh*t the other day from somebody that I won’t even mention, but we don’t determine whether you lose or whether you win – you do. What we try to do is put on the best match-made fights that we can possibly do. That’s why big stars are built in the UFC and legendary fights happen every weekend. … His stock again goes through the roof.”

With the win, Poirier may have positioned himself for another title shot. UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev’s manager Ali Abdelaziz told Poirier prior to the fight that he could be next with a win, and Makhachev and Poirier are both on board.

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Dana White reacts to Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul boxing match: ‘He gets mad when I do this’

Dana White is not a fan of the Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul fight.

MIAMI – [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] is not a fan of the [autotag]Mike Tyson[/autotag] vs. [autotag]Jake Paul[/autotag] fight.

Tyson (50-6) will be 58 when he steps in the ring to box 27-year-old YouTuber-turned-pro boxer Paul (9-1) July 20 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, home of the Dallas Cowboys.

The UFC CEO didn’t want to say too much not to upset his good friend Tyson, but doesn’t want to see the boxing legend competing period.

“He gets mad when I do this, but Mike’s 60, man,” White said during the UFC 299 post-fight news conference. “I don’t know, what do you guys think about it? Who gives a sh*t what I think? It’s not my fight.

“I love Mike Tyson personally as a friend, and he’s one of my favorite athletes of all time. I don’t know. Let’s see what he can go in there and put together a training camp and come in. I don’t like to see guys fighting at (that age). It’d be a 31-year age difference during that fight. You guys know what I think of that stuff.”

The fight will air live on Netflix for subscribers, something White appeared to be interested in. The streaming service, arguably the most well-known of its kind in the world, recently signed a deal with WWE to stream its long-running “Raw” weekly series, as well as other ancillary WWE programming, starting in 2025.

The WWE and UFC are paired together as TKO Group Holdings through primary owner Endeavor, which means building blocks already are in place if the UFC ever had a conversation with Netflix for after its current broadcast deal with ESPN expires.

“I think that Netflix should have gotten into live sports years ago,” White said. “I think they’re late to the game, but they are a force. When you look at the amount of homes that they’re in worldwide … the show ‘Reacher’ – I posted about it. I love that show. I f*cking hate TV. I don’t watch any TV show, hardly ever. I don’t watch movies anymore. But I love the show ‘Reacher.’ I can watch ‘Reacher’ whenever I want to. I can watch it when I get home. I can watch it next week. Live sports like (UFC 299) you had to watch tonight, as all these massive streaming companies start to get bigger and bigger, they have to be involved in live sports.”

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For more on the fight, visit MMA Junkie’s hub for Paul vs. Tyson.

Dana White reacts to Francis Ngannou’s KO loss in cross-over boxing match: ‘That’s how they end’

UFC CEO Dana White shares his opinion on Francis Ngannou’s KO loss against Anthony Joshua.

MIAMI – UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] was not surprised to see [autotag]Francis Ngannou[/autotag] get stopped in his second professional boxing match.

White expected Ngannou to lose to former boxing heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua during their colossal crossover bout on Friday in Saudi Arabia. Ngannou was dropped twice before getting knocked out in the second round in what was a seamless performance by Joshua. White believes the result was predictable.

“I saw it on social media,” White said regarding Ngannou’s KO loss at the UFC 299 post-fight press conference. “Yeah, going into the Fury fight, if Fury trained for the fight and didn’t show up and look like he ate Tyson Fury, that’s probably the way that fight would’ve ended too.

“I mean, listen. You know how I feel about crossovers into boxing, that’s how they end, just like that.”

The UFC is expected to make its debut in Saudi Arabia later this year. White is impressed by the type of promotion Saudi Arabia has been doing around their big boxing fights. Although he’s a fan, he assures the UFC production will remain the same.

“I think the difference is that – and I don’t know this for a fact, I’m just assuming –  but the boxing events that they’re holding, they’re their events, and they own all the production and everything else,” White said. “They put some money into those things. They really do. But when we go, we’ll be running the production.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 299.

Dana White more than bullish on UFC’s Mexico future after P.I. opening

Now that the UFC finally has its oft-discussed Performance Institute in Mexico, Dana White thinks it is the start of a game-changer.

MEXICO CITY – Now that the UFC finally has its oft-discussed Performance Institute in Mexico, [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] thinks it is the start of a game-changer for the promotion and country.

UFC CEO White cut the ribbon for the new P.I. in Mexico City this past week ahead of UFC Fight Night 237, which marked the promotion’s first trip to Mexico since before the 2020 pandemic. White said COVID-19 threw some wrenches into the works and delayed things, but now that the facility is open, he thinks big things will continue to happen for Mexican MMA fighters shooting for the UFC.

“There’s going to be a combine there and we’re going to decide which guys we’re going to keep to train there at the Performance Institute,” White said after UFC Fight Night 237 on Saturday at Mexico City Arena. “But the other thing that we’re going to do is look for people that we think have potential to break into the top 10 or potentially be world champions someday, just like we did with the the other program that we built before the Performance Institute here in Mexico.

“The other thing that I’m excited about with it is the work that it’s going to do in the community to bring kids in off the streets and have the opportunity to learn how to train, learn how to do jiu-jitsu, wrestle, box, muay Thai, nutrition, strength and conditioning – it’s going to do a lot of good things for a lot of young people in the community here in Mexico City.”

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The UFC’s Performance Institute in its home base of Las Vegas has become a crucial facility for many of the promotion’s fighters. A normal UFC fight week in recent years typically features several fighters talking about their training experiences at the P.I.

Now fighters in Mexico will have that same opportunity for high-level development in their own country, where the sport has grown by leaps and bounds in a culture that has thrived on its love of boxing for generations.

“When you think about when we started and what we faced going head-to-head with boxing, which was so ingrained in our culture – I was driving to the arena the other day. There’s this huge playground – swings, things that spin around, and a boxing ring in the middle of the playground. Like a little kid playground. That tells you how crazy it is for us to be down here and doing what we’re doing (with boxing so big). There’s still a lot of work to do down here. This is just the beginning.”

In Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 237 main event, former flyweight champion Brandon Moreno, from Mexico, was upset by recent title challenger Brandon Royval. In the co-feature, two-time title challenger Brian Ortega returned from a 19-month layoff and upset former interim featherweight champion Yair Rodriguez.

Mexico City Arena filled in early in the night and by most accounts was one of the UFC’s most raucous and energetic crowds of recent memory. If the P.I. opening does what White hopes, Mexican fans can plan on a surge of the UFC there.

“With the opening of the P.I., we have huge plans for Mexico – and it’s not just Mexico City,” White said. “I want to go all over Mexico. … The UFC is officially here in Mexico now. We actually planted a flag here. We have a our own building here now. We have our facility. We’re going to be doing a lot in this country now. We’re here.”

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 237.

Dana White: UFC Mexico crowd fight ‘one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen’; not a bad look for UFC

Dana White has “never seen any sh*t” like the multi-person crowd fight on Saturday at UFC Fight Night 237 in Mexico City.

MEXICO CITY – UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] was captivated by the wild crowd fight that took place Saturday at UFC Fight Night 237.

During the main card of the event at Mexico City Arena, footage came out of a multi-person altercation going on in the audience. It was so noticeable one of the athletes on the card requested the fans calm down during his post-fight interview, and White saw it, as well.

White was asked about the situation during the UFC Fight Night 237 post-fight press conference, and whether he thought it gives off a bad impression of the UFC. He shut down that notion, but was animated in the description of his perspective.

“The fight in the crowd doesn’t look good for the UFC? That never happens. That literally never happens,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters. “It happened here in Mexico City. The crazy thing about that fight, when that fight broke out, it felt like it kept going forever. So I ran over there and was watching it. Nobody stopped it. I was waiting for security to come in. They just let them go until it was over.

“That was one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen. I don’t think it’s a bad look for the UFC. It happened and that was the end of that. I think after everybody saw the end of that sh*t, nobody else wanted to try that again. No security. The fight just went on until it was over. I’ve never seen any sh*t like that in my life.”

Although White is false when he says crowd fights never happen at UFC events, he’s correct in that big ones like Saturday are not commonplace.

White did not reveal if he knew of any medical or legal fallouts from those who were involved.

For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC Fight Night 237.

Video: Dana White cuts ribbon at UFC Performance Institute in Mexico

UFC CEO Dana White was joined by other executives and fighters to cut the ribbon at the new UFC Performance Institute in Mexico City.

MEXICO CITY – The UFC held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its newest Performance Institute in Mexico during UFC Fight Night 237 fight week.

UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] with fellow executives Hunter Campbell, Lawrence Epstein, Duncan French, and several fighters including current champions [autotag]Alexa Grasso[/autotag] and [autotag]Alexandre Pantoja[/autotag], participated in the event celebrating the opening of the new facility.

“This has been a dream/goal of mine for a very long time, going back to 2001,” White said moments before cutting the ribbon. “I was just saying to these guys to be walking the halls, looking at the gym – this incredible facility is amazing. I’ve wanted this for a long time, so I’m very excited. Thanks to everybody who made this happen.

“… The first facility we did in Las Vegas, then we did China, and now we’re here. It’s better and better and better and better every time we build one. Now you can honestly say that the PI in Mexico is the best Performance Institute in the UFC, without a doubt. This place is incredible. As we keep building and learning, we keep getting better.”

The facility is just a couple of months away from officially opening its doors, with a tentative date of April 12.

You can watch the full ceremony in the video above.

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Dana White goes way back with Puka Nacua: ‘He grew up in our house’

Dana White is close with Puka Nacua and couldn’t be more proud of all he’s accomplished in the NFL already

Puka Nacua and Dana White aren’t related, but Nacua calls the UFC president “Uncle Dana” because they’ve been close for years – all the way back to when Nacua was a youth football player. Before moving to Utah, Nacua grew up in Las Vegas with his family and was friends with White’s son, Dana. They played youth football together, so White almost became a family member to Nacua with how close they became.

During an interview with Julian Edelman on “Games With Names,” White talked about his ties to Nacua and how proud he is to see all that the Rams receiver has accomplished.

“My kids grew up with Puka. He grew up in our house,” White said before Edelman asked, “Was he ballin’?”

“Ballin’. Me and Lorenzo used to fund a team called the ‘Little Cowboys’ and he was on the ‘Little Cowboys’ with my kids and a bunch of other guys that are playing right now,” White said. “There’s a few kids that went to the NFL from that team, and good colleges, too. To see Puka doing what he’s doing now, it could not happen to a better human being.”

“When you meet this kid, you will love this kid. He’s such a good kid.”

Coach David White shared a photo on Twitter four years ago that has White’s son, Dana, and Nacua wearing their Little Cowboys uniforms. Little did anyone know, Nacua would go on to become a star in the NFL.

White congratulated Nacua in January when he broke the rookie receptions and receiving yards record in Week 18 against the 49ers, sharing just how proud and happy he is for the Rams wideout.

Last year, the Rams did a rookie challenge where he had to call the most famous person in his phone. Humbly, Nacua dialed up Uncle Dana White, who answered and couldn’t have been more excited about it.

“I love seeing you in the Rams gear! I’m so proud of you, man.”

Not every rookie in the NFL can casually FaceTime the UFC president but Nacua goes way back with White and his family, which is awesome.

Mackenzie Dern plans ‘to correct the mistakes’ after UFC 298 loss, receives praise from Dana White

Mackenzie Dern didn’t get the win at UFC 298, but she at least has Dana White’s support.

[autotag]Mackenzie Dern[/autotag] put on a valiant effort at UFC 298 but ultimately fell short.

Dern lost a close decision to Amanda Lemos this past Saturda in a Fight of the Night effort. She rallied after being dropped and badly hurt in Round 2, but it wasn’t enough to sway the judges in her favor.

Despite now being on a two-fight losing skid for the first time in her career, Dern (13-5 MMA, 8-5 UFC) remained positive in an Instagram post.

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“Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world”
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The results weren’t what I was hoping for! Thank you everyone for all the support! I love doing what I do! Now, it’s time to correct the mistakes and keep up the hard work! 💪🏼👊🏼 Congrats to @amandalemos_ufc for an amazing fight! FOTN for us! 🙏🏼

A bloodied and battered Dern held her face after being dropped by Lemos, and UFC CEO [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] was shocked to hear that she didn’t suffer any major injuries.

“We were convinced that she had a broken orbital in that fight,” White said during the UFC 298 post-fight news conference. “When she went down with the eye thing, we were convinced it was a broken orbital, and she fought through it. I’m shocked that it’s not (broken). She’s so f*cking tough. She’s awesome.”

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For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 298.

Wanderlei Silva grateful to Dana White for UFC Hall of Fame Class of 2024 spot

Wanderlei Silva expressed gratitude toward Dana White for his addition to the UFC Hall of Fame.

ANAHEIM, Calif. – [autotag]Wanderlei Silva[/autotag] expressed gratitude toward [autotag]Dana White[/autotag] for his addition to the UFC Hall of Fame.

Former PRIDE FC champion and 12-fight UFC veteran Silva (35-14-1) was announced for the pioneer wing of the 2024 UFC Hall of Fame class during Saturday’s UFC 298 broadcast.

The announcement came as a surprise after White said 10 years ago that Silva had been “Pete Rose’d” and would never be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. But not only did the UFC CEO change his tune, he forgot that he ever made those comments.

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“He deserves to be in the Hall of Fame,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters during the UFC 298 post-fight news conference. “Back when me and the Fertittas got into this sport, we were huge Wanderlei Silva fans.

“Everybody that was a hardcore fan back then was a big fan of PRIDE. A lot of big stars came out of there, and Wanderlei has done a lot for the sport in the early days, and he deserves to be in there. … I’ve been in so many beefs with so many people that I didn’t even remember that until you just told me.”

Silva said he had no idea about the announcement and holds no grudge toward White for his past comments.

“I’m so thankful to Dana. I’m so thankful to the UFC,” Silva said backstage at UFC 298. “The guys gave me a good opportunity, put me in the biggest events with great opponents, and I’m so glad to have this moment here. I made a lot of money here in the UFC, and I have a good life today because the guys gave this opportunity for me, and I’m so thankful. I know Dana has a huge part in this Hall of Fame. Thanks so much, Dana White.”

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