Speaking on domestic violence in 2014, UFC President Dana White said, “You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.” Now, nine years later, White is answering for his own behavior in a video that quickly made the rounds on social media, slapping his wife while attending a New Year’s Eve party in Cabo San Lucas. White addressed the controversy at Wednesday’s press conference, taking full responsibility for his actions while acknowledging that last week’s incident will forever tarnish his legacy, staining his reputation in a sport he helped build.
“There’s no excuses for it. It’s something I’m going to have to deal with and live with for the rest of my life,” said White at Wednesday’s Media Day for UFC Fight Night 217, scheduled for Saturday night in Las Vegas. “There’s no defense for this and people should not be defending me. All the criticism I’ve received this week is 100 percent warranted.”
Since the scandal was first reported by TMZ, many have been critical of ESPN, which holds UFC’s broadcasting rights, for its minimal coverage of the incident, prioritizing their business relationship with White at the expense of all journalistic credibility. These moral compromises exist all throughout sports media, though it doesn’t make the situation any less problematic, seemingly enabling the UFC’s prevailing culture of toxic masculinity, rampant with casual misogyny and other regressive worldviews that wouldn’t be tolerated elsewhere.
“This is a personal family matter that played out in public and our biggest focus was our kids,” said White. “I’ve been married to this woman for 27 years. We’ve known each other for 40. Anybody who’s married knows being married is a job, something you’ve got to work at every day. Her and I have been through some s---, but we’re still together and we have three great kids.”
Though it doesn’t excuse his behavior, it’s rare for someone in White’s position to accept that level of accountability, facing the music when others may have swept it under the rug, either not acknowledging it or going on the defensive. Still, it doesn’t seem like White, who probably should have read the room before posting Instagram videos of his gambling escapades days after the altercation went viral, will face any serious repercussions beyond what it’s done to his image, forever branding him as an abuser of women.
“I’ve been against this. I’ve owned this. I’m telling you that I’m wrong. We’ve had plenty of discussions internally with Ari [Emmanuel], ESPN—nobody’s happy about this. But it happened,” said White. “What is my punishment? Here’s my punishment. I have to walk around, for however long I live, and this is how I’m labeled now. My other punishment is that, I’m sure a lot of people, whether it be media, fighters, friends, acquaintances, who had respect for me might not have respect for me now. There are a lot of things that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life that are way more of a punishment than what, I take a 30 or 60-day absence? That’s not a punishment for me.”
While his apology hit most of the right notes, some of White’s sentiment veers dangerously close to “woe is me” territory, lamenting a regrettable incident that, in his eyes, should have been kept private. Regardless of who started it, there’s only one victim and it’s certainly not White.
“It was the first time that it’s ever happened and I guarantee you it will never happen again,” said White. “If I could go back and change anything, I would have stayed home New Year’s Eve.”
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