UFC: the brilliance of Dana White’s expletive-laden, straight-shooting, post-fight press conferences

UFC president dishes out beautiful one-liners while sprinkling his media sessions with fight game philosophy and cutting, no-nonsense responses

As White continues to pull off card after card during the global pandemic, he has silenced a number of critics who called him reckless

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Dana White helps sets the tone of the UFC through his appearances before the media. Photo: AP

Patrick Blennerhassett

Patrick Blennerhassett is an award-winning Canadian journalist and four-time published author.

Published: 8:30am, 24 Jun 2020Updated: 6:56pm, 27 Jun 2020

One of my favourite things about the UFC has nothing to do with mixed martial arts or the fights themselves.

After virtually every card, president Dana White sits down in front of the press corps for a post-fight question and answer session after reading out some statistics and giving out awards for key performances. White’s unabashed nature is nothing new to anyone who follows the sport, but his press conferences have become the stuff of legends.

Aside from giving the media some brilliant one-liners – his latest, “give me a f****** break”, in which he dismantled boxing promoter Bob Arum as a pot calling the kettle black – White loves to strip everything down to the bare essentials and cut right to the chase.

“People aren’t even watching it on TV. F****** fans are gonna show up now? So this a****** says that he’s gonna have fans at his fights when a few weeks ago, he was talking s*** about me for even going?”

Dana White’s language may seem brash, but it is incredibly strategic. Photo: AP

While some are quick to dismiss White’s expletive-laden tirades as the ramblings of a meathead loudmouth, they are anything but. White is not only a savvy businessman with a strong ethical guideline for mixed martial arts, but acts as a perfect representative for the UFC and what it stands for ideologically: no BS.