UFC President Dana White Tells Tito Ortiz to Put Jenna Jameson ‘On a Leash’

You’d think Dana White would learn. He was forced to apologize (Update: While White offered a non-apology apology for his word choice, he never apologized to Hunt. Details below.) after calling Loretta Hunt (then of Sherdog) a “fucking dumb bitch” and her anonymous source a “faggot” and a “pussy” in April of 2009 (video here). (As a side note, try to find video of the apology. The UFC took down the official video (it was the lead in to a fight week video blog), and I’ve had no luck finding a transcript. If I remember correctly, the apology was more PR move than legitimate remorse.)

It looked like Dana White had himself under control. Sure, he’ll always have that aggressive and abrasive Alpha Male personality, but it seemed as if someone got in his ear and told him to, you know, think before you say something.

And now this:

It won’t be so easy to scrub this from the history books.

There’s nothing concrete about what caused this blowup, but I would wager that it has something to do with Jenna Jameson making light of Chuck Liddell’s penchant for losing consciousness in recent years. (Update: It may also have to do with this tweet from Jenna following a back-and-forth between White and Tito Ortiz.)

I’ll go ahead and be the voice of reason here. Yes, Dana White shouldn’t say these sorts of things in a public venue. Yes, images of female subjugation aren’t appropriate coming out of the mouth (or Blackberry keyboard) of the head of a professional sports organization. Yes, Dana White should apologize.

At the same time, Dana White isn’t the Worst Person in the World as I’m sure some people will paint him to be. He can be an asshole about things, and he certainly has issues with women and language and public relations, but if this was a friend of a friend, you’d think less of the guy and move on with your life.

I don’t want to sound like I’m brushing this under the rug, because this is worthy of getting kicked out of all but the most depraved of friendly house parties. Society has deemed this sort of behavior inappropriate of a man of White’s stature and in the forum in which he let his voice be heard. This sort of thing has consequences.

But I’m sure we’ll hear calls for White’s job, comparisons to Roger Goodell and David Stern, and all sorts of bad analogies and hyperbole. Trying to rehabilitate Dana White’s views on the fairer sex isn’t worth my time.

[Update] Loretta Hunt informed me that White never apologized to her for his attack, only for his comments about the anonymous source. She provided a link to a Comcast story detailing White’s “apology”:

“I chose some words that offended and hurt some people,” White said. “Anybody who knows me knows I would never, ever maliciously attack somebody who wasn’t attacking me. As far as the gay and lesbian community, my comments were not directed toward them. I’m actually a supporter of many of their issues. The last thing I would ever want anybody to think about me or think is cool is to go out and attack somebody because of their sexual orientation. That was not my intention. That was not the way I said it and I apologize to anybody that I’ve offended or hurt.”

White, though, never directly apologized to Hunt. He also told ESPN.com in a separate interview that he “absolutely, positively meant to attack (Hunt). Absolutely.”