On this week’s episode of the MMA Insiders podcast, Bjorn Rebney spoke to host Jason Floyd. The former Bellator founder and CEO and current representative of the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association discussed the current state of MMA today, as well as some of the problems that the sport still faces.
Then the conversation took a turn when the subject turned to some recent comments that Dana White had made about Donald Cerrone.
[Beginning at around 39:29]
Jason Floyd: One of the things, and it’s a word that’s been associated, is the UFC being a bully, and I want to play this comment from Dana White which is about Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone and kinda wanna get your thoughts if this is just a classic example of how you feel the UFC is being a bully.
He then proceeded to play a clip from the December 6th episode of UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra.
Dana White: The fighters can go out and do whatever they wanna do. They’re all grown men, man. And in life, you know how it is – we all have these paths to walk down and this is what these guys, you know… I’m a little shocked — I’ll tell you this — that Cowboy Cerrone didn’t give me a call, you know what I mean? If, if you’re that unhappy and whatev— lemme tell you this, too: and, and not to be whatever, but… first of all, he’s only main evented – headlined like, three fights, right? Fight nights. Headlined three fights in his career. Never held a title in the WEC, never held a title in the UFC, right? And a couple of years ago, he was on his boat, he gets into a beef, right? With a guy in another boat. He’s in big trouble. Who does he call? He calls me.
What do I do? I go out and find him the best criminal defense lawyer, and I spent over $100,000 of my own money.
Jim Norton: “Oh, wow… so you felt like he should have called you?”
Dana White: Yeah, for Cowboy Cerrone. So you know, when i see Cowboy Cerrone standing up there it’s like “Alright. Really? OK…“
From there Floyd proceeded to ask Rebney his thoughts regarding the matter and whether or not he’d describe that as a bullying tactic. His response was unexpectedly personal.
When the UFC, Jason, got sold to WME-IMG… Dana White walked away with roughly four hundred million dollars. Every year prior to that he was making in excess of 20 million dollars a year.
I can say it again – when the UFC sold to WME-IMG Dana White who just belittled Cowboy Cerrone and talked crap about a valiant warrior who has fought in the cage innumerable times and who fans love, made close to four hundred million dollars. That man, that gluttonous pig. And he got twenty million a year, on average before that to run the UFC. And he’s got the cojones to step up and to belittle Cowboy? How many fights did Dana have? How many times did Dana step into the cage in the WEC and in the UFC? But he made close to four hundred million dollars when the organization was sold. Please. Are you kidding me?
Clearly, the two men continue to dislike each other. Does this mean they won’t be able to work together in the future? Time will tell. Given the current climate, things don’t look like they’ll patch things up soon.
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