Jump to
In April UFC CEO Dana White proudly announced on Fox News, “We don’t do anything woke over here at all.”
More recently, White railed against reactive decision-making with his recent defense of (lucrative new UFC sponsor) Bud Light.
“Listen, believe me, if you think I got into this thinking that that wouldn’t happen, you’re out of your mind,” Dana White told reporters when asked about backlash he’s received over the UFC’s Bud Light deal. “People are very opinionated about this. It’s almost like in the COVID thing, right? Through COVID? What did I say during COVID? ‘Somebody’s gotta be first.’ And there are reasons why I felt we could ‘be first’ going through COVID; knew that we would do it right, yada yada yada. You know the story.”
Theo Von tells Dana White about RFK backlash
Most recently, Dana White was a guest on Theo Von’s This Past Weekend YouTube show and Von described an incident in which he claimed Peloton pulled its sponsorship of his show over a 2021 guest appearance by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
“We had Robert Kennedy Jr. on,” podcast host Theo Von said in a recent interview with Dana White, discussion drama over sponsorship. “And we had a couple companies call after that and say stuff about him, just ‘We’re not advertising on this episode.’ And advertisers, like, ‘You guys need to take the episode down.'”
“What’s wrong with him?” Dana White asked, incredulously, speaking of RFK Jr. “Guy’s ****ing brilliant. Smart ****ing guy.”
“I’ve never met him,” he continued. “I’ve only watched his stuff. And you got this whole Democrat/Republican, ****ing b.s.. He’s a ****ing Democrat. He’s a Democrat with common sense. He’s an old-school Democrat—and smart guy, whatever.
“Let me tell you this: This is America. You can ****ing have whoever you want on your podcast. You can do whatever the **** you wanna do. Imagine a sponsor calling you and telling you that you can’t have this guy? What sponsor did it?
“And this happened to me too. This happened to me. I posted a video for Trump on my personal social media. And one of our big sponsors called and said, ‘Take that down.’ You know what I said? ‘Go **** yourself.’ You vote for whoever you want to vote for, and I’ll vote for whoever I want to vote for. That’s how this works. I don’t even care who you’re voting for, it’s none of my ****ing business. But **** you. Don’t ever ****ing call me and tell me who to vote for.”
Dana White cancels Peloton
“So Peloton? What do they sell? ****ing the stationary bikes? Peloton sells stationary bikes and they got a problem with Robert ****ing Kennedy? **** you Peloton. Who the **** are they? Are you ****ing kidding me? ****ing Peloton, calling, *****ing about Robert Kennedy.
“Who’s the CEO of Peloton?” White continued. “I wanna see this ****ing guy… Barry McCarthy looks like THAT guy, 100%… He looks like a douchebag.”
“We’re getting rid of the Pelotons,” White added later. “Pelotons are out of the gym.”
For its part, Peloton told Fox News “that the company pulled its advertising due to the comedian’s content going against the company’s “brand safety guidelines.”
Looks like advertisers better line up with Dana White’s message or risk getting canceled by the UFC.
Join the new Bloody Elbow
Our Substack is where we feature the work of writers like Zach Arnold, John Nash and Connor Reubusch. We’re fighting for the sport, the fighters and the fans. Please help us by subscribing today.
About the author
