Dana White was left furious after Rory MacDonald’s fight against Jake Ellenberger in 2013 which led to him launching a passionate message targeted at the fighters.
For several years now, a big argument UFC boss Dana White faces is the topic of fighter pay, which will never seem to die down.
In 2013 when the promotion was still budding into one of the biggest promotions in combat sports, White launched a passionate rant about fighter pay after a flop fight between Rory MacDonald and Jake Ellenberger.
The welterweight fight served as the co-main event to a flyweight title fight between Demetrious Johnson and John Moraga.
Dana White fired ‘go get the money’ rant after horrendous UFC fight
After an exciting build-up to their fight which saw Ellenberger shower MacDonald with trash talk, White and the UFC fans were expecting an exciting fight between the two.
However, it didn’t live up to the hype at all and despite his pre-fight trash talk, Ellenberger hardly landed anything of note during their 15-minute fight and even MacDonald struggled to make the fight exciting.
And because of the lackluster ight, White went on to slam it in the post-fight press conference, launching a passionate rant about fighter pay.
“Yeah, I had high hopes for that, definitely. That fight sucked so bad and it was a fight that had so much heat on it, it was a very important fight,” White started.
“Every time I do the weigh-ins, we have a fighter meeting in the back and one of the topics that I’ve been talking about is fighter pay. You guys wanna talk about fighter pay, let’s do it.
“You all have the same opportunity to make those bonuses, you want more money? It’s f—— right there, go and get it, go get the money… Have people talking about you tomorrow… Ellenberger did nothing.
“Don’t talk all that s— to then go in there and not try to perform. I don’t think he did anything. Do you think anyone is screaming to see him in a fight again?” White continued.
‘The Juggernaut’ went on to fight 10 more times under the UFC banner and lost on eight occasions, only beating Josh Koschek and Matt Brown.
MacDonald then began his incredible rivalry with Robbie Lawler
Despite being extremely close to a title shot at that time, MacDonald was then matched up against Robbie Lawler, which sparked the beginning of their epic rivalry.
The two first clashed at UFC 167 on the undercard of Georges St-Pierre’s title fight against Johny Hendricks and Lawler picked up the split decision win.
Over two years later, the two clashed again in the co-main event of Conor McGregor vs Chad Mendes at UFC 189 and ended up putting on one of the greatest fights of all time, which is still credited to this day.