The UFC just held a historic show at the White House, an event steeped in patriotic – some would argue political – messaging, but UFC CEO Dana White has long maintained that his promotion prefers not to take part in any overt messaging.
White’s attitude seems to stand in contrast to other sports organizations, including MLB, which recently came under scrutiny when four San Francisco Giants players were criticized for seemingly being dismissive of a recent Pride Night event meant to celebrate and support
the LGBTQ+ community. One player declined to wear a Pride-themed hat, while three others wrote a Bible verse on them.
Fox News asked White why the UFC doesn’t have Pride Nights, and he responded that it’s more a matter of why should they than why don’t they.
“I’m staring at my roster of top 15 fighters, I’m assuming we have some gay fighters,” White said. “I don’t know how many of them are openly. I know that we have gay female fighters.
“I don’t give a shit. I don’t care what you are or who you are or what you do, we don’t talk about that or any of that stuff. We have a T-shirt that says ‘We Are All Fighters,’ and it’s got the gay flag colors on it, but I don’t know, everybody do your own thing. I’m just not into it.”
As White mentioned, the UFC has sold Pride-themed merchandise in the past, including a T-shirt and shorts. However, the promotion rarely has any themed events outside of the recent UFC White House show and the annual Noche UFC events, which celebrate Latin American culture.
White has also had to deal with several fighters on the roster making ignorant and offensive comments over the years – most recently Josh Hokit aiming a grotesque insult at former First Lady Michelle Obama – and while he wants to make it clear he doesn’t condone everything his fighters say, he’s not inclined to ask them to change.
“Listen, you think I’m happy about what Josh Hokit said, the night I’m trying to unify the country?” White said. “And he goes out and says something absolutely stupid like he did that night? But I’m a believer of free speech, too. I let everybody be themselves, do their thing. There’s a lot of things that some of my guys say that I don’t love.
“Sean Strickland, we’re sitting up on the thing at the dais on a press conference and he starts going off that nobody wants to see Raquel Pennington – who I love, who’s one of my favorite people on Earth. She’s one of the sweetest people ever – and he starts talking shit about her. But they don’t care. They’re powerful strong women, they do their thing, they’re like, ‘We don’t give a shit what Sean Strickland says.’ We have to deal with some of it. I’m in the fight business, so it’s a little different than baseball is like America’s game. I stay in my lane, whatever all these other guys are doing, good luck to you. I do my own thing.”
When asked if he felt other organizations participating in Pride Nights or other themed events was performative or opportunistic, White agreed that could be a factor in the decisions made by sports leagues. He then boasted that he and the UFC are frequently involved in charitable work without having to make a show of it.
“First of all, we donate lots of money to lots of different charities and I do personally, too,” White said. “You know what you’ll never see me doing? Standing out in the middle of somewhere with a big check with a bunch of little kids standing around. We do it because we should, we do it because we can, we don’t do it for attention and we don’t do it for any other reason other than we should.
“When it comes to certain groups of people, whether it’s the gay and lesbian community, whether it’s the African American community, whether it’s this community, we do what we should do. We do the right thing, and as long as you’re doing the right thing, you don’t have to run around and prove to everybody that you’re doing the right thing.”
