Apparently, the war between Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) CEO Dana White and YouTuber-turned boxer Jake Paul is far from over.
During the UFC 322 post-fight press conference, White was asked about
Paul’s upcoming mega-fight against former two-time Heavyweight boxing champion Anthony Joshua — set for Fri., Dec. 19, 2025, in Florida. White said that even though he thinks the matchup is “a bad idea,” he’ll still be watching because “everybody’s going to get what they’ve finally been waiting for” — implying Paul is about to get knocked out.
Today, however, MVP co-founder and former UFC Chief Strategy Officer/CFO Nakisa Bidarian fired back, claiming that White’s hatred for Paul runs so deep that fighters who work with MVP or agree to fight Paul are effectively blacklisted from the UFC.
“To be clear, there is a clear distaste for Jake Paul, when you’re saying you want to see him get knocked out, but that’s been well known, and I understand the dynamic that has been built over time,” Bidarian told Ariel Helwani. “To say he wasn’t aware of [Paul vs. Joshua] is a blatant lie. Dana lies frequently, so it doesn’t surprise me, but I know for a fact that TKO was aware of this event…Dana pays attention to every single thing that Jake Paul does, whether he wants to admit it or not.”
“He pays attention so much that there are fighters out there who have guidance from the UFC that says, ‘Hey, if you fight with MVP or you fight Jake Paul, you’re not welcome here anymore,” Bidarian added. “You can’t come back, you can’t use the Performance Institute, and you won’t be considered for future fights.’ That’s the reality of how deeply angered they are with what we’ve been able to do. It’s very anticompetitive in many ways from my perspective.”
Bidarian also took a shot at White’s Powerslap, questioning why Paul vs. Joshua would be considered “bad.”
“‘It’s bad,’ I think he said. I don’t know what that means. Is it bad because it’s not two world-class Heavyweights? Is it bad because it’s dangerous? That I’m not clear on,” Bidarian concluded. “What I will say is that it’s a lot safer than some slap contest, where two people just stand in front of each other with zero defense, hitting each other as hard as they can.”
If these secret blacklist claims are true, fighters like Anderson Silva, Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, Tyron Woodley, and Holly Holm would theoretically be unwelcome in UFC moving forward — all having competed against Paul or on MVP cards.
Well… maybe Diaz gets a hall pass since “UFC will always be his house.”
