Dana White has admitted he deliberately gave a fighter on the UFC 334 card hard fights after that fighter’s antics rubbed him the wrong way. The Sun ran the story Wednesday, Nov. 11, under a headline built around the UFC CEO’s own words. They’re three of the least reassuring words a promoter can say about his matchmaking: “I might have.”
According to The Sun’s headline, White purposefully booked tough opponents for the fighter after taking a dislike to the fighter’s behavior. The headline doesn’t name the fighter, and we’re not going to guess. Without a name, there’s no record to pull and no opponent list to audit. There’s also no way yet to measure how much a grudge from the top cost someone in the rankings or on a paycheck. When the full interview circulates, that’s the first thing worth checking. Who stood across the cage from this fighter, and did those matchups make sense on the rankings alone?
A Strange Week Away From the Cage
The admission caps a bizarre few days for White. On Nov. 9, President Trump brought him into the White House press briefing room, according to clips several accounts posted on X. Championship Rounds shared footage of White stepping up and telling reporters, “I’ve always wanted to do this. Who has the first question?”
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The whole thing started as a joke. Eric Daugherty posted on X on Nov. 8 that Trump said he’d only been kidding about making White press secretary. Daugherty quoted Trump saying, “That was an example of something where I was kidding, and then people said, you know, that’s actually a pretty good idea!”
The joke ended on camera. Aaron Rupar wrote on X that the briefing wrapped with White turning down the job. Nick Sortor posted White’s reply to Trump’s offer: “Thank you for the offer, sir. But I do NOT want to be in politics.”
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So in the span of 72 hours, White fielded questions at the most famous podium in the country, passed on a government job, and admitted that personal feelings might have steered who one of his own fighters had to face. Only one of those stories should matter to anybody who buys a pay-per-view.
Quick Take
Promoters having favorites is as old as promoting. Plenty of fighters would even take a run of hard fights as a compliment, since tough matchups are how you climb and how you get paid. Matchmaking is supposed to answer to the rankings, though. When the man running the company shrugs and says a fighter’s personality might have shaped their schedule, every loudmouth on the roster just learned what the cost of annoying the boss could be. “I might have” deserves a follow-up question. White, of all people, just spent a Monday proving he knows how to take one.
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