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Dana White is facing calls to step down as UFC president after a 2014 interview resurfaced in which he claimed that “you can never get over putting your hands on a woman.”
White apologized Tuesday after video surfaced of him publicly slapping his wife across the face during an argument on New Year’s Eve.
White, 53, has been married to his wife Anne since 1996. The couple have had three children together over the past 26 years, as their net worth skyrocketed to $500 million with the development of the UFC, the most popular in the world. world. mixed martial arts promotion.
But his position at the top of the UFC may be on the line now after a 2014 interview surfaced, in which he reacted to a video of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice abusing his wife.
UFC boss Dana White apologized for slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve
White said he had no excuse for his actions, saying he was “embarrassed” by the clip.
Speaking to FOX Sports Live at the time, White said: ‘It’s tough. First of all, the video is horrible. Absolutely awful. You’re talking about a guy who’s been in the fight business since he was 19 years old. It’s the most disturbing thing you’ll ever see.
‘What’s as bad as the punch is that he shows no remorse after he does it. You know, if you did something in anger and you’re like, ‘Oh my gosh. What did I do? There’s nothing like that with this guy. I don’t know all the ins and outs of what Roger Goodell did or knew or how he handled himself, but it’s definitely bad. I can tell you this: I wouldn’t want to be Roger Goodell.
“We’ve been human beings to let these guys, other guys, make up for what they’ve done and come back. There is one thing you never recover from and that is laying your hands on a woman. It’s been like that in the UFC since we started here. You don’t recover from laying your hands on a woman.
White has been married to his partner Anne for 26 years and the couple have three children.
White and his wife were celebrating New Year’s Eve at El Squid Roe in Cabo San Lucas, where the clip was filmed. The footage shows White appearing to say something to Anne, who reacts by slapping him. He then gives her a pat on the back before the couple part ways.
Addressing the incident to TMZ, the UFC boss said: ‘My wife and I went out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately that is what happened.
“I’m one of the guys who says there is never, ever an excuse for a man to put his hands on a woman and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.
‘This is one of those situations that is horrible. I’m ashamed. We have three children and since the video came out, we have shown the children and we are more focused on our family at the moment.
‘People are going to have their opinions on this and people’s opinions would be correct, especially in my case. You never put your hands on a woman.
His wife Anne is quoted by TMZ as saying: “To say this is out of character for him is an understatement, nothing like this has ever happened before.”
“Unfortunately, we both had too much to drink on New Year’s Eve and things got out of hand, on both sides. We talk about this as a family and apologize to each other.
White, who has led the UFC since 2001, previously said there would be no going back for fighters who were violent towards women.
White’s marriage has been largely shielded from the public, though his mother, June, wrote in a salacious 2011 book that he “had turned his back on his family and friends who were there for him when he needed help and support.”
Dana and Anne reportedly met in the eighth grade in Nevada, and though he shuttled back and forth between the Las Vegas area and Maine, the two dated in high school before getting married in 1996.
Their courtship came during a difficult time in White’s life, as he dropped out of two universities and held a series of low-paying jobs laying asphalt and working as a janitor.
Ultimately, he would open a gym in the Boston area, but returned to Las Vegas after he was allegedly threatened by notorious mobster White Bulger and his associate, Kevin Weeks.
To this day, White claims he doesn’t know why Bulger and Weeks felt they were owed money, but he took their threats seriously enough to move back to Nevada.
“He basically said, ‘You owe us money,'” White said, according to NBC Sports. “It was like $2,500, which was like $25,000 to me at the time, and he said, ‘You owe us money.’
“Actually, it was a guy named Kevin Weeks…he’s Whitey’s right-hand man,” White continued. ‘…basically I said I owed him some money, and I didn’t pay him. This went on for a while and one day I was at home and I got a call and they said, ‘You owe us the money tomorrow at 1 o’clock.’ I literally got off the phone, picked up the phone and called Delta and bought a ticket to Las Vegas.