‘Go F*CK Yourself’: UFC President Dana White Lashes Out At Newspaper For Calling Events Potentially Deadly
Alex Wong/Getty Images
UFC president Dana White continued his trend of media bashing, now lashing out at the Las Vegas Review-Journal for criticizing UFC 261 safety protocols.
White’s issue stemmed from the paper suggesting the event, which welcomed a crowd of 15,000 in Jacksonville, FL, was an endangerment during the COVID-19 global pandemic. “Go f*ck yourself,” White wrote, while sharing a screenshot of the article he opposed.
The article cited a disclaimer provided by the UFC to all in attendance which read, “may lead to exposure to COVID-19 and that contraction of COVID-19 may result in severe and permanent damage to the health of the Holder and/or others including, but not limited to, death.” Adam Hill of the Las Vegas-Review Journal summarized the disclaimer with “at least 15,000 people are willing to risk permanent damage or death to attend a live sporting event again.”
View this post on Instagram
UFC is a local business that keeps its headquarters in Las Vegas, and White cited bringing a Conor McGregor headlined event to the city in July and local job creation in rebutting the paper.
“Hey Las Vegas, this is our piece of sh*t local newspaper,” White responded on Instagram. “Through this entire pandemic we didn’t lay off a single employee, we worked with governmental agencies in Nevada and around the world to put on every event safely, and we chose to bring our biggest fight of the year with Conor McGregor back to town July 10th to help relaunch the city. Yet, this is how the Las Vegas Review Journal shows its support for a true local business. Go f*ck yourself LVRJ, and don’t bother coming to the fight in July.”
White didn’t explicitly state he was revoking credentials from the Las Vegas Review-Journal, but he certainly alluded to that being the case, telling the daily newspaper not to bother coming to their UFC’s local event in July. This wouldn’t be the first time White enforced media control by revoking credentials, controversially banning one of the sport’s top reporters Ariel Helwani “for life,” in 2016. That ban was quickly overturned two days later.
White’s criticism of the Las Vegas Review-Journal came less than a week after the UFC president admitted the sport needs the media, but delivered a gut punch in the same breath, calling the fourth estate “full of sh*t.”
