UFC President Dana White Tells Fox News’ Sean Hannity: I Try to Keep My Sport ‘Out of Politics’

UFC president Dana White told Fox News host Sean Hannity that he tries to keep his sport separated from politics.

Appearing on Hannity’s show Monday night, the UFC chief chalked up his sport’s recent success, in part, to his effort to keep mixed martial arts from getting political.

“One of the things that I really tried to do through this whole thing is stay out of politics,” White said. “When people tune in to watch sports, they don’t want to hear that crap. They don’t want to hear what your opinions are, or who you’re voting for, or what you’re doing. They want to get away from everything in their life, and they want to focus on [for] two, three, four hours, however long the sport is … throughout this pandemic, when you turned on the UFC, we never talked about Covid. We never talked about politics.”

White went on to note that he was not referring to individual fighters — as the UFC chief said it was not his aim to “muzzle” the athletes. Similarly, White, in his personal capacity, has not been shy about expressing his own opinions. In August, he spoke in support of then-President Donald Trump during the Republican National Convention.

However, in one notable instance of politics and White’s sport directly intersecting, Trump recorded a video which was played on May 9, during the UFC’s first card back from a two month-long Covid-19 hiatus.

“I want to congratulate Dana White and the UFC,” Trump said. “They’re going to have a big match. We love it. We think it’s important – get the sports leagues back. Let’s play. We do the social distancing and whatever else you have to do, but we need sports. We want our sports back, and congratulations to Dana White and the UFC.”

Hannity went on to ask White, “Do you see the growth of the UFC, and then — you look at a precipitous decline in a lot of other sports because of woke politics, cancel culture — do you see a direct correlation?”

“It’d be hard to say no, that they don’t go hand-in-hand,” White replied.

The UFC president pointed to the sold out crowd of roughly 16,000 for his sport’s event this past weekend at an indoor arena in Jacksonville, FL — and argued that it was symbolic of a mass rebellion against Covid restrictions.

“People are done,” White said. “They’re done being told where they can go, what they can do. They’re ready to get back out there and start enjoying their lives again.”

Watch above, via Fox News.