The fall-out from UFC 229 continues today as president Dana White has taken fire for the way they promoted the event. However, White has fired back at the critics and those "stupid opinions."
White appeared on ESPN today and was asked about the use of the New York bus attack in the promotional video. The company used footage of the criminal act in promoting Conor McGregor's lightweight fight against Khabib Nurmagomedov.
During the interview, White was asked about a quote from one of "Khabib's cornermen" that appeared in the US press. Stephen A Smith told White he was reading from USA Today and read him the following line: "Let’s be real. The UFC promoted this fight with the videos. They didn’t promote this as going to a golf tournament. They promoted this as a fight."
White was clearly irritated by the idea that the UFC was culpable.
Dumbest quote I have ever heard in my life. You are an idiot whoever wrote that. This is a fight. The way that we promoted this fight, was exactly the way that this thing played out. That is all part of the storyline.
He went on to describe it as a "stupid opinion." What White didn't know was that the quote came from Khabib's manager, Ali Abdelaziz.
Despite that, he went on to discuss the unusual incident.
"We’ve had plenty of fights, where there’s tons of bad blood, and all kinds of things like this happen, and, you know, we don’t have fights after the fights. We’ve had scuffles with guys in the back, I mean, this is the fight business, and a lot of people don’t like each other."
Dana White on First Take this morning, responding to any suggestion the UFC is partially responsible for what happened at UFC 229 because of the way they promoted the fight. pic.twitter.com/zusJ3UHmbx
— Brett Okamoto (@bokamotoESPN) October 8, 2018
You can watch the full interview here.
