Dana White claimed he did not know anything about the Black Lives Matter protests this week as the company was one of the few to not acknowledge protests which originated with the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department.
There was no mention of the protests during the UFC Prelims or the UFC 250 PPV by the broadcast crew this Saturday. Devin Clark did take a knee while being introduced prior to his fight. Aljamain Sterling also spoke about it during fight week. Yet, when asked about it during the post-fight press-conference, White seemed befuddled as to what was happening. To be fair, he was asked about the NFL making a statement about the Black Lives Matter protests. Although not specific in the question posed to White, it was related to a video statement made by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell. Yet, White asked someone from his staff what that meant. He then somewhat talked about Israel Adesanya speaking at protests but didn’t really answer the question about whether the promotion would issue a statement.
UFC light heavyweight @brownbearC took a knee and raised his fist while being introduced at #UFC250 pic.twitter.com/UbsU1t67r6
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) June 6, 2020
In an Instagram Live video on Sunday, Yahoo! Sports writer Kevin Iole thought that it would have been fine to have stated something about the protest this week but also claimed that White addressed the situation last week with the George Floyd tribute during last Saturday’s broadcast. Iole noted that it was White’s idea to pay tribute to Floyd last week. So, that was the addressing of the issue.
Payout Perspective:
A clear tell when someone does not want to answer a question, is to claim they do not understand. If you watch throughout White’s press conferences, he makes an attempt to understand questions asked and tries to answer them the best way possible. If you were to look at the video its clear a pivot away from the subject was made. There was a brief filibuster about Adesanya and America being so great. This again prompts one to believe that the UFC is following in accordance with the Trump Administration. As we outlined, the UFC and Bellator were the only organization in (mainstream) combat sports that did not say anything about this week’s protests. Even if the UFC paid tribute to George Floyd last week, do you think that was enough? Standing up for equality does not have a side. I would doubt the company would lose fans if it had a statement supporting equality and what’s right. That seems clear enough.
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