Angry with a fight day article about UFC 261 taking place before a capacity crowd in an arena for the first time since the pandemic started, Dana White laid into the hometown Las Vegas Review Journal and told them not to come to the company’s big UFC event in July.
He directed his social media post to Las Vegas citizens stating, “this is our piece of shit local newspaper” claiming that the treatment of the company was not fair. The lead, by Adam Hill’s piece started, “At least 15,000 people are willing to risk permanent damage or death to attend a live sporting event again.”
The piece, went on to read, “That’s according to language in the disclaimer for those attending UFC 261 in Jacksonville, Florida…”
He claimed in the post-fight press conference that there are editors at the paper that like to sensationalize things.
The rest of the article did not state anything mischaracterizing the event and in fact promoted Saturday’s event. Yet, White took issue with the framing of the article because of the COVID-19 issue.
Payout Perspective:
Frankly, I would have never known about this article until White posted this rant on social media. White’s public tantrum about the article reflects his concern about the event and while the LVRJ is fear-mongering, if he was fine with going through with UFC 261 with fans why does it matter to him. If White was confident that people would not be hurt, why exactly did he go ahead with the disclaimer language on tickets? The lead was nothing more than information that fans would have known if they read the disclaimer language. But, just like the Journal’s article, fans wouldn’t have known about it, had he not pointed it out. The point here is that he blasted the Journal to apply public pressure from his fanbase of followers to evoke some change he could do without having to do it. Similar to President Trump’s rants on twitter before he was banned, there’s a purpose to point out something that bothered them. And that’s to rattle the base to do something about it.
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