Dana White and his strong arm / mafia tactics need to go.

[Alpha_T83]

Dana White needs to go. Enough is enough. He refuses to strip Jon Jones, and now because he can't fill the UFC 317 event (which should be Jones vs Aspinall), he's resorting to his typical mafia tactics to try and force matchups on UFC 317. Dricus just said they never had a contract signed, but the UFC leaked the matchup like it was a done deal. You know Dana White was saying "Look Dricus, everyone thinks you're already fighting. If you don't sign the contract, it will look like you pulled out."

And Dana is doing the same thing with Islam/Topuria, leaking that matchup and trying to force Islam to sign a short notice fight to save the event, rather than doing his job and stripping Jon Jones of the HW title.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

Dana White needs to go. Enough is enough. He refuses to strip Jon Jones, and now because he can't fill the UFC 317 event (which should be Jones vs Aspinall), he's resorting to his typical mafia tactics to try and force matchups on UFC 317. Dricus just said they never had a contract signed, but the UFC leaked the matchup like it was a done deal. You know Dana White was saying "Look Dricus, everyone thinks you're already fighting. If you don't sign the contract, it will look like you pulled out."

And Dana is doing the same thing with Islam/Topuria, leaking that matchup and trying to force Islam to sign a short notice fight to save the event, rather than doing his job and stripping Jon Jones of the HW title.

This is part of their negotiating tactics. They like to make a fighter look bad if the fighter doesn't do what Dana/UFC wants. I don't agree with your post since it takes this type of guy to do this job. A nice guy can't run a successful MMA company. You have to be an asshole and scumbag at the same time. Dana might have perfect qualifications for the job. I'm not sure since I don't know him personally but it seems he was born to do this stuff.

 

[Alpha_T83]

This is part of their negotiating tactics. They like to make a fighter look bad if the fighter doesn't do what Dana/UFC wants. I don't agree with your post since it takes this type of guy to do this job. A nice guy can't run a successful MMA company. You have to be an asshole and scumbag at the same time. Dana might have perfect qualifications for the job. I'm not sure since I don't know him personally but it seems he was born to do this stuff.

The problem is that Dana clearly isn't effective anymore. If Belal wins and Islam doesn't move up to welterweight, and Islam refuses to fight Topuria @ UFC 317, that will prove my point.

Why isn't Dana effective? Because the fighters see the hypocrisy. DDP defended his belt twice in the last year. Why would he sign a short-notice fight against Khamzat to save an event that should be headlined by Jones-Aspinall, when Dana refuses to give Jon Jones the same treatment as other fighters?

You can't have an effective boss that plays favorites this badly.

 

[Eric Silva 2.0]

The problem is that Dana clearly isn't effective anymore. If Belal wins and Islam doesn't move up to welterweight, and Islam refuses to fight Topuria @ UFC 317, that will prove my point.

Why isn't Dana effective? Because the fighters see the hypocrisy. DDP defended his belt twice in the last year. Why would he sign a short-notice fight against Khamzat to save an event that should be headlined by Jones-Aspinall, when Dana refuses to give Jon Jones the same treatment as other fighters?

You can't have an effective boss that plays favorites this badly.

It's a tough business to run. Arman pulled out of the fight last minute against Islam. There isn't anybody to fight Islam at LW. I think the Topuria fight will happen. Believe it or not but Paddy might be the next guy to give Islam a tough fight. WW is ok, if Belal wins he has Buckley, Shavkat and Garry waiting in the wings. LW is going through a change right now since the top of the division is aging.

I think the bigger issue is that the talent is thin in some of the divisions (HW for example). The UFC is definitely going through a transition but new contenders and champions will emerge.

 

[andgonsil]

Just strip Islam and make Toppy vs Charles for the linear

 

[Kowboy On Sherdog]

 

[Tweak896]

No UFC needs to stop being so soft behind the scenes, new contracts should say fighters need to fight whoever UFC says and everyone is now a UFC employee. I'm tired of how vague everything is and negotiations at every turn. We need a MMA dictatorship.

 

[goOb]

"Have you seen Jon Jones UFC Card? It's so awesome."

 

[oldschoolmmafan]

This is why Dana loves Kiwi's and Australian's. They fight short notice anywhere anytime, they get used like pawns on a chessboard.

 

[Fact Checker]

Dana is a scummy guy with all sorts of double standards and preferential treatments but he needs to apply his strong arm tactics across the board.

Part of being a champion is defending that belt, the fanbase is sick of guys sitting out waiting for selective match ups.

Start stripping guys who aren’t willing to defend and bring some legitimacy back to these prop titles.

 

[DiazSlap]

Dana White needs to go. Enough is enough. He refuses to strip Jon Jones, and now because he can't fill the UFC 317 event (which should be Jones vs Aspinall), he's resorting to his typical mafia tactics to try and force matchups on UFC 317. Dricus just said they never had a contract signed, but the UFC leaked the matchup like it was a done deal. You know Dana White was saying "Look Dricus, everyone thinks you're already fighting. If you don't sign the contract, it will look like you pulled out."

And Dana is doing the same thing with Islam/Topuria, leaking that matchup and trying to force Islam to sign a short notice fight to save the event, rather than doing his job and stripping Jon Jones of the HW title.

Listen man, I get what you are saying but Joe Rogan says that we should all be thanking Dana White and he is “once ever” so I am just going to keep paying $94.99 for Apex level cards.

 

[Hdfi]

Don't you want to see DDP vs Khamzat and Islam vs Topuria? I do.

Thanks Dana!

Ps.: you guys would bankrupt the ufc if you were doing Dana's job.

 

[Hdfi]

He refuses to strip Jon Jones, and now because he can't fill the UFC 317 event (which should be Jones vs Aspinall)s

The Jones situation is the only one that doesn't make sense to me, they should have stripped him imo, unless there is something behind the scenes like a contract clause or tactical negotiation with ESPN, Netflix, etc.

 

[jeskola]

 

[Alpha_T83]

The Jones situation is the only one that doesn't make sense to me, they should have stripped him imo, unless there is something behind the scenes like a contract clause or tactical negotiation with ESPN, Netflix, etc.

I honestly think it's blackmail.

I think Dana White helped Jon Jones pass drug tests while using PEDs, and knowingly hid that from the NSAC. Now Jon Jones is threatening to spill the beans if the UFC doesn't do what he wants.

 

[Alpha_T83]

No UFC needs to stop being so soft behind the scenes, new contracts should say fighters need to fight whoever UFC says and everyone is now a UFC employee. I'm tired of how vague everything is and negotiations at every turn. We need a MMA dictatorship.

The problem is they have to stop* being "soft" with Jon Jones first.

And Dana White is downright incompetent when it comes to dealing with Jon Jones.

 

[Domitian]

The problem is they have to stop* being "soft" with Jon Jones first.

And Dana White is downright incompetent when it comes to dealing with Jon Jones.

If there was any other HW title fight that would actually sell and make the UFC money he would have already stripped Jon. But there's nothing. Gane vs Tom would be a co-main on some random PPV.

He should probably strip Jon anyway if he's not going to fight, but Dana really wants to get that fight done so he's trying.

 

[Alpha_T83]

If there was any other HW title fight that would actually sell and make the UFC money he would have already stripped Jon. But there's nothing. Gane vs Tom would be a co-main on some random PPV.

He should probably strip Jon anyway if he's not going to fight, but Dana really wants to get that fight done so he's trying.

Fair enough. But in the mean time it sets a terrible precedent for keeping other champions active.

DDP and Islam both fought once in 2025 already. It's hard to sit there and demand they be active when Jones sits back and defends his belt once in 2 years. I wouldn't have any urgency to fight at UFC 317 if I was DDP or Islam. They should fight when they're good and ready.

 

[Daniel Henry]

If Dana let you do his job for a week you'll probably bankrupt the company

Dana has alrdy stripped Jon once in his career doing it twice would be comedy

 

[skylolow]

All I can do is laugh at some of you fools.

Guys, a person in Dana's position has to rule over the roster with an iron fist or whatever you want to call it. If he didn't these fighters would walk all over him and we won't get matches we care about at all. He has a hard enough time getting these guys to agree to fights. No fighter wants to fight a guy ranked lower than them, period. But that doesn't work in the real world. You need Dana saying, your fighting this guy like it or not and if you don't fine, go sit on the sidelines for another 3 months or whatever.


I can't even begin to think what some of you would say if Dana was stripping champs, publicly blasting fighters one after the other who refuse fights, airing dirty laundry all the time, etc etc. Once in a while some of this does happen, but I guarantee you at that point the UFC brass is probably very pissed off at the situation to bring those frustrations public. Because this kind of shit is going on 24/7 behind the scenes.