Dana White has revealed his only ‘punishment’ for slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve will be having to live with himself.
White, 53, was in Mexico with his wife Anne to celebrate the New Year but things turned ugly between the couple when they started arguing. Anne could be seen slapping White before he slapped her back twice, with the UFC president later condemning his actions and admitting there was no excuse for what he did.
Critics have since called for White to be punished for the incident, with the California Legislative Women’s Caucus even demanding he should be removed as UFC president. Addressing his punishment, White told reporters: “What should the repercussions be? You tell me. I take 30 days off? How does that hurt me? Do I need to reflect? No, I don’t need to reflect. I’ve been against this. I’ve owned this. I’m telling you that I’m wrong.”
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White discussed the incident with his bosses at ESPN and the CEO of Endeavor, the company which owns the UFC. The 53-year-old admitted “nobody” in his circle is happy about what happened and recognises he will have gone down in the estimation of certain friends and acquaintances.
“Nobody’s happy about this. What is my punishment? Here’s my punishment: I’ve got to walk around for however long I live and this is how I’m labelled now. My other punishment is that, I’m sure a lot of people who had respect for me, might not have respect for me now. There’s a lot of things that I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life that are way more of a punishment than what, I take a 30-day [or a] 60-day absence? That’s not a punishment to me. The punishment is that I did it, and now I have to deal with it.”
UFC fighters such as Jamahal Hill and Sean O’Malley have defended White’s actions, whilst Dustin Porier was the first to condemn his boss. White, who in 2014 said you can “never bounce back” after hitting a woman, has taken full accountability for the incident and insisted that people shouldn’t be defending him.
“It was obviously a horrible personal experience, and there’s no excuses for it,” White said. “It’s something that I’m going to have to deal with and live with for the rest of my life. One thing I do want to clarify with this thing that I didn’t talk about on TMZ, because I didn’t expect it and I didn’t it coming, is the people that are defending me.
“There is never an excuse. I’m sure you guys have read some of the same stuff that I’ve seen. There is no defence for this, and people should not be defending me over this thing, no matter what. All the criticism that I have received this week is 100 percent warranted and will receive in the future.”
