A shocking video of an ugly altercation on New Year’s Eve between longtime UFC President Dana White and his wife Anne White emerged on Monday.
The altercation in question occurred at a nightclub in Cabo, Mexico between White and his wife, with both parties getting physical with each other.
The video obtained by TMZ shows Anne White slapping her husband, only for Dana White to retaliate with a strike of his own, followed up by seemingly shoving her to the ground.
It is very clearly an indefensible video of White hitting his wife, but White told TMZ that he regretted the incident and that heavy alcohol consumption fueled the altercation.
“You’ve heard me say for years, ‘There’s never ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman,’ and now here I am on TMZ talking about it,” said White.
Many around the sports see this video as horrific and do not see White’s apology as anything other than an excuse for unacceptable behavior.
“TMZ video shows UFC President Dana White hitting his wife. White has always been friendly with TMZ and now TMZ is soft-pedaling the story with the euphemism “got physical with each other” but make no mistake: This is domestic violence,” tweeted Michael David Smith of Pro Football Talk.
TMZ video shows UFC President Dana White hitting his wife. White has always been friendly with TMZ and now TMZ is soft-pedaling the story with the euphemism "got physical with each other," but make no mistake: This is domestic violence. https://t.co/42OjAP1eiN
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) January 3, 2023
“So will ESPN have Dana White front and center promoting UFC events this month,” tweeted Stephen Douglas of The Big Lead.
So will ESPN have Dana White front and center promoting UFC events this month?
— Stephen Douglas (@Stephen_Douglas) January 3, 2023
Anne White also made a statement to TMZ about the incident, saying that this incident was “out of character” for the two of them.
“Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years. To say this is out of character for him is an understatement — nothing like this has ever happened before. Unfortunately, we were both drinking too much on New Year’s Eve and things got out of control, on both sides. We’ve talked this through as a family and apologized to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids,” said Anne White.
It seems like at least Anne White and Dana White are working on things in their relationship to make sure something like this never happens again.
Regardless, this disturbing incident could certainly cost Dana White his role within the UFC considering the PR nightmare that this will likely become for the promotion.
[TMZ.com]
