UFC boss Dana White today issued a strong apology after a video emerged of him slapping his wife of 26 years in the face during an argument at a nightclub on New Year’s Eve.
White, 53, said there was no reason to hurt his wife Anne, with whom he has three children, during their vacation in Cabo San Lucas.
The father-of-three said he was ‘ashamed’ of his behavior as many fans called for him to step down from his role as UFC president for slapping his wife.
White, who is worth an estimated $500million after building the UFC into a global money-spinning franchise, told TMZ during his apology: ‘You don’t put your hands on a woman, ever.’
UFC boss Dana White today issued a scathing apology after a video surfaced of him slapping his wife of 26 years in the face in a nightclub brawl on New Year’s Eve
Video from New Year’s Eve shows the couple, who have been married since 1996, and their friends in a VIP area above the dance floor of El Squid Roe in Cabo San Lucas.
The footage shows White appearing to say something to Anne, who reacts by slapping him. He then slaps her back before the pair were split up by their friends.
He told TMZ in an interview following the incident and amid calls for him to resign: ‘My husband and I were out Saturday night on New Year’s Eve. Unfortunately, that’s what happened.
‘I’m one of those people who says there is never, ever a reason for a man to put his hands on a woman and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.
Video from New Year’s Eve shows the couple, who have been married since 1996, and their friends in a VIP area above the dance floor of El Squid Roe in Cabo San Lucas. The footage shows White appearing to say something to Anne, who reacts by slapping her. He then slaps her back before the pair were split up by their friends
Pictured left to right: Lorenzo Fertitta, Teressa Fertitta, Anne White and Dana White
‘It’s one of those situations that’s horrible. I’m ashamed. We have three kids and since the video popped up, we have shown the kids and we are more focused on our family right now.
‘People will have their opinions about it and people’s opinions will be right, especially in my case. You don’t put your hands on a woman, ever.’
His wife Anne told the news outlet: ‘To say this was out of character for him would be an understatement – nothing like this has ever happened before.
‘Unfortunately, we both drank too much on New Year’s Eve and things got out of control, on both sides. We have discussed this as a family and apologized to each other.’
Now, White is facing calls to step down from his role as UFC president.
One person tweeted: ‘Dana White should resign immediately and never be seen again. He literally slapped his wife on camera. Think what he does behind closed doors.’
White has been married to his partner Anne for 26 years and the couple have three children
Another tweeted: ‘Horrible. Dana White needs to be charged with assault and resign from the UFC immediately. Violence against women is never okay.’
Footage of White slapping his wife emerged as a 2014 interview resurfaced in which he said ‘you can never go back to putting your hands on a woman’.
In a 2014 interview, White reacted to a video of former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice abusing his wife.
Speaking on FOX Sports Live at the time, White said: ‘It’s a tough one. First of all, the video is terrifying. Really scary. You’re talking about a guy who’s been in the fight business since he was 19 years old. This is the most disturbing thing you will ever see.
‘What’s as bad as the blow is that he shows no remorse after he does it. You know, if you do something in anger and you go, ‘Oh my god. What am I doing?’ There is none of that in this man. I don’t know all the ins and outs of what Roger Goodell did or knew or how it was handled but it sure was bad. I can tell you this: I don’t want to be Roger Goodell.
White – who has led the UFC since 2001 – has previously said there is no way back for fighters who are violent towards women
‘We’ve been the people to let these guys know, other guys to make up for what they’ve done and come back. There is one thing you will never get back and that is laying your hands on a girl. I’ve been like that in the UFC since we started here. You’re not going back to putting your hands on a woman.’
White’s marriage has been largely shielded from the public eye, although his mother, June, wrote in a scathing book in 2011 that he ‘turned his back on his family and friends who were there for him when he needed help and support.’
Dana and Anne reportedly met in eighth grade in Nevada, and although she commutes between the Las Vegas area and Maine, the two dated in high school before their 1996 wedding.
Their courtship came at a difficult time in White’s life, when he had dropped out of two colleges and held a series of low-paying jobs paving asphalt and working as a bouncer.
He would eventually start a gym in the Boston area, but returned to Las Vegas after being allegedly threatened by notorious mobster White Bulger and his associate, Kevin Weeks.
To this day, White says he doesn’t know why Bulger and Weeks felt they owed him money, but he took their threats to move back to Nevada seriously.
“He basically said, ‘You owe us,'” White said, according to NBC Sports. ‘It was like $2,500, which was like $25,000 to me at the time, and said, ”You owe us.”
‘It’s actually a guy named Kevin Weeks … he’s Whitey’s right-hand man,’ White continued. ‘… basically I said I owed him money, and I didn’t pay him. It went on for a while and one day I was at my place and I got a call and they said, ”You owe us tomorrow at one o’clock.” I literally hung up the phone, picked up the phone and called Delta and bought a ticket to Vegas.’
Bulger was arrested in 2011 and executed in prison at the age of 89 in 2018.
In recent years, White has admitted to betting large sums, including losing $1million on the 2007 Jermain Taylor-Kelly Pavlik boxing match.
White (pictured in Las Vegas in September 2022) said he had no excuse for his actions and said he was ’embarrassed’ about the clip.
‘I’m in Cabo, relaxing having fun,’ White said, as quoted by TalkSport. That ruined my fun. My whole trip was ruined.’
He was also involved in a sex-tape scandal, where an exotic dancer allegedly recorded a sexual encounter between the two in Brazil. The dancer also claims that she and White had an affair during her marriage.
Her boyfriend allegedly used that alleged relationship to extort money from White, resulting in a criminal charge against the man.
White was sued by the boyfriend, who claimed White offered him money to plead guilty to extortion charges. White denied the accusation.
According to the complaint, White paid the exotic dancer $10,000 to have sex with him, but the lawsuit was ultimately dismissed in October of 2020.
