Unlike other sports leagues, UFC President Dana White refuses to control what his fighters say or think.
White defended the principle of free speech following an intense exchange with a Canadian reporter about former Middleweight Champion Sean Strickland’s past remarks denouncing gender ideology.
In a news conference following UFC 297, Dana White confronted Toronto’s POST Wrestling journalist John Pollock.
Pollock started his question with a qualifying statement, saying that White gives a long leash to his fighters regarding what they’re able to say. He continued by saying that this could be getting into the territory of homophobia and transphobia, referencing Strickland’s past comments, but before he could finish, his question was cut off by White.
“I don’t give anybody a leash. A leash? Free speech. Gonna control what people say? Gonna tell people what to believe? Going to tell people? I don’t fu**ing tell any other human being what to say, what to think. And there’s no leashes on any of them. What is your question?” said White.
Pollock then decided to move on.
“Yeah, probably a good idea. That’s ridiculous to say: I give somebody a leash. Free speech, brother. People can say whatever they want, and they can believe whatever they want,” said White.
Following the widespread circulation of Strickland’s initial clip, which has amassed 13.2M views as of Monday morning, this new clip of White’s post-fight news conference also went viral.
As of Monday morning, Leading Report’s video on X had 14.5M views.
“Woke Canadian reporter tries to bait UFC President Dana White into commenting on some of former champion Sean Strickland’s remarks, and it backfires,” wrote the Leading Report in their post.
X CEO Elon Musk also chimed in to support White’s stance.
“He’s right,” said Musk.
Colin Rugg, an American media personality, also posted the video, which had 7.4M views on Monday morning.
“UFC’s Dana White shuts down woke Canadian journalist who starts talking about ‘homophobia’ and ‘transphobia’ after a UFC fight. These clowns are completely unhinged,” said Rugg.
Pollock, in his post-event YouTube video, reflected on the confrontation with White. He said that he’s faced some blowback following this exchange, which he said he accepts. In hindsight, Pollock said that he wished he had used the term “latitude” instead. Regardless, he said that he got his response.
“Is there absolutely no line that is too far?” Pollock said is what he wished he had asked.
“Would a racist tirade be fair game?” he wondered.
Strickland had been questioned by reporter Alexander K Lee for MMAfighting.com before his fight about a past statement he had made concerning having a gay son, where Strickland said that would cause him to think he’d failed as a man.
“You’re a weak fu**ing man,” he said. “You’re part of the fu**ing problem. You elected Justin Trudeau. When he seized the bank accounts. You’re just fu**ing pathetic, and the fact that you have no fu**ing backbone as he shut down your fu**ing country and seized bank accounts. You ask me some stupid sh** like that. Go fu** yourself. Move the fu** on, man. You fu**ing coward,” Strickland said to Lee.
Ahead of Strickland’s fight at UFC 297 in Toronto, fans were caught chanting “F*** Trudeau.”
On Saturday, Strickland lost a split decision to challenger Dricus Du Plessis.
