{"id":410201,"date":"2026-01-13T14:27:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410201\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T14:27:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T14:27:10","slug":"is-dana-white-checked-out-of-ufc-in-2026-he-seems-so-disinterested","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/410201\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Dana White checked out of UFC in 2026? \u2018He seems so disinterested\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Those of us who have been around the sport for the last two decades remember how passionate White used to get talking about upcoming main events. That just doesn\u2019t seem to light up his brain any more, unsurprising considering he spends his free time throwing down $20,000 plays<\/a> on blackjack and baccarat tables. The last time we saw White\u2019s head turn red as he pumped a fight was \u201cMcGregor vs. Mayweather<\/a>\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n

Nowadays, he gets about as deep into UFC talk as you do with your nephews over Christmas dinner.<\/p>\n

Others have been noticing his lack of promotional engagement as well, like Ariel Helwani, who commented on it during his latest show.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just couldn\u2019t believe how disconnected and how disinterested he seemed in the product,\u201d Helwani said. \u201cHe seemed so disinterested in the product that I couldn\u2019t believe he\u2019s on CBS Mornings, and it\u2019s a very fluff interview, it\u2019s as mainstream as it gets. It\u2019s their equivalent of Good Morning America. And he says that Amanda Nunes versus Kayla Harrison is the greatest female fight of all time<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201dHe\u2019s actually asked \u2026 \u2018Why is it the greatest female fight of all time?\u2019\u201d Helwani added. \u201cAnd he just goes, \u2018Well Kayla, she\u2019s a medalist\u2019 \u2014 doesn\u2019t remember that she\u2019s a gold medalist, doesn\u2019t even remember that she\u2019s a two-time Olympic gold medalist and she won gold in another organization and she won in UFC \u2014 \u2018And she\u2019s fighting Amanda Nunes, who\u2019s the GOAT. So, it\u2019s the greatest female fight of all time.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cDoesn\u2019t tell you about Olympic gold,\u201d Helwani continued. \u201cDoesn\u2019t tell you that they\u2019re former teammates. Doesn\u2019t tell you that Amanda retired and is coming back and wants to fight [more], none of that stuff. It\u2019s all so easy to sell this. It is so easy to sell this.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the show, Helwani commented on the awkward UFC Golden Globes appearance<\/a>, noting it didn\u2019t matter in the bigger picture because stuff like that doesn\u2019t draw people to the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cUltimately, what will always sell fights are rivalries, stories,\u201d he said. \u201cNot even title fights. Rivalries. That\u2019s what sells. This guy doesn\u2019t like this guy. This girl doesn\u2019t like this girl. That\u2019s why I talk about Dana White not selling Amanda Nunes and and Kayla Harrison, doing the easy thing, \u2018This is the greatest fight of all time,\u2019 which might resonate with some people.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a story like, \u2018This girl is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and then she moved to MMA and then she went to this gym and this other girl was seeing her and said, I\u2019m out of here. And then she retired and then she came back when [the first girl] won the belt.\u2019 Like, there\u2019s a story to be told here. Oh, wow. What happened? Their one training session that lasted a round and a half, all that stuff.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat stuff matters,\u201d he concluded. \u201cThat stuff resonates. This [Golden Globes] stuff doesn\u2019t. So, we kinda laugh at it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Those of us who have been around the sport for the last two decades remember how passionate White…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,40762,785,85,1396,179146],"class_list":["post-410201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-latest-ufc-mma-news","tag-mma","tag-sports","tag-ufc-news","tag-ufc-on-paramount"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}