It may have been the case for years there was no war of words between UFC President Dana White and Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney, those days are seemingly long since over.
During a recent press scrum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to promote the rematch between UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman and Anderson Silva, White was asked by the local media if he’d ever be interested in purchasing Bellator MMA.
“There’s nothing there,” White responded to the question. “If you look at any other company we ended up buying in the past, there was value. There’s no value to that company whatsoever.” White went on to explain other organizations the UFC’s parent company in Zuffa purchased also possessed video libraries he considered valuable.
In response to White’s remarks, Rebney issued a statement to MMA Fighting, which reads as follows:
It hasn’t been my practice to respond to his ongoing focus on Bellator. My focus is on the expansion of the Bellator brand worldwide and constantly creating a better more exciting, entertaining product for our fans. But….when he lofts softballs like this over the plate, you just have to take a swing. And, the facts here are that the UFC’s Partners at FOX just made a multi-year commitment, worth tens of millions of dollars to the Bellator brand. If that doesn’t paint a clear picture on value, I don’t know what would.