Many news outlets and media members have gone easy on Dana White after he struck his wife in a New Years Eve dispute. But surely Jake Paul won’t hold back?
While Dana White won’t receive any sort of sanction or official punishment from his business partners or higher-ups at Endeavor, he’s still dealing with the blows to his reputation after being caught on camera slapping his wife. Every new interview with someone outside the UFC but in the orbit of mixed martial arts is being asked what they think of White’s physical New Years Eve incident with the mother of his children, Anne.
Now Jake Paul is sharing his thoughts, although he’s not going as hard at the UFC president as some might expect given their acrimonious relationship.
“I know he had his whole situation but I don’t really need to kick people when they’re down,” Paul told Sun Sports during a media blitz for his upcoming fight against Tommy Fury on February 26th. “What he did speaks for itself and I’ve always said I don’t think he’s a good person: look how he treats these fighters.”
Instead of focusing on the violent interaction Dana had with his wife, Jake instead focused on the UFC’s lower fighter pay.
“I don’t know about the fans, the feud between Dana and I has been a lot of hype and it draws a lot of media,” he said. “And there’s been a bunch of s—t talked back and forth, but my main thing is getting the fighters paid more. Raising the fighter minimum to $50,000 whereas it’s at $12,000 now, getting them long-term healthcare. That’s what it’s mainly about.”
At the start of 2023, Jake Paul announced a partnership with the Professional Fighter’s League where he’d become an ambassador for their ‘Super Fight Division,’ where fighters would receive at least 50% of pay-per-view revenue generated off their fights. That’s a pretty good deal compared to the UFC, where fighters start earning a few dollars per $79.99 pay-per-view … after that PPV sells its first couple hundred thousand units.
It’s still somewhat surprising that Jake decided to gloss over White’s incident. The younger Paul brother has never shied away from firing controversial accusations at Dana White, calling him a cocaine addict (which there is no public evidence of) and unfaithful (which there is). It may just be the timing: his brother Logan Paul is in the middle of some sort of big deal announcement with the UFC which is set to be made today.
Some believe it’s just a partnership to promote Logan’s new energy drink PRIME. Others wonder whether Logan will add ‘UFC fighter’ to his growing resume. Whatever it is, Jake may not want to rock the boat too much while that business opportunity is getting ironed out.