Matt Mitrione’s vitriolic verbal attack on transgender fighter Fallon Fox and the UFC’s swift suspension of the fighter dominated the news headlines on Monday.
Tuesday, it was UFC president Dana White’s turn to weigh in on the controversy. White was asked for a comment during a media teleconference promoting UFC on Fox 7.
The UFC’s head honcho never mentioned Fox by name during his response, and instead wondered aloud why Mitrione was appearing on “The MMA Hour” to begin with.
“It’s one of those things, it’s just a pain in the ass, you know what I mean?” White said. “First of all, he didn’t even need to be doing an interview. And I’m going to talk to these guys. I’m going to talk to these guys. The only time these guys really need to be doing interviews is leading up to fights. You know? It ended up being a nightmare for him.”
That’s open to debate, since, after all, scores of fighters have done interviews after their fights over the years without causing themselves or their company any problems. But White does recognize that Mitrione’s damage was self-inflicted.
“What was the point of that interview?” White continued. “There was no point in it. Now it’s caused him a bunch of headaches and problems. It’s caused us a bunch of headaches and problems for no reason whatsoever.”
“He had just fought. He wouldn’t fight again for another few months and he’s still over there enjoying himself in Sweden, what was the point in doing that interview? What was the upside in that interview? There was none. No upside.”