UFC President Dana White said his hunt for streamers will continue.
During his UFC 258 post-fight press conference UFC President Dana White said he and his team were ready to reel in one of the big fishes in his crusade to end unauthorised streaming of UFC events. However, it seems, this time around White’s target was able to swim away.
According to White there weren’t many streams operating during UFC 258. He provided no data to back this up.
“Not a lot of them were streaming tonight,” he said (ht MMA Fighting). “We were going to go after one of the big ones tonight, and they did not stream tonight. So we’ll keep doing what we’re doing.”
This is the second time White has spoken about ultimately unsuccessful attempts to nab a streamer in the act.
In the lead up to UFC 257 in January White claimed a suspected streamer had been placed under surveillance. In his post-fight scrum White said that this pressure forced the individual not to stream the event.
“He put out a statement that night,” White told the media. “He said, ‘I will not be streaming the McGregor vs. Poirier anymore. But I will show you how to buy it legally.’ And now his whole streaming service has been deleted and it’s gone. Disappeared. One down, and a shitload to go.
“Every event, I’m gonna go after one of these guys. Or more. We’ll see.
“And who you are, guy that did this, good move. We had you, pal. I don’t know if he knew something or what, but we had you. And all you had to do was pop up that stream and you were in big trouble. He did the right thing.”
The ‘statement’ White referred to appears to be a Discord message where an individual claims they won’t be providing a stream for UFC 257. That individual then recommended a VPN service that could be used to watch the event for free through a Dutch broadcaster’s website.