“He Cares About the Sport”: UFC Fighter Turned Podcaster Applauds Dana White’s Business Acumen Despite Past Mockery

Deeming UFC 300 as a blockbuster would be a massive understatement. Amidst the condemnation and disapproval of ‘experts’, the event went down in history as one of the promotion’s biggest draws. In fact, the arena was jam-packed with ardent fans, becoming the largest UFC event attendance in T Mobile history. While the event had all the thrills and frills, naysayers and so-called critics had to track back on their own opinions. This included the former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub as Dana White blasted the hate with straight facts.

“UFC 300 makes no sense,” said Schaub when the UFC president named it as the greatest card assembled in the history of the promotion. Soon after White shared the short clip in response to the hate-mongers, Schaub let out the truth. He honored White as he acknowledged his monumental involvement in the growth of the sport.

Praising Dana White, the fighter-turned-podcaster said,

“Even though he could walk away now and he has more money than god that he still pays attention like, he’s grinding in his basement and that you know he’s aware of the narrative of all the cards not just 300 but all the cards and I think that’s what makes him an outlier.”  

He then took names and compared White to other leagues’ higher-ups to say,

“When you look at Roger Goodell, the NBA commissioner or MLB whatever league also even other MMA leagues, nobody cares more than Dana White, so, to me it shows that he’s not just about money. Yes, he is a ruthless businessman, yes, you have to be to get to his level and to be a MMA promoter.” 

Not just Schaub, but The MMA Hour analyst Ariel Helwani also responded to the promoter’s montage video of UFC 300, which had him in a bad light.

Ariel Helwani reacts to Dana White’s UFC 300 montage video

The criticisms went through the roof for the UFC 300. But to everybody’s surprise, the stacked card fired on all cylinders. It had the third-highest gate in the promotion’s history. UFC 300 was also the most watched prelims in ESPN history, and the highest per capita merch sales in UFC history.

A whopping 3.2 million new fans started following UFC’s social media accounts, along with the best social media performance in the organization’s history. In fact, the Max Holloway KO video has become the most liked UFC Instagram video in history.

With Dana White highlighting all these acclaims, Helwani shared two screenshots of articles that showed how the analyst supported the promoter. In fact, Helwani was sort of disappointed with White’s reaction that he only took the criticisms to heart, but not the praises.