UFC
Dana White Once Crossed a Major Line When He Told a UFC Reporter ‘We Just Put a Bullet in Your Head' While Banning Him for Life
Tim Crean started writing about sports in 2016 and joined Sports7 in 2021. He excels with his versatile coverage of the NFL and soccer landscape, as well as his expertise breaking down sports media, which stems from his many years downloading podcasts before they were even cool and countless hours spent listening to Mike & The Mad Dog and The Dan Patrick Show, among other programs. As a longtime self-professed sports junkie who even played DII lacrosse at LeMoyne College in Syracuse, New York, Tim loves reading about all the latest sports news every day and considers it a dream to write about sports professionally. He's a lifelong Buffalo Bills fan from Western New York who mistakenly thought, back in the early '90s, that his team would be in the Super Bowl every year. He started following European soccer — with a Manchester City focus — in the early 2000s after spending far too much time playing FIFA. When he's not enjoying a round of golf or coaching youth soccer and flag football, Tim likes reading the work of Bill Simmons, Tony Kornheiser, Chuck Klosterman, and Tom Wolfe.
Get to know Tim Crean betterUpdated09 May 2023
Dana White is the gregarious promoter who turned MMA, once considered “human cock-fighting,” into a multibillion-dollar major sports league. The UFC’s fearless leader did this with a combination of smarts, charm, relentlessness, and more than a little menace.
There are plenty of stories that involve White’s temper and profanity-laced tirades. However, MMA journalist Ariel Helwani recently shared an account of the UFC headman seriously crossing the line when he banned the reporter from UFC events for life just for breaking a story.
Dana White built the UFC into a multibillion-dollar industry
White was born in Connecticut and started out as a professional boxer after high school, according to Forbes. His path to the UFC involved stints in Boston and Las Vegas and colorful stories that featured the likes of the infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.
Eventually, White reconnected with old friends Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, who owned casinos in Vegas. The trio bought the near-bankrupt UFC property in 2001 for around $2 million.
Fifteen years later, the trio sold the UFC to WME|IMG (Now Endeavor) and two other investment firms for $4 billion. It is the biggest transaction in sports history.
White still runs the UFC with an iron fist and little interference from the current owners.
White crossed the line with UFC reporter Ariel Helwani
Helwani is a long-time MMA journalist who joined The Ringer in 2021. This position got him a guest spot on the Bill Simmons Podcast, where he told the host a story about his most memorable run-in with White.
Ahead of UFC 200, Helwani, then at FOX Sports, broke a story that legendary pro wrestler and UFC fighter Brock Lesnar was returning to MMA. When the story came out, White requested Helwani meet him in a back room of The Forum in LA.
White banned the journalist for life, and UFC personnel escorted him out of the building during the event. Fans revolted against the UFC for its treatment of the popular personality, and the organization eventually reinstated him.
However, Helwani still remembers a bone-chilling comment White made that night:
“I’ll never forget, they took me to the back, [White’s] standing there, he’s wearing all black. He said, ‘You’re out. You’re done.’ He said — and this is something I’ll never forget — he said, ‘We just put a bullet in your head. Your career is over.’ And I remember thinking to myself, ‘That’s a weird analogy for a guy from Vegas to say to someone, but alright.'”
He also said because Dana White hates losing so much, he is still “unwilling to bury the hatchet” with Helwani, and the two are still not on good terms.
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