Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White has issued a statement after a video came out of him getting physical with his wife Anne White during a New Year’s Eve celebration.
The video shows White being slapped by his wife. He then responded by slapping her back. The full conflict was caught on camera and was quickly broken up afterward. The UFC hasn’t issued a statement yet, nor has any punishment come down over the incident. The promotion currently has a television and streaming deal with ESPN, where it is one of ESPN+’s most popular content, and select cards also air on ABC.
“Well, I’m in Cabo, Mexico, for the holidays with my family. My wife and I were out Saturday night for New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately, that’s what happened. I’m one of those guys, you’ve heard me say for years, ‘There’s never ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman,’ and now here I am on TMZ talking about it,” White admitted to TMZ Sports.
“My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some shit together, and we’ve got three kids. This is one of those situations that are horrible. I’m embarrassed. But it’s also one of those situations where right now we’re more concerned with our kids. We have three kids and obviously since the video popped up, we’ve shown the kids the video. We’re more focused on our family right now.”
White knows he’ll face backlash for his actions and it’s all deserved.
“People are going to have opinions on this, and most of the people’s opinions are gonna be right, especially in my case, you don’t put your hands on a woman ever. My wife and I obviously love each other and have been together for a very long time. We’ve known each other since we were very little and this is just one of those unfortunate situations.”
White said that “a lot of alcohol” was involved in the situation but that it was no excuse.
“I’m literally making no excuses for this at all. It’s never happened before. It’s the first time it ever happened. People are gonna say what they’re gonna say. It just is what it is and whatever people do say it’s deserved. I deserve it. It happened. I don’t know why it happened and my wife and I have apologized to each other, we’ve apologized to our kids.”