Dana White is once again addressing the 2023 altercation involving him and his wife, this time responding directly to questions about accountability and whether his status as UFC president insulated him from harsher consequences.
During a recent appearance on The Breakfast Club, White was asked about the viral New Year’s Eve incident in Cabo San Lucas that showed him and his wife, Anne White, getting physical during a nightclub argument.
“You don’t recover from those,” White said while reflecting on the controversy. “Those are ones you don’t recover from.”
Charlamagne Tha God then pressed White on whether being the boss of the UFC gave him protection from consequences that fighters or employees might not have.
“No. Definitely not,” White responded.
You can see the exchange starting around the nine-minute mark of the video below.
He acknowledged that there were other decision-makers at the company who could have pushed for action against him, but suggested that they believed White stepping away would have damaged the business further.
“There’s a board of directors… there’s other people involved that could have pushed for that,” he said. “They think, too, it would’ve hurt the company more if I did step away.”
White also defended his overall approach to discipline within the UFC, describing himself as more lenient than many executives in professional sports.
“I’m in the fight business,” he said. “It’s not like I run Microsoft.”
Still, White admitted the incident represented one of the worst moments of his personal life and said it deeply impacted his family, particularly his children.
“My older son didn’t talk to us for like four days [after it happened],” White revealed. “The first thing that her and I did was handle the situation with the kids.”
At the time of the incident, video footage captured White and his wife exchanging slaps during a New Year’s Eve celebration at a nightclub in Mexico. The moment quickly spread online and sparked widespread criticism.
White later admitted alcohol played a role in the altercation and publicly stated there was “never ever an excuse” for what happened.
During the interview, he reiterated how seriously he viewed the situation, emphasizing that the fallout at home mattered more to him than the public reaction.
“Nobody knows you better than your kids do,” White said. “Your kids see everything.”
