UFC President Dana White has made a habit of personally meeting any challenge to his promotion. Whether it's on TV, on the radio or on Twitter, if any slight, real or perceived, is made regarding the UFC, there is a pretty good chance that he will be there to play the white knight for his company, armed with a glistening helmet and an expansive vocabulary of curse words.
Never known for his subtlety, White has had high-profile freak outs directed at major sports media outlets (Warning, NSFW Language on this and pretty much every other link henceforth) like ESPN and Sports Illustrated. He has habitually ripped into fighters for any number of reasons. He has lashed out at random fans on social media for years now. Quite simply, White is on a hair trigger with anyone and everyone.
That has made his near-complete silence over the last month and a half both surprising and telling.
On September 21, the UFC found itself in one of the greatest egg-on-face moments of its existence when Josh Gross released a scathing report through Deadspin.com about a 2012 pre-fight drug test of Vitor Belfort, ahead of his UFC 152 fight with Jon Jones. According to Gross, Belfort submitted a sample that would be flagged for elevated testosterone. The UFC was made aware of the test shortly thereafter and so were a random list of "longtime MMA operators" when a UFC staffer accidentally emailed scans of the test.
The UFC's handling of the drug test—which included continuing on with the Jones vs. Belfort fight and threatening to sue the bajeezus out of anyone who talked—has drawn staunch criticism. Ben Fowlkes of MMAJunkie.com summed it up thus:
It proves that the UFC was in possession of hard evidence suggesting that Belfort, who had already been nabbed for steroid use once, might be abusing synthetic testosterone. It knew, and it took no action against him, and no action to remove him from his upcoming fight.
That right there is damning information. It confirms all the fears we had about the UFC acting as its own regulator, issuing its own TUEs, and conducting its own drug testing. Here is a documented instance where, faced with information inconvenient to its own goals as a promoter, the UFC failed a very important test.
For White, the modus operandi in these Belfort-related situations has been to use his bluster and bravado to stifle uncomfortable lines of questioning. The greatest example of this came in 2014—when MMA's testosterone replacement therapy era was reaching a fever pitch—when White made such a scene at a media gathering that UFC COO Ike Lawrence Epstein stuck his head in to ensure that nothing had happened, as reported by Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports. That incident came less than a week after Belfort had secretly failed a different drug test due to, once again, elevated testosterone.
For this particular controversy, however, White is taking a different approach: He's not making himself available for unscripted questions at all.
Gross' story broke on September 21. White was not in attendance for the UFC's September 27 show in Japan (which is not unusual for international events). He was, however, in attendance for UFC 192 on October 3 but "flew home to attend to a personal matter" in the minutes after the main event. Instead, Dave Sholler, UFC VP of Public Relations, worked the podium and stated the following when asked about the report (via MMAJunkie.com):
Any suggestion or inference there was a cover-up is just categorically false. That period of time with TRT is one that was very tricky for everyone for the UFC, for athletic commissions, and for athletes alike. I think when everybody came to a conclusion that it didn’t have a place in the sport and was outlawed in 2014, we were quick to make sure that we, too, followed suit, as Nevada had said.
Much can be made about the statement itself—particularly how it didn't actually address the allegation that the UFC let Belfort compete despite knowledge that he was abusing TRT—but what stood out most was White's absence. While he seems to cherish these moments of guaranteed verbal conflict, and this was a situation where confrontation was assured, White was nowhere to be found.
One could, hypothetically, give White the benefit of the doubt here. "Personal matters" always happen at the least-convenient times and while he's a lightning rod for controversy, White is a father of three with an incredibly demanding job. While it certainly felt like White was actively hiding from unfriendly microphones at a sensitive time, we can all afford to show others just a tad bit of trust...right?
Then came the UFC's next card, in Dublin. While, as stated, White oftentimes misses international events, he was in attendance for Fight Night 76. Once again however, he slipped out before the post-fight press conference, instead letting VP and General Manager, EMEA James Elliott field questions.
That's where White's absence began to feel calculated. And if you think that it's only a matter of time before fans (and, more importantly, Jones) get answers, think again.
Belfort has been keeping as low a profile as possible. While he strangely emerged to endorse Ben Carson for President of the United States, he has been been taking a page out of White's book over recent weeks, refusing to field potentially illuminating questions from the MMA media despite the fact he is slated to headline the next major MMA event, UFC Fight Night 77. This past Monday, he withdrew from an appearance on MMAFighting.com's The MMA Hour at the last minute when host Ariel Helwani wouldn't agree to "not ask certain questions."
Mr. @vitorbelfort will not be on the show today after all. His rep asked me about an 1 ago to not ask certain qs. I said I couldn't do that…
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 26, 2015
… so they pulled him from the show. Disappointing, considering he was booked on Wednesday and they give this ultimatum now. Ah well. …
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) October 26, 2015
As for White, the UFC's November schedule affords him plenty of opportunities to stay away from unflattering inquiries. The month features four events on four different continents, with shows taking place in Brazil, Australia, Mexico and South Korea. The only card where White is likely to attend would be Australia's UFC 193, featuring Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm. If he bows out of the post-fight press conference for that event, he will have bought himself nearly three full months away from the limelight.
Looking back over the last two years shows that this approach isn't especially new. White has made a habit of shying away from the media in the immediate aftermath of serious controversy.
Belfort admitted to failing the aforementioned February 2014 super-secret random drug test on June 6, 2014. White was not in attendance for the UFC's June 7 event.
The UFC unwisely re-signed Thiago Silva, who allegedly threatened to kill his wife before a stand-off with a SWAT team, on the same day as a Fight Night event headlined by Gegard Mousasi vs. Ronaldo Souza (September 5, 2014). Again, White passed the presser duties over to Sholler.
Even in those situations, though, White didn't stay out of the limelight for especially long. An almost White-less UFC is a major departure from the norm, and it's hard not to wonder if he is just waiting until the heat has completely died down, or if he is possibly being pushed out of the spotlight at a time where the UFC is letting its fighters, rather than its owners, take center stage.
Unfortunately, regardless of the UFC's long-term plans for White (or White's long-term plans for himself), only one thing seems certain. The UFC isn't going to address this situation any time soon.
