In lashing out at Jason Aldean, Dana White manages to screw up an otherwise perfect night

UFC 216 was a night for healing and unity in the city of Las Vegas. But it was also a regular old UFC event, which means UFC President Dana White had to go and get mad at someone.

This time that someone turned out to be Jason Aldean, the country singer who was performing onstage at the Route 91 Harvest Festival when a mass shooting started Oct. 1 in Vegas.

As White told TMZ.com,  the UFC had tried to get Aldean to sing the national anthem at UFC 216 on Saturday night. With a reported 1,500 first responders in attendance at T-Mobile Arena in Vegas, as well as some of the victims of the shooting, UFC executives apparently thought it would be a nice step toward closure for Aldean to perform at the event.

Aldean turned down that offer, opting to appear on “Saturday Night Live” instead (via YouTube):

It threw White into one of his trademark rages.

“His image was more important then coming back to Vegas and playing for the people who are his fans and who got shot watching him play,” White told TMZ. “(Expletive) you, Jason Aldean. Stay out of Vegas.”

So much for unity. And so much for showing compassion to the people who lived through the worst mass shooting in modern American history, of which Aldean is certainly one. If you make White mad, I guess it doesn’t matter what you’ve been through. You’re just another scumbag.

The thing is, otherwise the UFC handled the difficult situation perfectly. It offered somber tributes on the broadcast. It decked out fighters in “Vegas Strong” T-shirts to show support. It got Everlast on board to sing “America, the Beautiful,” which he chose instead of the national anthem, for some very good reasons. White even opened the show with a recorded message that struck just the right tone.

All in all, the UFC managed to show support for victims and for the city it calls home, and in a way that was respectful and appropriate. But White just couldn’t resist taking a shot at someone.

The way White told it, Aldean had turned his back on victims and fans by choosing “SNL” over the UFC. His reasoning seems to be that since the attack happened in Las Vegas, and since some of the people who were there would also be at the UFC event, Aldean was somehow obligated to prioritize the UFC over everything else.

In fact, according to White, none of the country music artists the UFC reached out to would agree to perform.

“Those are people who buy your albums, and none of you country music people could sing the anthem in front of survivors and first responders?” White said.

Somehow, I doubt that’s the main concern for those people right now.

Less than a week out from a national tragedy, the important thing is not who sings the national anthem. For White to lash out at a victim of that attack, all because he refused to show up when and where White wanted, that’s just petty. It smacks of an inflated ego and a sense of entitlement. It undercuts an otherwise appropriately somber message of support from the UFC.

It’s embarrassing, this completely unforced error, all because White couldn’t keep his anger and resentment to himself, and at a time when both are least appropriate.

For more on UFC 216, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

The Blue Corner is MMAjunkie‘s official blog and is edited by Mike Bohn.