Video: The 10 Greatest Dana White Beefs and the Gnarly Quotes They Produced

I’m not sure Dana White has made an attempt to bite his tongue once inside the last eight to 10 years. The man says exactly what he thinks, and sometimes exactly what he thinks the media needs to hear.

As a promoter, to an extent, that is his job. It’s hard to fault a guy for being genuine as well as passionate. That said, there have been plenty of occasions in which White probably took things a little too far.

White has become known as much for his brash talk as his excellent work as the UFC’s voice. He’s engaged in too many feuds to count, targeting everyone from media to fellow promoters to promotions in general.

The man takes no prisoners. He simply leaves carnage and controversy in his wake. And if you think he omits, or misses any opportunity to chuck a nasty comment as his perceived nemesis, you’re terribly, terribly wrong!

Dana vs. Loretta Hunt/Sherdog

The beef between Dana White and Sherdog began years ago when Josh Gross passed on an opportunity to work with the UFC and found himself an employee at Sherdog.com. White and Jeff Sherwood—founder of Sherdog.com—also had some issues (you can read about all of this good stuff right here) regarding DVD sales featured on Sherwood’s site.

Well, another Sherdog.com employee, Loretta Hunt (again, see above link) managed to push White’s buttons. The man went completely insane and unleashed a verbal tirade loaded with enough expletives to warrant an NC-17 rating.

He went crazy, flat out.

In the process, he said a lot of things that rang viciously, a savage din that echoed one genuinely mean spirit.

There are a whole lot of quotes I could toss in your direction that fell forth from White’s mouth, but I’ll leave you with a tame (it’s crazy that this could be considered tame) quote that originally saw release on White’s own video blog, but was of course picked up by numerous media outlets shortly thereafter.

Gnarly Quote: “F*ck you Loretta Hunt!”

Dana vs. Tito Ortiz

I don’t think Dana White and Tito Ortiz have liked each other for a solid decade, if not more. Hell, at one point the two even planned to fight one another!

To think, at one point White served as Ortiz’s own manager (you can catch all these details right here, courtesy of Yahoo! Sports) is mind numbing.

There’s a laundry list of issues these two have had, and at the end of the day, White more than likely kept Ortiz around in an attempt to drain every last penny he felt his name might draw. 

These days Tito’s gotten into the business of managing fighters, and guess whose career he handles? Cris Cyborg’s. Yes, that Cyborg, nemesis to UFC superstar Ronda Rousey.

Ortiz has had some wild things to say about Rousey, and White isn’t too pleased. He recently compared Ortiz’s first handful of fights to Rousey’s first few, in addition to their sport history and prior accolades.

Rousey—being an Olympic medalist—seems the obvious pick for superiority, but Dana had to go and rub it in. Just watch the video to get a feel for what I’m talking about.

Or simply take this quote in, as it summarizes White’s thoughts rather well.

Gnarly Quote: “She smokes you. She buries you. She’s in another universe.”

Dana vs. M-1/Vadim Finkelstein

Okay, we all know this story and we know it well. It’s been documented endlessly and discussed to the point of nausea.

Dana White wanted to sign Fedor Emelianenko and align a super-fight between Emelianenko and Brock Lesnar.

Fedor’s manager, Vadim Finkelstein didn’t like the offer (you can hear him discuss it briefly in the affixed video) and the deal never came to fruition.

Subsequently, the world missed out on what was then perceived to be the best possible showdown the division could produce.

The whole ordeal left an obviously bitter taste in White’s mouth, and he made that very well known in countless interviews in the wake of the meeting with M-1 Global and Emelianenko’s camp.

Gnarly Quote: “I told Vadummy ‘you’re one punch away from being worth zero’.”

Dana vs. Randy Couture

These two simply cannot get past the personal issues between them. I mean honestly, it seems there’s always something cooking between Dana White and Randy Couture, and very rarely does it smell pleasant.

Couture and White’s beefs are so lengthy that I’m really not even going to touch down on the bulk of them. For the sake of saving time, I’ll put a little focus on the two’s latest tiff.

Couture recently signed a deal to work with Spike and Bellator. White obviously felt a little betrayed, even if he’d probably never admit such a thing. A few words have been exchanged over the debacle, most of which have come from White.

Gnarly Quote: “Randy Couture comes off as the greatest guy in the world: Captain America. He’s the furthest thing from it, and I’m happy to not be in business with him anymore.”

Dana White vs. Rampage Jackson

Dana White and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson have gone back and forth ever since Jackson took some time off to shoot the A-Team remake back in 2009.

Things got a little hairy prior to that between the men when Jackson went on a…rampage in his massive truck through the streets of Newport Beach.

Ultimately, I believe it was the film-before-fight attitude Jackson applied the following year that really triggered this beef.

Since 2009 these guys have duked it out in the media, with money being one of the most recent bones of contention. According to White, Jackson’s been a well-paid fighter, clearing more than $15 million while employed with the company.

Jackson has his own stance on the financial situation.

Either way, the two have now parted ways professionally. And, to be honest, there seems to be a bit of truth in the following gnarly quote.

Gnarly Quote: “We’ve gone to bat for him many times. I feel like f*ckin’ Jeter when it comes to Rampage.”

Dana vs. Bob Arum

Dana White is definitely a boxing fan. Of that I have little doubt.

He isn’t however, a fan of boxing promoter, Bob Arum, who’s openly criticized the sport in the past.

We all know Dana is passionate about MMA, and we all know he wasn’t about to let Arum run his mouth without firing back.

Sadly, this is one of those feuds that could be so much juicier. Ah well, I’ll take what quotes surface with a grin.

Gnarly Quote: “Bob talks out both sides of his neck. Bob’s a moron.”

Dana vs. Bjorn Rebney

Dana White has claimed he has no issue with Bjorn Rebney as a man. However, it seems he feels as though Rebney has been doing his fighters career injustices for some time.

The fact that Rebney’s blossoming promotion Bellator recently made the move to former UFC home Spike has definitely left White a bit irked. White’s inability to snatch former Bellator lightweight champion (check this link out for some details on the court trial as well as a broader breakdown of the whole ordeal ) away from the promotion really set this feud aflame.

If you ask White, Rebney’s a dirty businessman.

I thought that was a prerequisite to campaigning as a fight promoter?

Gnarly Quote: “What he’s doing to the fighters is wrong. It’s f*ckin’ dirty and he knows it is. Period.”

Dana vs. Frank Shamrock

I’ll be completely honest, the feud between Dana White and Frank Shamrock has always seemed so lame and petty to me, that I’ve never even investigated the roots of rot. I simply have no interest in it.

I know the fact that White snubbed Shamrock for UFC Hall of Fame honors played a major part, but I’ve got a feeling this little rivalry burrows a bit deeper.

Either way, the two quite obviously dislike each other, and for some time the tension between the two was a hot commodity in the news feed.

If we’re lucky, this beef will never rear its ugly head again. 

Gnarly Quote: “Frank Shamrock is an irrelevant jackass.”

Dana vs. Greg Jackson

For the first time under Zuffa watch, the UFC was forced to cancel an event. The reason you ask? Because Dan Henderson—who was tapped to challenge Jon Jones for the title—was forced to withdraw from their planned affair eight days distanced from the actual event.

The injury bug got to “Hendo”, and he simply could not make the fight a reality. It happens.

Here comes the interesting part…when Dana White began his mission to find a replacement, things proved difficult. Not many were eager to fight Jones with only eight days’ notice.

But Chael Sonnen was. The only hitch there came when Jones shockingly refused the fight. According to White (who you can hear discuss the entire issue at length in the attached video), Jones consulted with his coaches and Greg Jackson ultimately told him it would be a terrible idea to fight Sonnen on eight days’ notice.

Despite the fact that Jones had been preparing for Henderson for weeks on end.

White lost his temper and lashed out at Jackson, declaring him all kinds of unpleasant things.

But the bickering between White and Jackson has surfaced on a somewhat regular basis. In fact, just about every time one of Jackson’s fighters implements an awkward point-based plan of attack, White makes his frustrations known.

Gnarly Quote: “This guy is a f*cking sport killer.”

Dana vs. Hackers

Support of SOPA and PIPA—two bills designed to help aid in the fight against piracy—got Dana White and the UFC (particularly their website) into some trouble early last year.

UFC.com was hacked and re-routed to some pretty despicable websites, and the war was on. White wasn’t one to sit back and watch as an over-educated nerd with no day-job toyed with his website. He went on the attack, issued challenges, declared the culprits terrorists and, of course, dropped a few F-bombs in the process.

The man has spoken on the topic quite a bit, and he’s produced a few golden quotes in the process. The following two really get me.

Gnarly Quote: “Now you look like terrorists. A lot of people that were afraid of you, now hate you.”/”That’s f*ckin’ illegal!”

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