Dana White explains why UFC doesn’t have Pride Night amid Giants Bible verse controversy
Dana White has never been much interested in corporate virtue-signaling.
White, the president and CEO of UFC, joined "Tomi Lahren Is Fearless" and was asked why the promotion doesn’t host a Pride Night. The question came as Pride-themed events are once again causing controversy in sports, most recently with the San Francisco Giants.
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"I don’t give a s---. I don’t care what you are or who you are or what you do. We don’t talk about that or any of that stuff," White told Lahren. "I’m just not into it."
White’s argument is not that gay fighters, fans or employees are unwelcome in the UFC. It is that the UFC doesn’t need a theme night, a special logo or a public-relations campaign to prove it treats people with respect.
And it’s not difficult to understand why White wants no part of that game.
Giants pitchers Landen Roupp, J.T. Brubaker and Ryan Walker recently wrote Bible verse references on rainbow-logo Pride Night caps during San Francisco’s June 12 game. Roupp wrote "Gen 9:12-16," a reference to the biblical passage describing the rainbow as a sign of God’s covenant after the flood. Reliever Sam Hentges wore the team’s standard cap instead of the Pride-themed version.
MLB responded by issuing what Commissioner Rob Manfred later described as "a routine oral warning" because league rules prohibit players from writing or displaying personal messages on uniforms or equipment. But Manfred later told Sen. Josh Hawley that the players wouldn’t be fined or disciplined, and said the warning was about the league’s uniform policy, not the religious content of the Bible verses. He also acknowledged MLB issued the warning before learning the Giants hadn’t clearly told players they could wear regular caps instead.
That is exactly the kind of mess White appears uninterested in creating inside the UFC.
Manfred also said the purpose of the rule is to prevent players from becoming messengers for political or social issues while in uniform.
Which is interesting, because that’s basically White’s point.
For the UFC president, the issue is bigger than Pride Night. It’s the idea that a sports organization should push athletes, employees or fans into an approved public message, then punish or shame anyone who handles that message differently.
His answer to Lahren was rooted in a broader free-speech philosophy. White said he doesn’t want the UFC forcing fighters to say the right thing, and he doesn’t want to start punishing people every time someone says the wrong thing.
That doesn’t mean he enjoys everything that comes out of the fighters' mouths.
White pointed to Josh Hokit, who drew backlash after saying, "Michelle Obama is a man. Am I right, America?" during a post-fight interview at UFC Freedom 250.
"You think I’m happy about what Josh Hokit said?" White said. "I’m trying to unify the country and he goes out and says something absolutely stupid like he did that night, but I’m a believer of free speech too."
That’s what makes Hokit relevant to the Pride Night discussion. White isn’t arguing that every controversial comment is smart, helpful or worth defending on the merits. He’s arguing that the UFC shouldn’t become a speech-policing operation.
White can believe Hokit said something stupid and still believe fighters should be allowed to speak for themselves. That same logic explains why he doesn’t want the UFC staging theme nights that inevitably become public loyalty tests.
"I let everybody be themselves, do their thing," White said. "There’s a lot of things that some of my guys say that I don’t love."
That same idea applies to Pride Night.
White’s position isn’t that people should be treated poorly. It’s that treating people well doesn’t require the UFC to stage a public campaign proving it.
"I stay in my lane, man," White said. "Whatever these other guys are doing, good luck to them. I do my own thing. We don’t just go out and beat the drum."
Diamondbacks pitcher Ryan Thompson made a similar point while defending the Giants players. Thompson said Roupp writing a Bible verse on his cap didn’t mean he was "anti" anyone, but rather that he was expressing what the rainbow means to him as a Christian.
That's the problem with these corporate sports campaigns.
The message is supposed to be inclusion. But the second a Christian athlete expresses his own view, or declines to participate in the approved message, the inclusion suddenly gets very narrow.
White wants the UFC out of that business entirely. And he doesn’t believe every good deed needs to become a public-relations event.
"First of all, we donate lots of money to lots of different charities and I do personally too," White said. "You know what you’ll never see me doing, standing out in the middle of somewhere with a big check with a bunch of little kids standing around."
White said the motivation matters more than the photo op.
"We do it because we should. We do it because we can," he said. "We don’t do it for attention."
Then he brought the answer back to the actual Pride Night question.
"When it comes to certain groups of people, whether it’s the gay or lesbian community, whether it’s the African American community, we do what we should do, we do the right thing," White said. "As long as you’re doing the right thing, you don’t have to run around and prove to everybody that you’re doing the right thing."
That won’t satisfy the people who believe every sports organization needs to publicly celebrate all the approved causes. But White’s position is consistent.
Do the right thing.
Treat people right.
Why is that so hard for so many people to understand?