UFC president Dana White has found himself in fresh controversy after TMZ released a video of an altercation between him and his wife Anne at a New Year's Eve party in a club in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The altercation took place in the VIP section of the club, and Dana can be seen saying something to his wife, followed by him grabbing her left wrist. As soon as he holds her wrist, Anne turns and slaps him on the face with her right hand and then Dana immediately slaps her twice. The video then ends with both of them grabbing each other's arms while some people intervene.
The pair have already issued their respective apologies for the incident and have also admitted to it. "You’ve heard me say for years, ‘There’s never ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman,’ and now here I am on TMZ talking about it", he said.
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"There was definitely a lot of alcohol involved, but that’s no excuse. I literally am making no excuses for this thing at all, it’s never happened before it’s the first time that it’s ever happened ... I don’t know why it happened and my wife and I have apologized to each other, we’ve apologized to our kids", he added.
Also opening up about the incident's impact on his children, he said, "My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years,” he said. “We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some (expletive) together, and we’ve got three kids. This is one of those situations that’s horrible. I’m embarrassed. But it’s also one of those situations that right now we’re more concerned about our kids. We have three kids and obviously since the video popped up, we’ve shown the kids the video. We’re more focused on our family right now."
{{/usCountry}}Also opening up about the incident's impact on his children, he said, "My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years,” he said. “We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some (expletive) together, and we’ve got three kids. This is one of those situations that’s horrible. I’m embarrassed. But it’s also one of those situations that right now we’re more concerned about our kids. We have three kids and obviously since the video popped up, we’ve shown the kids the video. We’re more focused on our family right now."
{{/usCountry}}Here is the video:
Meanwhile in a separate statement to TMZ, Anne also rushed to her husband's defence and blamed it on alcohol. "Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years," she told TMZ. "To say this is out of character for him is an understatement. Nothing like this has ever happened before. Unfortunately, we were both drinking too much on New Year's Eve and things got out of control, on both sides. We've talked this through as a family and apologized to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids", she said.
White is the president of UFC< which he purchased with brothers Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta for 2 million dollars in 2001. The company got sold by the brothers in 2021 for more than 4 billion dollars, and at that time White owned nearly 10 percent of the company and still remains as its president.