Cormier says Dana White was ‘wrong’ to slap his wife
The UFC Hall of Famer discussed Dana White being caught on video striking his spouse.
Dana White slapped his wife in public on New Year’s Eve. It was captured on camera. Everyone has seen it. Yet, White’s Power Slap League promotion is scheduled to air and neither the UFC, ESPN or Endeavour have any kind of discipline planned.
White’s actions have even been defended by some of the fighters in his organization, including Jamahal Hill and Sean O’Malley.
Most fighters have remained silent on the matter, likely fearing for their jobs.
Former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has spoken out on the incident. On his DC & RC podcast he took a rather easy route in stating that of course Dana White was wrong to strike his wife in the face, at least twice. However, Cormier couched that criticism with praise for White agreeing that what he did was wrong (via a video released on TMZ to accompany the breaking news).
Cormier did not call for any punishment for White, but did reinforce that he believes striking your wife is in fact wrong.
Here’s what he said on the podcast (h/t bjpenn).
“Everyone waits for an opinion on this. But, I’ll tell you right now, Dana White was wrong,” said Cormier. “And, he told you he was wrong. We have long been told, our entire lives, not to put our hands on women. Dana White himself has gone on record to say, you are not supposed to put your hand on a woman.”
“He understands that, he took accountability immediately,” added Cormier in defense of his boss. “Here’s the question though, the first thing you think about is the family. The children and the rest of the White family and how they’ll get through this. But Dana’s making no excuses for his actions right. Some fighters are trying to defend him, [but] he doesn’t defend himself.”
Arguably, Cormier’s strongest condemnation was aimed at those who were vocally defending White in this whole debacle.
“Why should anyone go to defend his actions? An action that he was saying, ‘I was wrong’. Everyone knows that it is wrong… It’s not a debate. It’s not like we can sit up here and pretend it’s a debate whether it was right or wrong. There’s no debate, everyone is on the same page. He said it’s wrong, I know it’s wrong, you know it’s wrong, everyone around the world knows it’s wrong.”
About the author: Tim Bissell is a writer, editor and deputy site manager for Bloody Elbow. He has covered combat sports since 2015. Tim covers news and events and has also written longform and investigative pieces. (full bio)