Dana White’s Domestic Violence Incident Brings Attention to UFC’s History of Handling Similar Cases

On New Year’s Eve, a video was released showing Dana White, the president of the UFC, slapping his wife at a party in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. White has since apologized and stated that there is no excuse for his actions.

Nothing like this has ever happened before, things got out of control, on both sides, Anne White statement to TMZ:

Domestic violence is a longstanding issue in the MMA world, with numerous fighters facing charges for domestic abuse. In 2015, an HBO Real Sports investigation found that domestic violence arrests involving MMA fighters are more than double the national average.

We’ve been human beings in letting these guys, other guys make up for what they’ve done and come back, There’s one thing that you never bounce back from, and that’s putting your hands on a woman. Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman, Dana White said.

While White has previously taken a hardline stance on domestic violence, the UFC has a history of signing and re-signing fighters who have been accused or convicted of domestic abuse. In the wake of White’s incident, there has been renewed attention on the UFC’s handling of domestic violence cases and calls for the promotion to adopt stricter policies.

My wife and I were out on Saturday night on New Year’s Eve, and unfortunately that’s what happened,” White said. “I’m one of the guys, you’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it. My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years, we’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some s*** together, we’ve got three kids and 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. People are going to have opinions on this, and most of the people’s opinions would be right, especially in my case. You don’t put your hands on a woman ever. My wife and I love each other, we’ve been together for a very long time. We’ve known each other since we were very little, and this is just one of those unfortunate situations, Dana White on TMZ.

White said that the entire incident lasted less than a minute, and he and his wife reconciled afterward and. remained on vacation together in Mexico.

There was definitely a lot of alcohol involved, but that’s no excuse, I literally am making no excuses for this at all. It’s never happened before. It’s the first time that it’s ever happened, and people are going to say what they’re going to say. It is what it is, and whatever people do say is deserved. I deserve it. It happened. I don’t know why it happened.

My wife and I have apologized to each other. We’ve apologized to our kids, and this is one of those things where everybody is going to chime in. I could care less what anybody else thinks about this. Right now what we’re more concerned about are our kids and taking care of our family. That was the beginning of it and the end of it. We’re still on vacation. We’re obviously best friends, she’s my wife and we had too much to drink, and whatever happened that night happened. That was it and it was done.