Brendan Schaub believes the UFC would be better off without Dana White as president.
Former UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub harbours no hate towards Dana White. That being said, he’s concerned about how the UFC president has been handling his business.
The two have butted heads in the past over the controversial Reebok deal, with the former UFC heavyweight being one of its most vocal critics. However, their beef was recently rekindled after Israel Adesanya published that Instagram post. ‘The Last Style Bender’ called out Schaub over a point he made on his Below the Belt podcast about kickboxers transitioning to MMA.
White fired back at Schaub in the comments, calling him a ‘moron’ an ‘idiot’ and even mocked his abilities as a fighter. Schaub responded in the replies before sending an astonishing Twitter post in which he outed White as his Eskimo brother.
Now Schaub is making the case for White stepping down from his role at the world’s largest MMA promotion.
Harsh https://t.co/efbt0WxGkE
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 12, 2018
Strap yourselves in
Schaub went on a 15-minute rant about White in his Below the Belt podcast. He felt compelled to in order to address how White deals with fighters on his roster.
“If you think that with the platform I have that I’m not going to criticise you for shitting on these fighters who don’t have much financially, they don’t have a platform, they literally have to punch other men in the face to make a living. And for you to bring men and women down like that is insane. You’re never going to get a free ride here. Ever, ever, ever. For as long as I have my microphone in my face, you will always get criticised for that. Always, man. It’s not cool.”
“I’ve been in those guys’ shoes. I’ve been in that exact same scenario where you’re working your ass off to fight another man in a cage and you’re looking for some sort of approval from the head guy who controls your destiny who controls what match-ups you get, who controls how much publicity you get, who controls now what sponsors you get, who controls how much success you’re going to have. And you’re looking for any inch of approval. If you walk by that man in the hallway and he goes, ‘Great job tonight’ it goes so far.”
‘Name one!’
Think of all the fighters White has publicly criticised recently. Francis Ngannou, Yair Rodriguez, Tyron Woodley, Kamaru Usman, Mike Jackson, to name but a few. Schaub has one simple question, why would he choose to shit on his fighters when his job is to be their promoter?
“So why be mean about it? Why be a bully? Why continue to shit on people? You’ve won, man. You’ve won. You’re a CEO of a billion dollar company and you’re trying to talk shit to somebody who retired four years ago on social media! What are you doing? What are we doing? I imagine somebody else was the head of a corporation, they’d lose their job. Talk shit to people like that, what the fuck are you doing? What are you doing? It makes no sense. It makes zero sense.”
“What you should be doing – if that hit a nerve when I said you should celebrate Francis, this is not a time to bring that guy down – your ego’s too big but you should check yourself and go, ‘God, I probably should do something else.’I challenge any of you guys, name one fighter who’s been close to Dana that’s never had an issue. Name one! There’s a reason.”
@DH_Tech162 keep racing remote controlled cars dork and calling other people children. LOL
— danawhite (@danawhite) July 23, 2015
“This is 2018 – you can’t do that.”
Schaub claims that ‘tons of’ fighters, former fighters, UFC employees, media members and Reebok staff reached out to him after his social media back-and-forth with White. He believes the overwhelming support he has received is because they disagree with how he runs the business.
“Why do think all those people are reaching out to me? Why do you think this is getting so many likes… why do you think it’s the topic of all this stuff? Because you’re a dick! And no one can say anything because they’re scared to lose their job.”
“I’m not. I need nothing from you. I need no approval, I don’t need a promotion, I don’t work for you – I do none of that. I’ll tell you the truth, you’re a dick. You’re a dick, man. You’ve made it. You’re at the top of the mountain shouting. But don’t shout negativity. What are you doing? The world’s hard enough, man. It’s a dark world out there. It’s a dark negative world. I will never stand for it, ever. Sometimes you’ve got to punch that bully right in the mouth. Yeah, you do man.”
Revealing some private information https://t.co/ciVM4RnZDd
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 12, 2018
“You bully guys.”
Post-fight life has been very kind to Schaub. He’s had major success as a broadcaster, a podcaster, an analyst and a stand-up comedian. He believes that White should be pointing towards him as a success story rather than attacking him. In his words, if he can make a living without using his fists, any UFC fighter can.
“You cause guys to lose their job. Ariel Helwani with the Showtime thing. What are you doing? How petty can you get? You go on Instagram comments, talk shit. How petty can you get? You think that makes you look smart? Smart people don’t do that. People who are comfortable with themselves and don’t have ego issues, don’t do that, people who have made it, don’t do that, people who are comfortable in their skin, don’t do that. That’s your problem, brother. That’s just your problem.”
“It’s a crab-like world. Everyone’s pulling each other down trying to get to the top, trying to get to that next Conor McGregor level. Everyone wants that Conor McGregor status. A bunch of crabs – crabs, crabs, crabs. And then the biggest fat fucking lobster at the top is Dana White pushing you guys down. And for what? The world’s negative as it is, man.”
Time to move on?
White has been president of the UFC since 2001. While Schaub credits him for how far he has brought the promotion, he believes that in order for the company to progress, they need to install a new president.
“I think we’ve gone as far as we can with him at the helm. I really do, I genuinely believe that. This isn’t a hateful comment. This isn’t throwing shade. I think if you got a real CEO with a background in business that didn’t have these personal vendettas and personal il will towards fighters and negativity towards certain fighters, the league would go on much further these days. It would create a more friendly work environment, a more professional approach. I think running it like the WWE is not the way to go. If you run it more like a business, that’s where the sport’s at, that’s when it’s going to grow. Us leaning towards the more entertainment stuff, I think we want to get away from that in order for the sport to grow. Especially internationally.”
“In my heart of hearts, if you had a gun to my head and said, ‘What would be the best thing for the UFC?’ I would say for Dana White to leave. That’s no shade, that’s nothing. You’ve done your thing, now hand the baton off to someone to hopefully get it to another level, to hopefully get it to another phase for the sport to grow. I think with his mindset, we’re here and we’re going to be here until someone else comes along.”
A powerful statement from Schaub, one that will undoubtedly cause a lot of debate.
