Dana White isn’t buying anything Jake Paul and Tyron Woodley are selling.
Dana White has been consistent about his disinterest in anything related to the Paul brothers, yet their names continue to be raised whenever White meets with the media. This time, it was once again the younger Paul brother, Jake, whose latest project was brought up.
Jake Paul will be boxing former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley this August in a fight that Woodley’s team says will be the biggest payday he has ever received in his combat sports career. This claim falls in line with Jake Paul’s criticisms against Dana White and the UFC for underpaying their fighters.
At the UFC 263 press conference, White addressed the claims from Woodley’s team and all the pre-fight rhetoric that comes along with a Jake Paul event.
“I’ve been hearing that bullshit forever. I’ve been hearing that. They’re all full of shit,” White declared. “What’s he making? Exactly. If it’s that much money and he’s that fuckin’ proud of how much it is, how much is it? They’re all full of shit. But that’s how you hype up a fight, too.”
At this point, there was a dramatic pause with White either choosing his words very carefully or contemplating whether or not to say what he went on to say.
“I keep not wanting to do this,” White began. “Tyron Woodley’s 40 years old, OK? He hasn’t won a fight in three years in something that he’s actually supposed to be good at. Now, he’s gonna go box. How do you sell that fight? Lots of other things other than the shit that should matter…‘making millions of dollars’ and ‘This is the biggest payday ever,’ and Jake Paul will say mean things about me, and ‘pay your fighters,’ and you guys just fuckin’ (fall) right into it and love it. It’s all bullshit. It’s all a bunch of bullshit.”
White would concede that Logan Paul and Floyd Mayweather did pull off the numbers of over 1 million pay-per-view buys for their Mayweather vs. Paul: Bragging Rights event last week. However, he maintains that Triller, Jake Paul, and now Tyron Woodley only spew falsehoods and sensationalism for the sake of fight promotion.
Do you think Dana White may be on to something here? Or is he deflecting attention away from the topic of fighter pay?
