Dana White Caught Lying About PPV Numbers After Being Confronted, Confesses UFC Legend

Dana White wears the thorny crown of UFC CEO. As the face of the premier MMA promotion, White is subject to criticism on a daily basis, and a new controversial claim has been added to the ever-growing list. Former UFC champion Quinton Jackson recently revealed that White had once lied to him about the PPV numbers of one of the past events where he competed. But why?

The UFC has grown to be a multibillion-dollar promotion in the 30 years since its inception. The promotion has been home to some of the best MMA fighters the sport has ever seen, and Dana White has developed cordial relations with most of them. Nonetheless, there are some fighters with whom the UFC CEO did not strike the right chord, including ‘Rampage’ Jackson, due to some of the now-CEO’s business tactics.

Did Dana White undersell PPV numbers to Quinton Jackson?

During his time in the UFC, things with Dana White weren’t always good for ‘Rampage’. As the contracts for UFC fighters go, they can earn more money if they can sell more PPVs, which Jackson believes he did against Rashad Evans in 2010. He talked about the same during a recent episode of his ‘JAXXON Podcast,’ mentioning how White had once made him upset.

“One thing I was upset about Dana, is that in my contract, if I sold over a million pay-per-view buys, my PPV numbers jumped up like dramatically, right? And the fight between me and Rashad Evans, I broke that threshold,” said Quinton Jackson. Despite believing that he crossed the million mark, Dana White told the former champion that he fell a little short of a million. But when the 54-year-old promoter appeared in front of the press, he made a contradictory statement.

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“He [Dana White] told me, ‘No, you did like 900 and something, right up on a million’. But in press, he told, ‘We sold over a million buys,” Jackson added. As per Tapology, UFC 114 Jackson vs. Evans sold 1,050,000 PPVs, which would imply that he should have earned what he claimed was mentioned in his contract. After witnessing how Dana White contradicted himself, ‘Rampage’ decided to have a chat with the boss regarding the money he thinks the UFC CEO owed him.

When Jackson confronted the UFC CEO for his lies

Following the aforementioned press event, Quinton Jackson decided to approach Dana White for his public claim about the million-dollar PPV buys. However, when he asked the CEO for more money, the latter claimed that he lied to the media to make the UFC look good. Jackson further stated, “I hit him up like, ‘Pay me, what the f*** you told the fans’. He says, ‘No, that part of the promotion, you make yourself seem better.”

Nevertheless, Quinton Jackson reminded Dana White that he should always be paying him the amount of money that puts out publicly. As a result of the UFC boss’s lie, ‘Rampage’ did not have much love left for him after that incident. “Alright, I said, ‘Good. Whatever you f**ing put out there in the press that we made, that’s what you pay me on. Don’t pay me on what you f*ing telling me that we made. Pay me on what you f**ing promoting out there’. And that’s what left a bad taste in my mouth,” Jackson added.

Dana White has been called out by many fighters for his questionable business tactics, with Francis Ngannou being one of the most recent and bigger examples. Despite the complaints fighters have with the CEO, his promotion is on the rise and is getting bigger and bigger with every event.

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