Does Dana White lie often? The answer may be pretty obvious and fairly unimportant to a lot of MMA fans, but these things matter more in a legal setting as the UFC navigates through this antitrust lawsuit.

The UFC President and now CEO was asked that very question while under oath for his deposition.

UFC President Dana White pressed about lying during deposition

In this lawsuit alone, Dana White has made curious statements about stars like Ronda Rousey or Jon Jones that have either contradicted past statements or seem to not really align with topics or timelines. It was a different subject that made lawyers ask White specifically about lying though.

Bloody Elbow has obtained a transcript of White’s deposition, and he was asked if he was being “completely truthful” due to conflicting statements he gave about the acquisition of PRIDE.

White previously told the public that once they acquired the Japanese promotion, “UFC will run separately from PRIDE. Most of the employees are still in place at PRIDE, and we’re going to continue to run them as competitors in two separate entities.”

As long time MMA fans know, PRIDE was closed down, never to host events again after the sale closed.

Transcript: Did UFC really want to continue running PRIDE to run as ‘competitors’

Acquiring and killing off competitors, along with various anticompetitive practices, are among the central points being argued in this antitrust lawsuit. And when White was asked about those plans, he stuck to his story.

Question: At the time that the UFC acquired Pride, was its — is it correct that the UFC intended to run Pride and the UFC as competitors to one another?

Dana White: Yes.

Question: Okay. And at the time of the acquisition, did you believe that the UFC and Pride had all the best MMA fighters in the world?

White: Not all of them, but most, yes.

Question: Okay. Most?

White: Yes, most.

Transcript: Does Dana White lie often?

Dana White was then presented with more of his previous quotes and pressed about lying.

Question: And if you turn to page 8 of the document… Do you see at the bottom of the page there, there’s also a quote attributed to you.

Question: … Would you just read that one sentence, please.

White: “…You know Pride and the UFC have the best fighters in the world in all different weight classes. Finally, we’re going to be able to see who’s the best fighter in the world, and I think you know whoever wins that fight will be looked at as the best heavyweight, best light heavyweight, best middleweight in the world and possibly one of the pound-for-pound greatest of all time. So I think that’s what is really going to come out of this. The fans win, both organizations win, and the fighters win at the end of the day.”

Question: Okay. Do you have any reason to believe that that wasn’t true as of March 27, 2007?

White: I’m a promoter. I’m never going to go out there and say, you know what, when we put these two companies together, we’ll have the most mediocre guys in the world. You know, that’s what I do. There were obviously many guys outside of the UFC that were great fighters too and that we probably wanted at the time too.

Question: So are you saying that the statements that you make as a promoter in your capacity as president of the UFC are not necessarily statements that we can attribute as being completely truthful?

White: I’m a fight promoter. My job is to sell you fights. My job is to make you not take your wife out on Saturday night, not go to a movie, or whatever else you might want to do on Saturday night. My job is to make you stay home and watch the UFC.

Question: So my question to you is whether or not that means that at least some of the statements that you make publicly are not statements that can be taken as entirely accurate on face value; is that correct?

White: I’m a promoter, and I sell fights for a living.

Question: Okay. So are you not going to answer the question?

White: That’s the answer.

Question: The answer is?

Dana White: …

Read the rest of the post over at our Substack page.

Does Dana White lie and exaggerate or does he give his actual opinions? Will Dana White give a straight answer? In the full post, we have two more chapters and much more on this exchange where lawyers kept pressing Dana White about telling the truth.

Interestingly enough, the fighters’ lawyers also used another past statement (and flex) from White against him to close out this segment of the deposition.

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Anton Tabuena

Anton Tabuena is the Managing Editor for Bloody Elbow. He’s been covering MMA and combat sports since 2009, and has also fought in MMA, Muay Thai and kickboxing.

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