UFC President Dana White said sports fans are “fed up” with “being told where they can go” in response to his promotion selling out an event in Jacksonville, Florida.
“Everybody was there. The crowd was explosive all night. It was a great show. We broke the arena record, and what that tells me — I sold out Jacksonville, going to Houston next, then Vegas, 50,000 seats sold out in under five minutes total for all three — people are done,” White said during an appearance on Hannity Monday. “People are done being told where they can go, what they can do. They’re ready to get back out there and start enjoying their lives again.”
The sold-out event came as many states around the country still have restrictions in place on crowds, including capacity limits at sporting events.
But Florida has largely charted its own path throughout the pandemic, with Gov. Ron DeSantis lifting capacity restrictions on sporting events in October in a move that opened the door for the major UFC event.
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White also took aim at the politicization of sports, saying fans don’t tune in to UFC events to hear about a fighter’s political views.
“One of the things that I’ve really tried to do through this whole thing is stay out of politics,” White said. “When people tune in to watch sports, they don’t want to hear that crap. They don’t want to hear what your opinions are or who you’re voting for or what you’re doing. They want to get away from everything in their life.”
But White also acknowledged he doesn’t attempt to “muzzle” the views of UFC’s athletes.
“Throughout this pandemic, when you turned on the UFC, we never talked about COVID. We never talked about politics,” White said. “Obviously, there are certain fighters, male and female, who have their own religious beliefs, their own political beliefs, or whatever. We don’t muscle anybody, either.”
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“So, if somebody comes out at the press conference and they want to talk about this or that or whatever it might be, it’s their God-given right to do it,” he said. “We don’t muzzle anybody, but we keep politics out of the sport.”
