While Dana While says losing his UFC position wouldn’t be a punishment for him, Endeavor CEO Ari Emanuel was criticized by the California Legislative Women’s Caucus for remaining silent after leaked video showed the sport’s chief swatting his wife in a New Year’s party in Mexico.
“Each day that Mr. White disappear, his silence becomes more piercing and troubling,” the influential Golden State political group said in a letter to Emanuel posted online.
“Since the video was released, you have remained silent,” declared the group’s president, Senator Nancy Skinner, and vice president, Representative Cecilia Aguiar-Curry, on behalf of 17 senators and 32 state representatives.
“His continued silence speaks volumes,” they remarked before turning Mel Gibson and Kanye West critic Emanuel’s words against him. “As you once wrote: ‘Silence and inaction are not an option.’”
“At this point, thousands of young people, women and adults around the world have seen Mr. White beating his wife,” the correspondence reads. “We also saw your apology. What we haven’t seen are the consequences of his actions. As the CEO of Endeavor, the parent company of the UFC, you have the authority to decide who leads the UFC, which is one of the most watched sports leagues in the world, with millions of fans around the world. Mr. White is not just the outside face of the UFC, he is the leader who sets expectations for athletes as well,” said the scathing correspondence about the lucrative professional wrestling franchise that is Endeavor’s crown jewel.
Endeavor reps haven’t gotten a peek at White since the NYE video went viral last week. The company did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment today about this latest chapter in a sordid story.
White, however, had his own take on the situation which he shared with reporters ahead of UFC Fight Night 217 on January 14th. According to the head of extreme sports, he has already been punished enough and his departure would hurt everyone more than him.
“What should the repercussions be? You tell me. Do I take 30 days off?” White asked reporters at a media event on Wednesday. “How does this hurt me? My departure hurts the company. It hurts my employees. It hurts the fighters. It doesn’t hurt me.
“Do I need to reflect? No, I don’t need to reflect. ..I have that. I’m saying I’m wrong,” he added – – as you can see in the video below.
White acknowledged that he has been talking about the incident with his boss Emanuel and “no one is happy about it”. As for the punishment, “I have to walk around for as long as I live… and that’s how I’m labeled now.”
And “a lot of people, be it media, fighters, friends, acquaintances who had respect for me may not have respect for me now. There are a lot of things I’m going to have to deal with for the rest of my life that are far more punishing than, what, I take a 30-60 day leave?” Watch the video below.
As California lawmakers and others have pointed out, Emanuel has always taken the moral high ground in building Endeavor, most recently calling on companies that do business with Kanye West to end their relationships with the rapper after an anti-Semitic rant. In 2010, he severed ties with WME client Mel Gibson after racist slurs.
“Given the previous remarks by Mr. White against domestic violence, we believe that Endeavor and the UFC share that commitment to safety, respect and responsibility,” said the January 9 letter from the bipartisan caucus to Emanuel. “You yourself have written extensively about the need to speak up and act when we see things that are not in line with our values,” added Senator Skinner and Vice President to Representative Aguiar-Curry to Emanuel. “Even so, we saw the video of UFC President Dana White, where he attacks his wife at a New Year’s Eve party with a closed fist. We were shocked. It was alarming to say the least.
Video footage posted by TMZ of an argument on the balcony of a VIP suite at Mexico’s Cabo San Lucas nightclub shows White’s wife, Anne, slapping him after he grabbed her wrist. White then slaps his wife across the face in response before the two are separated by other partygoers.
An immediate consequence of the incident is that TBS has postponed the premiere of White’s Power Slapping League until January 18th.
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