“Free speech brother,” tells UFC owner Dana White when told by a reporter that he gives his fighters a “long leash.”
The reporter further said that White is “getting into the territory of homophobia, transphobia.”
White clapped back and defended free speech. He said, “I don’t give anybody a leash.”
“A leash? Free speech. To control what people say, and to tell people what to believe? I don’t f***ing tell any other human being what to say, what to think, and there’s no leashes on any of ’em.”
When asked by the UFC president what exactly his question was, the reporter responded that he would “move on.”
White agreed and said “moving on” was “probably a good idea.”
The UFC president seemed repulsed by the reporter’s remarks. He added, “That’s ridiculous to say I give somebody a leash.”
“People can say whatever they want, and they can believe whatever they want.”
White’s remarks on free speech come after middleweight fighter Sean Strickland came under fire for his tirades against the LGBT community during the pre-fight press conference of UFC 297.
Canadian journalist Alexander Lee maliciously probed Strickland on his comment in 2021, in which he thinks that if a man had a gay son, he believes that “that [person] failed as a man.”
Strickland, who was known not to hold out on his comments, slammed the reporter and said he is a “weak f—-ng man” and criticized Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on his pro-LGBTQ+ policies.
UFC 297 headlines the title match between Sean Strickland and Dricus De Plesis. It ended with Strickland losing the championship belt against his opponent. The fight went on for the entire 25-minute duration, eventually handing the judges the opportunity to decide who won the battle.
Another UFC world champion embroiled in controversy was Colby Covington, who slammed the USA boxing’s new transgender policy, which allows transgender women (biological males) to compete against biological women.
Covington told Pete Hegseth on Fox News that, “Biological men shouldn’t be allowed to compete in women’s sports. Doesn’t matter what their hormone levels or pronouns are, they’re still biological men.”
He added, “When they dig up their bones in 200 years, their bones won’t leave pronouns.”
“They’re just gonna leave XX and XY chromosomes, and, unfortunately, boxing is a sport that could potentially have fatal consequences. So, to let women go against men is completely irresponsible, unethical, and dangerous.”
