UFC’s Dana White on Dan Hardy, Marc Goddard incidents – ‘I will fire anyone on the spot who approaches official’
- White says UFC employees approaching referees, judges or officials ‘can never happen again’ after commentator Hardy’s spat with Herb Dean
- ‘And if you’re a fighter and you put your hands on or threaten any official, you will never ever fight here again, period’
If you were wondering where Dana White came down on commentator Dan Hardy’s spat with referee Herb Dean last weekend, the UFC president has made his opinion crystal clear.
“Let me say this to you guys, I’m glad you asked that question,” White told media after Friday’s UFC Vegas 5 weigh-ins. “I want to make this very clear: if you work for me and you approach a judge or referee or any type of official, I will fire you, you will lose your job, you will never work for me again if you do that.”
Former UFC fighter Hardy screamed “stop the fight” when Dean failed to intervene after Jai Herbert was clearly knocked out by an overhand from Francisco Trinaldo at UFC Fight Island 3 last weekend. “The Outlaw” continued his criticism in a verbal cageside spat with Dean, which is prohibited by the promotion’s rules.
“Nobody has the right … listen, you wanna criticise judges, referees, you didn’t agree with a decision or things like that,” White added. “We love Dan. Dan got emotional and the problem is now with this set-up. it’s a lot easier to do, to interact with everybody from the fighters to the refs to media.”
“If you work for me in any capacity and you approach a referee or judge or official, I will fire you that night on the spot. That can never happen here ever again,” White said.
Dean hit back at Hardy last week for “putting his Superman shirt on”, and the British fighter defended his outburst in a video on his YouTube channel.
But UFC senior vice-president of international and content David Shaw stated at the post-event press conference in the UAE hat the company was going to look into the incident this week, and that only Marc Ratner’s regulatory group are able to talk to officials during a fight night.
“I’m speaking to him [Hardy] right now,” White said, “I’m speaking to everybody. Don’t ever do it again. And if you’re a fighter and you put your hands on or threaten any official, you will never ever fight here again, period.”
