Aaron Meullion-USA TODAY Sports

Dana White reflected on his mistake of publicly slapping his wife, Anne, on New Year’s Eve in 2022.

According to reports, the incident took place in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, while the two were on vacation. The following clip shows White talking with Anne as she covers her face with her hands. White then proceeds to grab her wrists. His wife resorts to slapping White, and the CEO of the UFC does the same. 

Now that some time has passed, White has learned much from the experience. He has three children, which was the main focus of the fallout. White has also been married for three decades, so he was keen to diffuse the situation. 

Dana is a well-known public figure, given he presides over the biggest combat sports brand in the world, which continues to grow yearly. While he is outspoken against cancel culture, White recognized that he was in the wrong. 

White Reacts

“When something like that happens, you’ve got to get up the next day and look at yourself in the mirror and say, first, how did that happen? How do I make sure that never happens again? When I say judged, there was a lot of people who are like, ‘If it happened there, that isn’t the first rodeo, that’s happened before.’ I would say the same exact thing. I would say the same thing. But at the end of the day, here’s the truth … your kids know exactly who you are.

“I made some decisions in my life that I could guarantee that would never happen again. I made some decisions in my life and things I needed to fix with myself to make sure that never happens again. That will never happen again, no matter what. Me and my wife have known each other since eighth grade, we’ve been friends since eighth grade and we’ve been married for almost 30 years. It’s weird and I think about it all the time, that that situation would play out on New Year’s Eve, basically on stage, in front of however many people all with phones aimed right at me, and boom, here we are,” White said

White Or Rogan

Elsewhere, ex-ESPN reporter Sage Steele mistook Dana White for Joe Rogan during her podcast interview on The Sage Steele Show.

During the interview, Steele questioned the UFC CEO about his dreams. As she did so, she referred to White as Rogan. White quickly realized Steele was trying to cover her tracks. Once it became obvious, the two laughed off the incident. 

Steele: “What’s Joe Rogan’s dream?”

White: “Joe Rogan’s dream?”

Steele: “Joe Rogan … Dana White. What’s Dana White’s dream?”

White: “Did you just think I was Joe Rogan?” 

 Steele: I did … I totally did”

White: “She just called me Joe Rogan!” You thought I was Joe Rogan! I was bald before Joe Rogan was ever bald! I just did a two-hour podcast, flew here from Vegas, and she thought she was interviewing Joe Rogan”

Steele: “Jesus”

It is unclear if the segment was a skit or a genuine mistake on Steele’s part. However, the interview went ahead as planned, much to Steele’s relief. White has shown he can walk out of interviews and did so during an interaction with Howie Mandel. Mandel continued to praise White, only for the CEO of the UFC, saying he was not doing any interviews as he left. Steele will be grateful her gaffe wasn’t costly.

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