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UFC president Dana White has a serious goal in 2021, to catch individuals who illegally download and stream events. And he had a stern warning for those who to choose to pirate UFC fight cards during a recent interview with The Mac Life’s Oscar Willis.
Pirating is nothing new to the UFC and White has long battled it. And according to the UFC president, he is stepping up measures this year to try and catch people choosing to do so. He first revealed plans of cracking down on piracy via Instagram last week, and he spoke about it more with Willis.
White said that the promotion has “overcome a huge hurdle” in terms of halting piracy of UFC events and he looks forward to the “crying and the begging” of those he catches.
“We’ve been one of the league’s that has been so proactive on piracy,” White said. “And I love how cool and tough these guys act on social media because let me tell you what, we’ve caught a lot of people. And let me tell you what they do, they cry. They cry and they beg not to be prosecuted and all this other stuff. So we just overcame a huge hurdle in the piracy world. And we’re gonna catch some of these guys [in] 2021 and I look forward to the crying and the begging. And we’ll see how tough they are when they get caught.”
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White Shared a Story of Someone ‘Stealing’ the Information of People Who Are Trying to Get UFC Events for Free
During his interview with Willis, the UFC president said that there was a user on Instagram who commented on one of White’s posts telling fight fans to send a direct message if they want to view a UFC event for free. According to White, the user is stealing personal information.
“I love this one,” White continued. “Listen to this one. There’s a guy right now, who literally after I said this thing [on Instagram]… so if you go through my Instagram, and look on all the comments, there’s a guy saying, ‘DM me if you want to get the fight this weekend.’ He’s stealing people’s information. So people that are [direct messaging] him, he’s stealing their information. He’s taking your money from your bank and charging your credit card.”
“These guys are f****** scumbag criminals,” White said. “Don’t listen to him!”
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White Said He Can’t ‘Shut Down the Whole Thing’ in Terms of Piracy, But Hopes to Catch a ‘Few’
Later in the interview with Willis, the subject of piracy came up again. White conceded that the UFC won’t be able to stop illegally downloading on the Internet and that it will “go on forever.”
“They’re never all going to go away,” White said about illegal downloaders. “They’re going to be out there. And we’re not trying to get rid of all of them, I just want to catch a few. That’s all I’m looking for. I just want to catch a few, you can’t shut the whole thing down. That piracy industry is going to go on forever, let me catch a few and watch what happens. And I will, it’s coming. They think they’re slick and they think they’re whatever, same thing was going on with piracy in homes and at bars, and we caught a lot of people.”
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UFC’s Dana White: ‘I Look Forward to the Crying & Begging’