Getty UFC president Dana White.
The UFC has waged a war against illegal streaming of their largest fights and president Dana White says he’s received a death threat from a pay-per-view pirate.
White was featured on this week’s episode of Logan Paul’s “IMPAULSIVE” podcast when he told the story. White is, of course, a staunch advocate against piracy, and he told Paul that the promotion has spent millions of dollars fighting those who watch UFC events illegally. And that includes going after bars.
“We caught a lot of people and prosecuted people for it,” White said via Bloody Elbow. “It’s a whole ‘nother f—-ng ballgame. (One) guy’s calling me up, crying, begging me not to do it. And these were guys that were doing it in bars. Their bars were stealing.”
And White said that a bar owner who was affected by the UFC’s anti-piracy mission threatened to shoot him.
“This is a true story,” White said. “(We were in) Memphis, Tennessee, and we were doing ‘Lookin’ For a Fight.’ We were doing this wrestling thing and apparently, a guy on that street, I put his bar out of business. And they were threatening that if I walked out, they were gonna shoot me.
“If I walked out and did this f—ing skit we’re gonna do for ‘Lookin’ For a Fight,’ they were gonna shoot me.”
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White Said the UFC Overcame a ‘Huge Hurdle’ in 2021 to Combat Piracy
Last year, White made a stern announcement that the promotion “overcame a huge hurdle in the piracy world.” And he was looking forward to “crying and the begging” that would ensue from those he caught.
“We’ve been one of the leagues that has been so proactive on piracy,” White said in an interview with The Mac Life. “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 Said There Was a Person ‘Stealing Information’ From Those Who Were Seeking an Illegal Stream
In the same interview, White recounted a story of an individual who was “stealing” the banking information of those who were asking them for an illegal UFC stream.
“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—ing scumbag criminals,” White said. “Don’t listen to him!”
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