Dana White's Message to UFC Fighters, Camps and Media: We Break the News, Not You

On Tuesday night, UFC CEO Dana White was not a happy man when discussing how the news broke that former UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira was out of his UFC 294 matchup opposite current UFC 155-pound kingpin Islam Makhachev.

After confirming that Oliveira was out due to a cut sustained during sparring for the October 21 matchup and that current featherweight titleholder Alexander Volkanovski was the replacement, White vented, sending a message to UFC fighters and media about their role in breaking news.

"I would have announced it hours ago, except I was waiting for the guys to wake up in Abu Dhabi to let them know before we reported it," White said, raising his voice. "But these guys that surround these guys down in Brazil just can't keep their fucking mouths shut.

"This came out of Oliveira's camp apparently and (it's) just fucking part of the business, you know what I mean?

"I would have liked to talk to the powers that be in Abu Dhabi before it got announced, but people can't keep their fucking mouths shut for whatever reason. They want to act like they're in the know and make these phone calls, so here we are."

White was not finished sending the message that UFC fighters, their camps, and the media should not break news related to the promotion. He later fielded a question about the possibility of Paulo Costa being out of his UFC 294 fight opposite Khamzat Chimaev. In reply to that inquiry, White delivered his point a second time in case anyone was confused or had entered the conversation a little late.

"Very soon, very soon," White said when answering when news would come out about that fight. "Unless another fucking big mouth pops up out of somewhere. You know what I mean? So, yeah. Hopefully within a couple of hours I'll have an answer for you."

We all know White and the UFC want to break big news concerning the promotion's product (See Helwani, Lesnar, UFC 199), but that's not always going to happen. If a fighter directly confirms something with a news outlet, it's that outlet's job to report it. If a journalist gets a scoop from somewhere and can verify that information with a few independent sources, it's that journalist's responsibility to relay it.

White sending the message that "big mouths" need to keep their fucking mouths shut" is a not-so-subtle intimidation tactic that hurts MMA journalism if that message is taken to heart by fighters, camps, and media members.

In 2016, Helwani did nothing wrong journalistically in reporting that Brock Lesnar would fight at UFC 200 and that Conor McGregor vs. Nate Diaz was in the works for UFC 202. The folks that broke the news about Oliveira being out of UFC 294, which, as far as I can tell, was the Overdogs Podcast, did nothing wrong in reporting that news either (if they confirmed it with independent sources and/or Oliveira and his team). White doesn't have to like that, but that's the truth.

In short, White does not like an independent media. He sent that message again on Tuesday night, just in case anyone had forgotten.