Dana White Says UFC Employees Who Confront Officials Will Lose Their Job

Controversy reared its ugly head last weekend at UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Till when color commentator Dan hardy confronted referee Herb Dean after a perceived late stoppage during a bout between Francisco Trinaldo and Jai Herbert.

UFC President Dana White says that any UFC employees who confront officials in the future will lose their job.

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“I want to make this very clear: If you work for me, and you approach a judge or a referee or any type of official, I will fire you,” White said during a recent media scrum (via Mike Bohn & Ken Hathaway of MMA Junkie). “You will lose your job. You will never work for me again if you do that. Nobody has the right to – listen, you want to criticize judges, you want to criticize referees, you didn’t agree with a decision or things like that – we love Dan. Dan got emotional. The problem is now with this setup it’s a lot easier to do. It’s a lot easier to interact with everybody, from the fighters to the refs to the media and everybody. 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 Hardy won’t be fired for confronting Dean last weekend, but that won’t be the case if something like that happens again.

The UFC President also says that threat also extends to the fighters who are under a UFC contract.

“I’m speaking to him right now,” White said. “I’m speaking to everybody. Don’t ever do it ever 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.”

Hardy won’t likely be punished by any athletic commissions either, as UFC Fight Night: Whittaker vs. Till was held in Abu Dhabi, where there is no official athletic commission.

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