Dana White Calls 'The Project' Host 'Uneducated,' Defends UFC Integrity

Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White has hit back at The Project host Waheed Aly calling him “uneducated” while labeling the interview “ridiculous” after he insinuated that the mixed martial art franchise staged scenarios to promote the sport.

The Australian news program host accused the UFC president of staging Conor McGregor’s bus attack incident in New York on Khabib Nurmagomedov suggesting that it was done to promote UFC 229 where the aforementioned duo came face-to-face for the first time inside the octagon.

White defended the sport vehemently while on air suggesting that they “are not that good” to stage an attack on the bus. He also reminded Aly that McGregor was arrested for the incident and was summoned in front of a New York attorney general.

The Project host then questioned White about the presence of cameras to coincide with the bus attack, as he continued to question the legitimacy of the incident. White made it clear that it was all part of a program called UFC Embedded, a program about fighters away from the octagon.

“We do a show called UFC Embedded,” White said, as quoted on Fox Sports. “We follow the fighters around, so those cameras were there when that happened because of that. But do you understand: he (McGregor) got arrested. He went to jail. He had to go before the New York attorney general. They already took care of it, what am I going to do? He was suspended, he couldn’t fight because he was in jail.

“That’s what I do, I put on fights. He got arrested. He was down there because he was supposed to be talking about a fight he was supposed to be in. He came in and attacked the bus, he got arrested and went to jail.”

White later went on to slam Aly for the nature of the interview and was in disbelief that the legitimacy of the incident was being questioned. It was also suggested that the bus attack while it may have been real was beneficial for the business, as it builds more hype for a particular fight.

The UFC president revealed that the New York incident will actually be costly for them as McGregor is now banned from fighting in the Big Apple – the same city that gave the sport their biggest gate collection - $18 million.

“It’s just crazy to me that anybody could believe that that’s staged, you know what I mean,” White told foxsports.com.au. “First of all, the kid [McGregor] gets arrested, goes to jail, is being sued by everybody, and then is not allowed to fight in the state of New York anymore.”

“The biggest fight we’ve ever done, gate-wise, was $18 million in New York, and we can’t go back in New York with Conor McGregor now. How does that even make sense? I don’t even know how you could believe that that’s true. And you know how many people have to be in on that, you know what I mean?

“If it ever came out that we did something like that, it destroys all the credibility of the sport. So for people to even think that, I just can’t wrap my head around it — makes zero sense,” he explained. “I was just like, ‘Are you guys serious? I can’t even believe that you would consider that is true.’”

White also directed some of his anger at Aly and labeled the interview “ridiculous” and admitted the interviewer was just trying to be an “a**hole.” However, the UFC president made it clear that he was willing to go back on the show for another interview.

“I don’t think it was tedious, I think it was stupid and ridiculous,” White said. “To even say something like that, you’re completely uneducated about the sport and you’re just trying to be an a**hole. ... Tonight I would get back on The Project. Listen, the guy was trying to be an a**hole, mission accomplished.”