Dana White was more than ready on Thursday to respond to a few statements made by PFL co-founder Donn Davis during a town hall session held on MMA Fighting just 24 hours earlier.

During the hour long question and answer period, Davis addressed numerous inquiries from fans including the success of the recent PFL: Battle of the Giants pay-per-view capped off by Francis Ngannou’s return to MMA where he bludgeoned Renan Ferreira with punches for a first-round finish in the main event. While Davis couldn’t reveal how many pay-per-view buys the card generated, he did make one dubious claim when comparing PFL to UFC.

“This event by our research beat every viewership number of every UFC event this year and was very, very close to Ring of Fire,” Davis said.

It’s safe to say, White isn’t buying it.

When asked to address that claim following a Power Slap event in Abu Dhabi, the UFC CEO gleefully pulled out a sheet of paper filled with metrics comparing PFL to his slap-fighting league rather than the UFC.

“The PFL should keep the UFC out of their mouth,” White said. “They can’t even deal with Power Slap. Power Slap destroys PFL. It’s weird that you asked me that question because I just happened to have some papers here.

“So first of all let’s start with followers — Power Slap has 19.2 million followers, PFL has 10 [million]. Video views, PFL fight week did 326 million. Power Slap 8 did 690 million. PFL fight week Instagram views: 76 million. So if you look at PFL, fight week and the aftermath, these guys had 76 [million]. Just the week of [the event] they had 68 million on Power Slap and we hadn’t even had a fight yet. PFL’s Instagram reel with Francis and Ronaldo did 14 million views. Power Slap 9’s Instagram reel with contender Isaih [Quinones] had 22 million views. That was a repost of an old fight. The repost of the old fight beat Francis and Ronaldo.”

While he didn’t spend much time pitting the UFC against PFL, White did toss out one claim that a UFC Fight Night card held back in January actually pulled in bigger viewership numbers than the PFL pay-per-view.

“I could keep going on for a f*cking month here,” White said. “Then if you want to get into what he said about the UFC, I have a laundry list here but let me just start with this: UFC Vegas 84 at the APEX beat them.

“I love the stuff that he said. He sounds like Kamala [Harris], talks a lot but says nothing. I would hate to be one of that guy’s investors. [He said] ‘I don’t watch MMA. I’ve worked seven years and haven’t taken a vacation.’ You should probably take a vacation. You’re out of your f*cking mind. You should probably take a vacation.”

White rarely misses an opportunity to dunk on anybody attempting to come after him or the UFC but he reveled in the opportunity to fire back at Davis following his statements on Wednesday.

“That guy shouldn’t even mention the UFC,” White said. “He’s not even in Power Slap’s [league]. Then he was talking about ‘there’s all kinds of combination packages and how all this works.’ He doesn’t beat Power Slap in revenue. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in ticket sales. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in sponsorship. He doesn’t beat Power Slap in anything let alone the UFC.

“It’s obvious this guy isn’t an MMA fan. He’s acting like he’s some f*cking great businessman. He does not sound like a guy that I would want to invest my money with. But good luck to his investors.”

White also addressed the recent statement made by current Bellator champion Usman Nurmagomedov, who said that he planned to eventually join the UFC roster after his friend and teammate Islam Makhachev was done with fighting.

That didn’t come as a surprise to White, who expects Nurmagomedov and every other major fighter in the PFL would prefer competing in the UFC minus one person in particular.

“I mean all their good people want to be over here anyway so I would imagine that eventually yes, they will be here,” White said. “Nobody wants to fight in the f*cking PFL except for Francis.”

ABU DHABI – It appears Francis Ngannou’s return to MMA didn’t change Dana White’s mind about his departure from the UFC.

Days after Ngannou (18-3) pounded out Renan Ferreira (13-4) at PFL: Battle of the Giants, White was asked his impressions of the fight during a Power Slap 9 post-event press conference Thursday.

“(His performance) was better than Donn Davis’ – way better,” White said with a laugh when speaking to MMA Junkie and other reporters. “Listen, man, I’m going to tell you what I think about Francis: Francis is all about the money. Francis left because he knew if he fought Jon Jones and didn’t win, it would hurt his chances of making the money he wanted to make. But realistically his deal was bigger here. His deal was bigger here if he stayed in the UFC. I think I told this story a million times. They can deny it all they want. Why the f*ck would I lie? What do I care? It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other.”

While White’s claims of Ngannou leaving the UFC to avoid fighting Jon Jones are notthing new, the UFC CEO mentioned an additional detail. White said that, after Ngannou suffered consecutive losses to Stipe Miocic and Derrick Lewis in 2018, he wanted to cut the future UFC heavyweight champion.

“I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row,” White said. “I was going to cut him. Somebody around here begged me not to do it. It wouldn’t have mattered to me one way or the other. There’s a much deeper story to this whole thing. He would’ve made more money if he would’ve stayed in the UFC. He didn’t want to fight Jon Jones. That’s a fact, my friend. We’re moving on.”

“I was going to cut Francis when he lost two in a row. Somebody around here begged me not to do it.”

Dana White hurls another round of criticism at Francis Ngannou and is not interested in a fight vs. Jon Jones. pic.twitter.com/IZjeNgq06M

— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) October 24, 2024

Ngannou’s 2023 departure from the UFC was an unprecedented move, as he vacated the promotion’s heavyweight title to venture into free agency. Ngannou competed in lucrative boxing crossover fights vs. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua before his MMA return Saturday in Saudi Arabia.

Ngannou has disputed White’s claims that he would’ve been paid more had he stayed, even going as far as to say he would provide the numbers if need be. White has remained unwavering in his counterclaims, however.

Detroit Lions wide receiver Jameson Williams announced Thursday he will accept a two-game suspension by the NFL for violating the league’s performance-enhancing substance policy.

Williams had said he had “no choice but to take it on the chin” to a Monday report on the suspension. He issued a statement Thursday through his agent confirming he was notified of the suspension earlier this week.

“The news came as a complete surprise that I am still trying to understand,” Williams said.

“I don’t take supplements or vitamins, and I am overly cautious about even taking over-the-counter medicine. At no time have I ever taken something in an attempt to cheat or look for an unfair advantage. I understand that I am responsible for everything that goes into my body and I have to take accountability in this instance.”

That means Williams will miss Sunday’s game with the Lions (5-1) hosting the Tennessee Titans (1-5) and a Nov. 3 road trip against NFC North rival the Green Bay Packers.

Williams has had a breakout season, a year after serving a four-game suspension for violating the NFL’s gambling policy.

He has 17 catches for 361 yards with three touchdowns. In 12 games last season, he had 24 receptions for 354 yards and two touchdowns. He returned from knee surgery two years ago and played six games and caught a 41-yard TD.

Williams, 23, is the first player in franchise history to have each of his first six receiving touchdowns cover 30 yards or more.

Detroit traded up to draft the former Alabama star with the No. 12 pick overall in 2022 and has been patient with him. The team expected him to miss much of his rookie year with a knee injury and publicly has supported him during last year’s suspension and this week’s reported punishment.

Reporting by The Associated Press. 

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TKO Group Holdings — the combined company with UFC and WWE — has acquired new assets from Endeavor in an all-stock deal worth $3.25 billion.

Terms of the deal were announced on Thursday with TKO acquiring Professional Bull Riders, the event planning and hospitality service On Location as well as IMG, a sports and media agency, producer and distributor previously housed at Endeavor.

Under the terms of the deal, Endeavor “will receive approximately 26.14 million common” shares of TKO stock and “will subscribe for an equal number of shares of TKO’s Class B common stock.”

Once the deal closes, Endeavor will own 59-percent of TKO with remaining shareholders controlling the other 41-percent of TKO stock.

“PBR, On Location, and IMG are industry-leading assets that meaningfully enhance TKO’s portfolio and strengthen our position in premium sports globally,” TKO president and COO Mark Shapiro said in a press release. “Within TKO, they will help power the growth of our revenue streams and position us to capture even more upside from some of the most attractive parts of our sports ecosystem: media rights, live events, ticket sales, premium experiences, brand partnerships, and site fees.

“These assets are already built into our business strategy at TKO and will serve to further enhance our strong track record of execution across UFC and WWE.”

The deal comes as Endeavor is preparing to go private after spending the past three years as a publicly traded company. Silver Lake, a private equity firm, is funding the privatization at an approximate cost of $13 billion.

Obviously, Endeavor remains the primary shareholder in TKO, which is still a publicly traded company with UFC and WWE now being joined by these new assets in the combined company.

Since UFC and WWE merged under TKO Group Holdings, the company has flourished with stock prices continuing to rise in 2024. The UFC has continued to report record revenues year after year since being acquired by Endeavor back in 2016.

UFC is expected to give TKO another jolt in 2025 when the promotion negotiates a new broadcast rights deal, which is expected to be worth several billion over the next few years. The UFC’s current deal remains exclusive with ESPN through the end of 2025.