Dana White is standing behind athletes who leave the cage to celebrate a big win, pushing back against calls from the Nevada Athletic Commission to crack down harder on the practice.
Following the latest episode of Dana White’s Contender Series, White addressed comments made by the commission’s chairman, who said officials wanted to reach out to the UFC about athletes exiting the cage after victories and potentially making penalties more severe. Several athletes have been fined in recent months for climbing out during their celebrations.
White made clear he sees a difference between athletes caught up in the emotion of a win and those with bad intentions.
“It’s one of those tough things because these guys get so excited and you know when you’re caught up in the moment when you think about how hard they train, they’re gone from their families, they cut weight, they do all this stuff and then they win,” White said during a press conference.
“They’re not thinking about fines or any of that stuff. What I think should happen is if you jump out of the cage to do something vi0lent or something, then you should get fined… But if you just get overly excited and you jump out of the cage, I don’t think it’s a big deal.”
White pointed to Khabib Nurmagomedov’s post-bout incident against Conor McGregor as the kind of behavior that should draw punishment, distinguishing it from athletes simply running around in celebration.
When asked whether the commission should consider tiered penalties rather than a blanket fine, White didn’t hold back on his view of the debate itself.
“I mean that’s pretty much common sense,” White said. “This isn’t some big executive decision that needs to be made that they need to call and talk to us. It’s pretty simple. If a guy jumps over the cage with bad intentions toward another athlete or somebody in the crowd or something like that, yes, fine them. But if they don’t, then they shouldn’t.”
