Dana White responds to Dan Hardy’s staged video comments: ‘We’ve never staged anything ever’

Former UFC athlete turned commentator had some pretty surprising claims recently.

In a recent interview with the “Freedom Pact” podcast, Hardy said:

“And then going into the fifth round, and you have one guy that’s being beaten senseless by another fighter, right? Now, there is no reason why that fight shouldn’t have been stopped at the end of the fourth round.”

“No discredit to Calvin Kattar, but he didn’t earn anything by taking that fifth round beating. But what we did see was that clip coming out of Dana talking to Hunter (Campbell) and being like, ‘Hey, we need to make sure he goes straight to a doctor after that.”

“And it looks like, ‘Hey, they just caught this on camera across the arena.’ The dude was mic’d up. The receiver of the microphone was attached to the camera that was filming him from across the other side of the arena.”

“That whole thing was staged to protect the UFC. And I watched that, and I’m like, ‘That’s just dirty.’ Actually do something to protect the fighter. Don’t do something to protect the sport or the company if the fighter gets damaged.”

UFC president Dana White was asked to respond to Dan Hardy’s accusations during UFC 280 press conference.

“I don’t even know what that means. We’ve never staged anything, ever. You know, we have a documentary that we filmed during COVID. That’s why I was mic’d. I’ve never been mic’d, I was mic’d because of that. ”

“Are you talking about when I said, ‘let’s get him straight to the hospital?’ Do you know how many fights a week I say that? No interview, no nothing, that guy goes straight to the hospital.” White said.

White continued to slam Hardy and said that it is normal to be concerned knowing Kattar’s condition after facing Holloway.

“I don’t give a f*ck what Dan Hardy says. Dan Hardy was a guy that was mistreating a woman that works here and that’s why he was fired. Obviously, he’s bitter, so I’m assuming that’s why he would say something like that. Why would I stage that?… Everyone should have been concerned about Calvin Kattar that night.” White added.