Dana White, the president of the UFC mixed martial arts organization, was caught on video getting in a slap fight with his wife Anne while the couple was celebrating New Year’s Eve at the El Squid Roe nightclub in Cabo San Lucas in Mexico.
The footage, obtained by TMZ, shows the couple in the VIP area above the club’s dance floor. White is seen leaning toward his wife to tell her something. Anne responds by striking White across the face.
Dana White and Wife, Anne, in Drunken Nightclub Fight on New Year’s Eve (tmz.com)
White is then seen slapping her in return. In his statement to TMZ, White expressed dismay that after years of saying that there was never “an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman,” here he was having to respond to TMZ about slapping his wife.
White noted that he and Anne have been married “for almost 30 years” and in that time have gone through “some sh*t together.” He said the incident at El Squid Roe was one of those times, adding he was embarrassed about it.
White told TMZ that he and Anne showed the video to their children and are “more focused on our family right now.” White also told TMZ that both he and Anne had been drinking heavily that night, and while that wasn’t an excuse for what happened, it was something that had “never happened before.”
In her statement to TMZ, Anne White said that after nearly 30 years of marriage, “to say this is out of character for him is an understatement,” adding that Dana had never hit her before. She said “unfortunately,” the pair had been drinking “too much” during the New Year’s Eve festivities “and things got out of control, on both sides.”
She added that they talked over the incident “as a family and apologized to each other.” She told TMZ that she hoped that people would respect their privacy “for the sake of our kids.”
Dana White told TMZ that whatever people say about what happened “is deserved. I deserve it.”
