Dana White has scoffed at the idea that UFC fans and WWE fans will eventually become interchangeable.
On September 12, the merger between UFC and WWE was completed and the TKO Group was born. Although the two companies will continue to run independently, there has been increased talk of crossovers with UFC Senior Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Lawrence Epstein commenting that the hope is that UFC fans will become WWE fans and vice-versa.
However, in something of an awkward moment for the TKO hierarchy, President Dana White has dismissed the comments as “one of the dumbest of all time.” Rather than talking up the similarities between the companies at his DWCS press conference, White emphasised that the fanbases are “completely the opposite.”
“Lawrence, I love you, one of the dumbest statements of all time. I don’t know why he said that. I don’t even know what to say to that. No. There is no…there is some crossover. Some people like WWE, some people like UFC, some people like both.
I don’t think there is ever going to be a day where we turn every UFC fan to a WWE fan or every WWE…what’s beautiful about the synergy between these two fanbases is they are very completely opposite. There is very little crossover. Maybe he was misquoted, I hope that was the case because I could not disagree with him more,”
Dana White Rules Out UFC Return For Ronda Rousey
In recent months former UFC star Ronda Rousey has seemingly brought an end to her WWE career, sparking speculation that she could step back into MMA. However, despite these rumours, Dana White described the reports about Rousey as a “crock of sh*t.”
White has also previously denied that Brock Lesnar could return to the octagon.
H/t to Fightful