Matt Brown: Dana White owned up to his actions but Ari Emanuel and Endeavor are ‘f****** up’ by staying silent

If silence is complicity, then the companies employing or doing business with Dana White might have some explaining to do.

In the wake of a video that went viral from New Year’s Eve that showed the UFC president slapping his wife during an argument, White has addressed his actions several times while vehemently stating that nobody should defend him in this abhorrent situation. He added that he’s come to accept that his actions that night will follow him like a dark cloud hanging overhead for the rest of his life.

Meanwhile, Endeavor — the parent company to the UFC — hasn’t punished White for his actions much less made any kind of formal statement on the matter. In fact, Endeavor, along with company CEO Ari Emanuel, have declined comment numerous times to various media outlets since the video showing White slapping his wife went public on Jan. 2.

UFC welterweight Matt Brown absolutely condemns White for striking his wife but says he’s at least trying to take responsibility for his actions but Endeavor’s silence is only making the publicly traded company look worse with each passing day.

“The whole issue here, in my opinion, Endeavor, they’re the ones f****** up here just staying silent,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. The Writer. “They haven’t done anything, haven’t said anything. Shame on them. I think that’s what it comes down to.

“It’s weak. It’s just very weak as a business. That’s where I look at whether it’s Ari [Emanuel], I think he’s the head guy right? [He’s] in charge. That’s some of the things you have to do as a leader of a business, you have to make these hard decisions. At minimum just a statement.”

Endeavor has been derided for not offering any kind of response while the UFC’s broadcast partner at ESPN had done the same, although the story involving White has been covered on the network.

With White adamantly saying that no one should attempt to defend his actions, Brown doesn’t understand how these companies have just refused to offer any kind of public statement to at least condemn domestic violence.

“We all know what he did was wrong,” Brown said about White. “There’s no excuse for it and he said it his damn self. Everybody can stop making f******* excuses for him. But at a time like this, you kind of weed out the weak from strong. Dana came out strong. He faced up to it straight away, he did a press conference, put it out there, said what he said, didn’t defend himself.

“Ari, Endeavor, WME, they come out the weak ones, in my opinion. They don’t have the integrity or the moral sort of whatever it is to come out and just condemn it and figure something out from it.”

As far as any potential punishment, White scoffed at the idea that he would suffer from any forced absence from the UFC but as the president of the company, it’s not really his place to issue any sort of discipline against himself.

For his part, Brown tends to side with White about facing repercussions but that doesn’t mean that Endeavor should essentially absolve him by not saying anything regarding his actions.

“Dana was the guy who came out the most respectful and honorable out of this even though he did the crime, which was a terrible thing to do and was wrong,” Brown said. “I don’t think there’s a debate about that. But the way that he stood up and said ‘I did it, don’t defend me, I deserve whatever I get,’ that was the honorable thing to do. The weak people were the ones over top of him that had things they could do and didn’t do anything.

“I’m wondering what these meetings are looking like when they’re talking about it with the board [of directors] or different people involved and they’re saying ‘let’s just stay silent.’ Like how does a meeting end with that versus there’s something we have to do. Again, I just say shame on them. That’s what it comes down to, it’s just a very, very weak position that they’re taking.”