Dana White may be a little too obsessed with combat sports for his own good, and this was embarrassingly funny proof of it. He was physically sitting at UFC Sacramento, but mentally, he appeared to be at a completely different fight. While Petrino and Spivac were grinding through three rounds right in front of him, White seemingly could not resist checking out Adin Ross’ Brand Risk event.
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Over at Brand Risk 15, internet personalities and familiar names like Vitaly, Larry Wheels, Austin McBroom, and FaZe Temper were throwing down. The event was another major boxing card for Adin Ross’ Brand Risk Promotions, which had already started branching beyond boxing after recently experimenting with MMA at the Meta APEX.
The biggest highlight of the night came when No Neck Jay knocked out Shane Chance in the first round. But the finish quickly became a talking point for an entirely different reason. Dana White was caught watching the same fight while UFC Sacramento was still unfolding right in front of him. At that exact moment, Vitor Petrino and Serghei Spivac were battling inside the Octagon, making the sight of the UFC boss tuning into another combat sports event all the more hilarious.
The timing made the clip even funnier, but there was also a pretty obvious explanation for why White might have looked elsewhere.
Petrino and Spivac were stuck in a slow-paced fight that went the full distance, while No Neck Jay needed just 51 seconds to deliver a knockout. In other words, one fight was dragging, and the other ended before White could afford to look away.
On the scorecards, Petrino cruised to a unanimous decision, with all three judges scoring it 30-27. He controlled the fight with four takedowns and 6:07 of control time, while also outlanding Spivac 64-13 in significant strikes.
And this was hardly the first time White had been caught splitting his attention.
Back at UFC 222 in March 2018, White was cageside while Andrei Arlovski fought Stefan Struve, but he chose to watch Deontay Wilder vs. Luis Ortiz instead. The contrast was almost too perfect. Arlovski and Struve dragged their way to a three-round decision, while Wilder eventually delivered a huge knockout in the 10th round. Even then, White seemed to know where the better action was.
The pattern continued at UFC 268 in November 2021.
While Rose Namajunas and Zhang Weili were fighting in the co-main event at Madison Square Garden, pictures surfaced of White watching Canelo Alvarez vs. Caleb Plant from cageside.
This time, there was an even better reason. White later admitted he was multitasking because he had $100,000 riding on Canelo to win by knockout, and the bet paid off when Alvarez stopped Plant.
Then came UFC 274 in May 2022, and White did it again.
Rose Namajunas was defending her strawweight title against Carla Esparza, but the fight was so uneventful that White was photographed switching his attention to Canelo Alvarez vs. Dmitry Bivol.
White later admitted the UFC title fight had lost him too, saying he had started zoning out halfway through because neither woman seemed willing to engage. “It was a weird fight. It seemed like they didn’t want to engage. I think there was a total of six punches thrown in the first round. So, yeah, that was a tough one, it happens sometimes. I started zoning out like halfway through so I don’t know (who won).”
White had essentially admitted before that even he could lose interest when the action inside the Octagon slowed to a crawl. That history made the Sacramento clip easier to laugh off, but it did not stop fans from reading much more into it.
Still, seeing Dana White watching another combat sports event while one of his own UFC fights was happening prompted plenty of criticism online.
Fans go off on Dana White for watching the No Neck Jay fight during UFC Sacramento
Some fans viewed the moment as evidence that White has become increasingly detached from the UFC as his responsibilities within TKO Group Holdings continue to expand.
“That’s disrespectful to his fighters who are fighting inside the Octagon in front of him!” one fan wrote.
Another took an even stronger stance, arguing, “That shows you the level of pri–ishness this p—- reaches and how little interest he has in the sport because there is no real competitor to him on the scene.”
A third fan suggested the UFC would be better off without its longtime president, writing, “The sport is better without him. Let him go to his Power Slap garbage!” Another commenter added, “He’s checked out on MMA.”
However, not everyone saw the moment as the ultimate act of betrayal. Some fans argued that Dana White had a perfectly understandable reason to briefly watch another fight given the lack of action in Vitor Petrino vs. Serghei Spivac.
“I would too lmao,” one viewer wrote. Another fan was even more dismissive of the UFC fight, saying, “Serghei Petrino’s fight was a snooze anyways.”
“Ehhhh, this was during the Sergi and Petrino fight, understandable,” another commenter added. “That fight sucked. I don’t blame them!” a fourth fan wrote.
Dana White has repeatedly insisted that MMA still has his full attention, even as his role has expanded across TKO. Alongside the UFC, he is now involved with projects like Zuffa Boxing and Power Slap, while other executives handle more of the promotion’s everyday matchmaking and fighter business.
However, whether the clip means anything beyond Dana White briefly watching an entertaining finish remains up for debate.
