Faber: White is awesome, and says whatever he wants, like Trump
Urijah Faber: “Dana White’s awesome. He’s an emotional guy, but I feel like he’s a good guy … He’s like Donald Trump. He says whatever the hell he wants.”
Top UFC featherweight Urijah Faber gets along well president Dana White. They are both driven, aggressive, and successful leaders.
“Dana White’s awesome,” said Faber to FOX Sports as transcribed by David St. Martin for MMAFighting.com. “He’s an emotional guy, but I feel like he’s a good guy. He’s an emotional guy. He’s like Donald Trump. He says whatever the hell he wants.”
Back in 2008 Faber was on a 13-fight win stream, and then got knocked out in the 1st by now ATT coach Mike Brown. White was at the time in the midst of a fight with a some fighters over licensing rights, and Faber was developing his Torque Athletic brand; White said fighters should focus on fighting, rather than business.
Faber was asked if he and White ever didn’t get along.
“Yea, there’s been a time,” said Faber. “I mean, we didn’t not get along, but I had to, you know. I’m a guy who says what I want, as well. It was a time when he was having some sort of dispute with Jon Fitch and it was just after I lost a big thirteen-fight win streak. He was like, ‘These fighters need to quit worrying about business.’ Fitch wouldn’t sign this agreement to let them use his likeness for the video games.
“So Dana was on this big rant. He was on with Carmichael Dave and he was asking Dana, ‘Is Urijah coming back?’ This and that, blah blah. ‘Yea, but you know, all these guys need to worry about fighting, not about business.'”
“My dad told me about (what White said) and that pissed me off. I was on a thirteen-fight win streak. [The loss] had nothing to do with business. I got caught with a right. I texted [White] and said, ‘Hey dude, way to kick a guy when he’s down. I didn’t even hear this. My dad heard it.’ He said he didn’t say anything, blah blah blah. Then he called my dad and apologized. He was actually really cool about it. He’s a good dude, but you know, he’s real.”
Faber was also asked about The Reebok Deal.
“It’s rough for me because I’m one of the guys that has built a brand,” said Faber. “But I’m OK with the look. It’s not my style but it’s not horrible. It’s quality stuff. I would say that moving forward as a brand, I understand why the UFC would do something like that. As a business man, I understand that’s their business and they can do they want. For me, I have to find a different way to get my brand out there.”
