'Who gives a s***?': How Dana White's new favorite response has become an unfortunate UFC mantra

The whole Jon Jones issue, I don’t know, kind of seems like White should give a s*** about that. We are, after all, talking about a potential (interim) heavyweight title fight on what’s supposed to be the biggest UFC event of the year and, depending on which hype you believe, THE MOST HISTORIC SPORTING EVENT OF ALL TIME.

Jones vs. Pereira would have been a fittingly huge fight for that card. White said he’d never allow Jones to be in that position. Jones said the UFC wanted him in the fight but he declined due to the lowball offer. The end result is we’re getting Pereira vs. Ciryl Gane, a fight that fans are far less interested in, so yeah, that might be worth giving a s*** about.

The AI thing is a hot-button topic for different reasons. The whole idea of a pre-fight promo is to get fans excited for an upcoming event. Instead, this one got fans wondering why the UFC couldn’t be bothered to shoot a real promo using the real human beings it’s trying to hype us up about. UFC fighter Renato Moicano, in an appearance on “The Ariel Helwani Show,” called it “disrespectful to the fans,” which sounds about right.

Again though, White does not give a s***. Which, when you put it that way, also seems pretty disrespectful to the fans.

Contrast that with these comments from UFC chief content officer Craig Borsari, who was asked about the UFC’s use of AI in a recent interview:

“The way we look at AI is not a substitute for content creation, but rather a way to amplify it. So if there are things that we can do utilizing AI, it’s no different than maybe using a green screen. I mean, it’s a technique and technology that is evolving at an incredible rate, and I like to tell my team, if we’re not pushing the envelope and looking for different ways to do things and storytelling, then we’re not doing our jobs. So the last thing I want my team to be is stagnant and play on our heels and play it safe.”

See that? While I think you could take issue with some of those points — the UFC White House promo did not push a single envelope; it just did what a regular promo would have done much cheaper, with fewer actual humans, and a noticeably sloppier result — at least there are points to take issue with. At least he’s participating in the conversation.

White can’t be bothered these days. As Till put it, he’s “totally switched off” from the UFC. He seems utterly complacent and mostly disinterested. That word Borsari used — stagnation? Yeah, that’s a good way to describe it. But under TKO ownership, the UFC makes more money than ever before, so who gives a s***, right?

That seems to be the core of the fan frustration right now, not just with the UFC but also with the WWE, another TKO-owned property. If you followed any of the WrestleMania 42 discourse, you might have heard longtime fans lamenting how much time and space was given over to advertising instead of wrestling. The money machine continues to crank out shareholder value, and as long as it does there’s the sense that fans and media can’t tell the corporate overlords a single blessed thing.

They can try, of course. And they will. But don’t surprised if they get that same familiar response: “Who gives a s***?”