Dana White Breaks Kayfabe Under Oath
Judge Boulware's UFC antitrust evidence spoilation hearing gets crazy.
We’ve got full coverage of today’s evidence spoliation hearing in the Federal UFC antitrust civil suit, including comprehensive notes on the testimony of Dana White and UFC VP Tracy Long for paid subscribers. But first, Nate and Zach have got some commentary on the action.
Two key UFC executives testified Wednesday in the federal courtroom of Judge Richard Franklin Boulware: UFC CEO Dana White and Vice President, Athlete Compliance and Regulatory, Tracy Long.
They were testifying in a hearing related to the remaining antitrust class action suits brought by Kajan Johnson and Misha Cirkunovs.
Johnson v. Zuffa (dba UFC) was originally filed in 2021 on behalf of fighters who fought from July 1, 2017 – present
Cirkunovs v. Zuffa (dba UFC) was filed on May 23, 2025 on behalf of fighters, who fought from July 1, 2017 – present, but who purportedly signed a contract that included an arbitration waiver.
Both cases are sort of sequels to Le vs Zuffa, which TKO had to settle for $375 million in 2024, and which covered fighters who fought in 2016 and earlier.
The high-stakes part of these cases is that not only does each present the possibility of another nine-figure settlement, but also presents the possibility of “injunctive relief”, i.e., TKO might be forced to modify their business practices.
So today’s testimony mattered.
Especially because it has to do with the critical matter of whether or not TKO and the UFC are following court orders to preserve executive communications as evidence for the lawsuits.
So Dana White was on his best behavior, saying, “yes, sir” and “no, sir” and being as professional and pleasant as the man can possibly be.
Dana also turned up his meathead persona and almost bragged that he doesn’t know any of his phone numbers, doesn’t have a computer, doesn’t use email, and has underlings who set up his phones.
According to Dana White, all his written communications are handled via text, Instagram, or WhatsApp.
Dana White made a big admission: Hunter Campbell runs the UFC
Dana rarely communicates with UFC fighters or managers.
In fact, Dana White hasn’t been involved in UFC matchmaking or contract negotiations since Ari Emanuel et al bought the promotion in 2016.
That’s when Dana claims he turned to UFC Counsel Hunter Campbell and said, “Congrats, you get to do this.”
Under oath.
Dana White admitted that what we’ve been telling you here at The MMA Draw since 2023: Hunter Campbell runs the fight business at the UFC, not Dana White.
That’s the big PR takeaway from today’s hearing and Dana’s testimony.
Now let’s get into the legal stuff.
Dana’s “I’m just a technophobe, bro” act gave him a degree of invulnerability against the attempts of plaintiff’s attorneys to trap him in inconsistencies about complicated technical matters beyond his understanding, like his own phone numbers and what model iPhone he used to have.
Dana was also generous with the “I don’t recalls” and “I can’t remembers” that old heads will remember as a hallmark of Bill Clinton’s testimony under oath.
Tracy Long didn’t have any shtick to fall back on, so her frequent failures to remember things seemed more glaring.
But I’ll let Zach take it from here.
Here are Zach Arnold’s four big takeaways from Judge Richard Boulware’s showdown with UFC in his Federal courtroom.
Blame it on Ari Emanuel’s rotten relative
Of all the crazy defenses and excuses that UFC’s legal team could have raised in Judge Boulware’s courtroom regarding missing phones and deleted text messages, this was the very last excuse I could have ever expected.
After the first court recess, UFC’s counsel and Dana White set up a scenario — under oath — that one of Ari Emanuel’s relatives was working as a stooge runner at UFC’s office and was supposedly fired for stealing gimmicks like Little League rings.
I would laugh at the absurdity of this story except for the fact that it is true that Ari has had relatives working for TKO previously, namely his daughter, Ashlee, who was Vince McMahon’s executive assistant.
The idea is to create plausible deniability about why one of Dana White’s old phones turned up missing from the office where evidence is stored. It’s a legal defense trying to head off the possibility that someone at TKO might have engaged in intentional and malicious destruction of evidence.
The obvious question to ask is why Team UFC never brought up this story in previous evidentiary hearings in front of Judge Boulware. Why did they wait until now to reveal this disclosure?
A secret contractual hold-up over Ilia Topuria
Turns out we did get some big fight news from Judge Boulware’s courtroom after all.
Tracy Long, UFC Vice President and long-time UFC paralegal and key guardian of secrets and records, was confronted by Plaintiffs’ attorney Patrick Madden regarding communications between Ms. Long and Hunter Campbell.
Madden was trying to establish that Long discussed fighter pay in communications with UFC matchmakers Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby, and Mick Maynard.
In the process of trying to establish that Tracy Long had more of a hands-on role with UFC fighter contractual duties than she was admitting under oath, the Plaintiffs got Ms. Long to confirm text messages on-the-record discussing Ilia Topuria and Front Row Management (Malki Kawa).
It turns out, according to Wednesday’s court hearing, that there was a contractual hold-up right before Ilia Topuria’s fight with Charles Oliveira at UFC 317 on June 28, 2025. Right up until the fight.
As to what the nature of the hold-up was, we don’t know. But something interesting happened and Tracy Long appears to have been in the conversation about it.
Judge Boulware was the best attorney in the courtroom
I say this as the highest compliment possible.
Richard Boulware produced results from his lines of questioning with Dana White & Tracy Long that Plaintiff’s attorney Michael Dell’Angelo completely failed to accomplish.
To be charitable to Mr. Dell’Angelo, he was treating this spoliation hearing more like trial testimony rather than a fact-finding mission. John Nash was less than impressed with Mr. Dell’Angelo’s courtroom performance.
Questions that should have taken a matter of seconds to ask, had Dell’Angelo spending minutes trying to set up intricate gotchas. He flopped. Exhibits were poorly introduced, had unredacted information, and simply didn’t score points in trying to paint Dana White in a perjury trap.
That’s not to say that Dana White had a great showing by any stretch of the imagination, because he didn’t. Dana White had his Big Dad Energy gimmick fired up and ready to go when it came to exclaiming his technological ignorance.
If Mr. Dell’Angelo had been sharper — and better-prepared — for rapid-fire questioning, he could have taken great advantage of this situation. Instead, his poor energy dragged the proceedings down. He was frequently scolded by Judge Boulware with “Let’s move on.” That’s something you never want to hear.
The funniest development in the courtroom was the camaraderie between Judge Boulware and Dana White. They got along cordially. Boulware got real answers out of Dana on quick, short, incisive questions. Dana didn’t dodge the Q & As from the Judge. In 30-second bursts, Judge Boulware got significantly more information out of Dana White than Dell’Angelo did in five-minute blocks.
Tracy Long performed miserably
Leading up to this UFC antitrust spoliation hearing, I had a few trusted confidants and friends who hyped up Tracy Long’s strong legal competence to me. Not anyone can handle the kind of job duties she’s overseen in UFC over the last 20 years.
I expected Dana White to have a rough time on the stand. He did OK, but left plenty of gaping holes in his testimony.
I did not expect Tracy Long to absolutely tank. I thought her testimony live was bad. It may actually be worse in the transcript.
Never had a UFC company phone? Always went to a Verizon store to get data transferred? Stopped phone reimbursement from Zuffa because it was $50 a month? Conflicting text messages regarding the full extent of her role in UFC contract formation and execution?
This was a rough showing. A voluminous amount of “I don’t know” and “I don’t recall” to very basic questions. This wasn’t clever dodging. This came across as one of two ways: 1) she’s really dumb, incompetent, and over her head or 2) not very good at evasiveness.
Tracy Long is not incompetent. She knows where the bodies are buried in UFC. I was taken aback at her poor performance on the stand.
Recap of the testimony
Here is a summary of the tweets reporting on the UFC Antitrust Spoliation Hearing presided over by Judge Boulware. The hearing focused on whether UFC executives, specifically Dana White, intentionally destroyed or failed to preserve evidence (text messages and phone data).
Key Testimony: Dana White
Dana White took the stand to address the “litigation hold” (orders to save evidence) dating back to 2014.
Defense of Ignorance: White repeatedly claimed he is not “tech-savvy,” stating he does not use a computer, does not know his own phone number, and relies on staff (specifically Elliott Howard) to set up his phones.
Missing Devices: White admitted to losing a phone within the last year (”We couldn’t find it”). He claimed he turned over old phones to legal/staff, but acknowledged he doesn’t know if data was lost during transfers between devices.
Compliance: He insisted, “I did what the lawyers told me to,” and denied intentionally deleting business-related messages, though he admitted to using WhatsApp and Instagram for communication.
Burner Phones: White admitted to using a “burner phone” once for a trip to China but claimed no UFC business was conducted on it.
Key Testimony: Tracy Long
Tracy Long, a UFC Vice President, testified regarding contract storage and fighter communications.
Workflow: She prepares contracts based on instructions from matchmakers (Hunter Campbell, Sean Shelby).
Data Retention: The court examined the difference between physical “hard files” and digital files. Long admitted to using screenshots of text messages to document deals but was unsure about the technical specifics of phone imaging and data retention policies.
Courtroom Dynamics
Judge Boulware’s Frustration: The Judge frequently scolded Plaintiff attorney Michael Dell’Angelo for “time-wasting,” asking repetitive questions, and moving too slowly. However, Boulware himself grilled Dana White aggressively regarding the timeline of the missing phones.
Potential Conflict: Because both Dana White and Tracy Long repeatedly mentioned relying on the instructions of their attorney, Colby Williams, Judge Boulware flagged that Williams himself might be required to testify, potentially disqualifying him from acting as counsel in this specific matter.
Next Steps
The hearing continues Thursday.
Upcoming Witnesses: Hunter Campbell (Chief Business Officer), Elliott Howard (Video/Tech support for Dana), and Eric Yee (Social Media).
