‘We’re watching his house’ – Dana White reveals details about how he will catch illegal UFC streamers

After sending an ominous warning to anyone illegally streaming UFC events in 2021, UFC president Dana White reinforces that he has been working hard to catch people involved with piracy. White said that he will prosecute people after UFC 257.

Piracy has been a point of concern for the promotion since most of its income depends on pay-per-view sales. White had promised to tackle the issue numerous times in the past, but never as confidently as he has been now.

In an interview with Adam Catterall to BT Sport, the UFC boss promised to go hard after illegal streamers in 2021. White said that the promotion has spent a lot of money trying to find a way to catch “these criminals.” 

“So, we’ve been working on piracy since day one. It was one of the things that we focused on. You know, it’s an important thing to stop in this business. We’ve spent tons of money on all this stuff. We’ve just got some real important legislation done with piracy this year,” White said. “These people are criminals, and the internet makes it look like these guys are good guys – these guys are bad guys.”

The UFC President explained the process of finding and tracking one of the alleged illegal streamers that have made fun of White’s commitment against piracy in the past.

“When I came out and said this, all these guys started taunting me. So, I went through [all of them]. And I picked [one]. I said, ‘you, you’re the guy.’ And I told my people, ‘I want this guy.’ And guess what? We got him. We’re watching his house. We’re listening to his phone conversations,” White revealed. “And when he puts up this, if he puts it up on Saturday, we got him. And we will arrest him. And I will prosecute him. I will not be nice. I will not give him any leniency whatsoever.” said Dana White.

Dana White promises to make a worldwide effort against UFC illegal streams

Talking to Adam Catterall at BT Sport, UFC President Dana White affirmed that he is after one specific person who has mocked his efforts into tackling piracy.

White said that the legislation that he has been working on is valid worldwide and not only for the United States. He also noted that many of the illegal streamers are stealing people’s information.

“A lot of these guys will put up these links and say, ‘hey, check out. We’ll give it to you for free,’ and all this stuff, and they steal your information,” White asserted. “[This] is worldwide. This guy isn’t in America. These guys think [that] they’re so smart. They think they’re untouchable. They think it’s impossible. When you have a company as big… they can catch you. You can be caught. The guy just has to be as sick as me and want to get you, okay? And we got you, buddy. This guy puts this link up on Saturday night… he’s mine.” said Dana White.

Published 22 Jan 2021, 06:28 IST