Dana White blames ‘suits’ (not Dave Portnoy) for Barstool’s crumbling empire — ‘Ask Vice how that went’

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Dana White has a warning for all creators and entrepreneurs who want to go corporate.

Selling out means turning your business over to executive "suits" who are almost as bad as those pain-in-the-ass lawyers always mucking things up for fight fans. In fact, White expects the corporate mechanics to dissemble the Barstool machine over the next few years.

If they don't, Justin Gaethje will.

"I would much rather do this show than any of the linear TV shows out there," White told The Pat McAfee Show. "It's much, much better. Let me tell you what, once you start to get suits involved in your business and these fucking corporate guys who think know what they’re f*cking doing ... and most of them don't know jack sh*t. You’re gonna see it with Barstool over the next couple of years too. They’ve came in and they bought it out, they bought Portnoy out. I had a situation yesterday with Barstool and it's turning into a corporate f*cking sh*tshow too. It's what happens when you get these f*cking suits involved in your business."

Penn Entertainment (formerly Penn National Gaming), after previously securing a 36-percent stake of Barstool Sports in February 2020, acquired the remaining interest in the sports and entertainment brand for roughly $388 million earlier this year.

That led to rumors of a falling out between White and Barstool Sports, a frequent destination for the Las Vegas fight boss during his pre-fight marketing campaigns for UFC and Power Slap events, among other endeavors.

"What I said today on Pat McAfee was not about Barstool Sports it was about PENN Gaming," White told reporters during the recent Power Slap press conference. "Basically what I’m saying is when you build a company like Barstool Sports, the way that it was built with a guy like Dave Portnoy, once you get a bunch of suits involved, it just changes the dynamic of the whole thing. Ask Vice how that went."

Vice Media, once valued at nearly $5.7 billion, recently filed for bankruptcy.

White and his former business partners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, sold UFC to Endeavor back in summer 2016 and eventually partnered with ESPN for a blockbuster TV deal, which came with its fair share of suits and corporate meddlers.

The promotion's ESPN deal expires in 2025.

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