Boxing

Dana White Blasted For 'Blatant Lie' About Jake Paul vs Anthony Joshua Fight

Not everybody believes Dana White didn't know about Jake Paul fighting Anthony Joshua, which he claimed earlier this month.
Grant Young|
IMAGO / ZUMA Press Wire

When speaking with the media after UFC 322 ended on November 15, UFC CEO Dana White was asked whether he "had seen the fight being worked on for December 19th in Miami?"

"Did I see the fight being worked on for December 19th in Miami? No," White responded, per an X post from Happy Punch.

When he was informed that Jake Paul was fighting Anthony Joshua on that date and in Miami, White (who has a long-standing beef with Jake Paul and his advisor, Nakisa Bidarian, who used to be the UFC's Chief Financial Officer) said, "Oh, Jesus. That’s a ****** bad idea. That's a bad idea. But let me tell you what: A lot of people will watch that one."

When asked whether he would watch it, White responded, "Sure. You know what everybody's tuning in for on that one. I think everybody’s gonna get what they've finally been waiting for."

Jake Paul looks on during a press conference on November 21, 2025
ake Paul looks on during a press conference announcing his heavyweight boxing match against Anthony Joshua. | Sam Navarro-Imagn Images

Nakisa Bidarian Calls Dana White Out for 'Lie' About Jake Paul Fight Knowledge

Nakisa Bidarian doesn't believe Dana White was unaware about Jake Paul fighting Anthony Joshua on that date, which he made extremely clear during his November 24 appearance on The Ariel Helwani Show.

"[For Dana] to say he wasn’t aware of [Paul vs. Joshua] is a blatant lie. Dana lies on a frequent basis, so it doesn’t surprise me. But I know for a fact that TKO was aware of this event... and that it was gonna be announced. So that's a blatant lie," Nidarian said, per an X post from Helwani.

He later added, "Dana White pays attention to every single thing that Jake Paul does, whether he wants to admit it or not. He pays attention to it so much that there are fighters out there who have guidance from the UFC that, ‘Hey, if you fight with MVP, or if you fight Jake Paul, you’re not welcome here anymore. You can’t come back, you can’t use the Performance Center, and you won’t be considered for future fights.’ That’s the reality of how deeply angered they are about what we've been able to do."

"The notion he wasn't aware of it? Blatant lie. ‘It’s bad,’ I think [White] said," Bidarian added. "Is it bad because it’s dangerous? That I'm not clear on," Bidarian added. "The last point comes back to, 'What everyone wants to see, I'm gonna be watching.' That just shows you the level of interest that he has in seeing the downfall of Jake Paul."

There's clearly a lot of bad blood between White and Jake Paul's team, and Bidarian calling White out in this way will only intensify that.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young is a Staff Writer for On SI’s Boxing, New York Mets, Indiana Fever, and Women’s Fastbreak sites. Before joining SI in 2024, he wrote for various boxing and sports verticals such as FanBuzz and NY Fights. Young has a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a master’s degree in creative writing with an emphasis on sports nonfiction from the University of San Francisco, where he played five seasons of Division 1 baseball. He fought Muay Thai professionally in Thailand in 2023, loves a good essay, and is driven crazy trying to handle a pitpull puppy named Aura. Young lives in San Diego and was raised in the San Francisco Bay Area.