Dana White on Dan Miragliotta's reported $1,600 ref pay: 'Worry about your f***ing self'
The UFC CEO said referee pay is down to the Nevada State Athletic Commission, then told everybody talking about it online: "Shut the f*** up."
Dana White has told people online to "worry about your f***ing self" after he was asked whether referee Dan Miragliotta's reported $1,600 for working UFC Vegas 123 was fair pay.
The question came as White was speaking to reporters ahead of his PBR bull Playmate's competition on Friday. A reporter asked if the figure was fair compensation and whether better pay might improve the refereeing. "So people online are saying the refs aren't being paid enough," White replied. Asked if he was surprised that Miragliotta was "only making $1,600 for a night of work in the octagon", he said: "That's the Nevada State Athletic Commission. That has nothing to do with me. That's up to them. Yeah, everybody online is always worried about what everybody else is f***ing making. Worry about your f***ing self. Shut the f*** up."
White did not confirm the figure. Big John McCarthy said on The Ariel Helwani Show that he could not give an exact number but that Miragliotta "probably made $1,600 for that fight", and that the most he ever made from the UFC was $2,000 for a full night at UFC 217 in 2017.
Miragliotta has been under fire since standing up the Tom Nolan v Renato Moicano main event with Moicano on Nolan's back. Nolan stopped Moicano at 1:28 of round three on 31 October.
Earlier in the same session, a reporter asked whether the commission should adopt a grading system for referees. White did not take up the idea directly. "If you look at how many fights we do a year, how many fights, not just the event, but how many fights, it's very rarely that, that there's crazy mess-ups," he said. He added that there was a time when the commission was "in my opinion, very weak" and "we had tons of problems", but: "We haven't had a lot of that."
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