Chris Minns’ multimillion dollar UFC deal is under threat from the NSW Opposition party, with UFC boss Dana White in their cross hairs for an incident with his wife on New Year’s Eve.
The NSW Opposition party has raised concerns about UFC boss Dana White being involved in the fight company’s three major events in Sydney because he slapped his wife, but is unlikely to stop him.
The Liberal party has questioned NSW Premier Chris Minns’ decision to sign a $16 million deal with the UFC to stage three cards over the next four years – a pre-election promise the state’s new boss confirmed last week – believing the money should be spent elsewhere.
The first of the multimillion dollar UFC events will be held in Sydney (venue to be confirmed) on September 10, news first broken by The Daily Telegraph last week and later announced on social media by White.
The powerful American promoter apologised earlier this year after he was filmed slapping his wife at a New Year’s Eve party, which the Liberals have referenced during Question Time.
The opposition even tried to use parliament to uncover all correspondence between the Government and the UFC in relation to the deal to host three major fight cards.
That attempt failed after the government used its numbers in parliament to block the move.
Nationals deputy leader Bronnie Taylor had earlier questioned Labor about White being directly involved in the UFC fight cards.
“What steps is the NSW Government taking to ensure that no UFC fighter or official with a history of violence, a history of violence against women, including its president, Dana White, participates directly in any event in NSW or directly or indirectly benefits from the NSW government support for the UFC?” Taylor asked.
Fellow Liberal MP Natalie Ward added: “Given the track record of UFC fighters and officials with domestic violence, including UFC President Dana White, publicly slapping his wife twice in the face, the signing of UFC fighters with a known history of convictions for violence against women, such as Anthony Lapsley, signed up just after his third such conviction, and allowing fighters to continue to be promoted, while subject to charges involving violence against women such as Jon Jones, who picked up a cocktail waitress using a chokehold. Do you agree with the Premier that there’s absolutely no link between women’s health and UFC?”
Mr Minns said on Wednesday night has no regrets signing a deal with the UFC, which is expected to reap millions of dollars in revenue for the state.
“UFC is a huge sport with millions of fans, thousands of people will flock to Sydney for this event,” Mr Minns said.
“Sydney has been a UFC-free zone for too long. That is changing under my government.
“My government will back a range of events, catering to sports fans of all persuasions.
We are delivering on another election commitment – one that is a major coup for NSW.”
The UFC did not make comment.