Dana White Lashes Out at Stephen Espinoza, Calls Showtime Exec ‘A Complete Phony’

Despite working together in 2017, Ultimate Fighting Championship chief Dana White and Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza are anything but friends.

On Tuesday, following the eighth episode on the 2023 season of Dana White's Contender Series, White conducted a post-fight press conference to discuss various matters from the bouts that night to current events around combat sports. Among the many topics included a rumor that came about on social media regarding Showtime’s future in boxing, specifically that Showtime would be getting out of the boxing business after 2024. White was not surprised.

“That’s incredibly unfortunate,” White remarked while wearing a wry grin. “Production of that show is fantastic, the guy who runs Showtime Boxing is a great human being…it’s unfortunate to hear this. F--- Espinoza, and it’s about time that sh--ty product is off the air.”

The President of Showtime Sports was not about to let that slide, although his response was not directly targeted at White in particular and rather the product in which White helms. At the press conference of “Canelo” Alvarez and Jermell Charlo on Wednesday, Espinoza took a swipe at the UFC while opining on the successes of Showtime Boxing over the years.

“Calling ‘Canelo’ vs. Charlo a ‘fight’ is like calling filet mignon ‘meat,’” the Showtime head suggested. “It’s like calling Lebron James a ‘basketball player,’ calling ‘The Godfather’ just a movie. This is special, this is different. When you drive down the street, you see a lot of cars, and there are cars and then there are Bugattis, there are Lamborghinis, there are Koenigseggs. Not all of them are the same, not all of boxing is the same, not all of combat sports is the same. No, what we’re doing here on Saturday night, what’s been going on all year [for Showtime Boxing] is special, it’s different, it’s not the same old boxing. It’s not like the others, and no disrespect to anyone, but there are levels to this. And what we’re doing here is the highest level of the sport.”

Espinoza continued, “The event on Saturday night will generate a gate of over $20 million. That’s a rare feat in combat sports. It’s rare in concerts or events of any kind. But this will be the third time in the last six months that we’ve done a gate of $20 million…to put that in perspective, UFC has never done a gate of $20 million in its entire history. We’ve done it three times since April.”

Within a few hours, White got the message and fired another shot across the bow, this one even more hostile than his first statement at the DWCS presser. On his Instagram Stories Wednesday night, White posted a scathing response to Espinoza. His post in full reads as follows:

“That’s exactly the type of response I would expect from that Weasel Espinoza. That scumbag has absolutely nothing to do with the success of Canelo, Ryan Garcia, and Terrence Crawford. Those guys are mega stars and they are the ones responsible for driving the dates in their fights. For him to even try and take any credit at all shows you exactly what an arrogant, delusional POS that guy is.

“For this clown to talk about ‘levels’ is hilarious. The production of the fights on Showtime is an embarrassment and I have been saying that FOREVER. He is a little guy with a BIG yap, and is a complete phony. I’m not at all surprised this is the end of them. It should have come way sooner. Sorry to see you go Weasel, enjoy your retirement. – Dana White.”

There has not yet been a response from Showtime or its executive, as the organization is preparing for the blockbuster boxing event on Sept. 30 in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. Atop that card, Alvarez (59-2-2, 39 KOs) will put his undisputed super middleweight titles (IBF, WBA, WBC, WBO) on the line against Charlo (35-1-1, 19 KOs). While “Canelo” will be the champion defending at 168 pounds, Charlo is moving up two divisions as the undisputed junior middleweight champ, in what will be the first matchup between undisputed beltholders in the four-belt era.