Abbey Wagoner and Dana White. Abbey Wagoner and Dana White. (@TheFightSpacer1 and @PBRBunkhouse on Twitter/X.)
MMAOutdoor SportsTwitterUFCBy Andrew Bucholtz on

UFC CEO Dana White is far from your average sports executive, and that has often led to unusual situations at press conferences. Typically, though, that involves strange and combative behavior from White himself. It’s much weirder to see the odd behavior coming from the questioners, who are theoretically professional members of the media asking questions related to the event or the sport. But that’s what happened at White’s press conference in St. Louis after a UFC Fight Night event Saturday.

There, Abbey Wagoner (whose Twitter/X bio has her as a “media correspondent for Mola Combate and Machida Karate”) got on a rodeo line of questioning. She asked White a question about his bull Twisted Steel being set for the Professional Bull Riders World Finals event in Arlington, Texas this coming week . She then asked if retired UFC fighter Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone’s bicep injury preventing him from riding Twisted Steel personally as he had vowed was disappointing (White said “Not at all, my bull will murder him“).

Following that, Wagoner came out with quite a strange request. There, she asked White if he could facilitate Cerrone branding her. You can see a video of that below (from PBR website PBR Bunkhouse, where they “strive to make a positive social media presence, share our ideas, opinions or hot takes and be a catalyst for the best sports fans in the world of Professional Bull Riding”) edited with images of Twisted Steel and Wagoner’s hat, with the branding discussion starting around 1:02.

“I’ve got one little challenge for Cowboy myself. If you notice this BMF brand on the top of my hat, I’ve got this custom branding iron. And I said if he did his ride, I was going to let him brand me. But now, I just want to let him do it. So what do you think about that?”

White, stunned, asked “Did you say brand you?” Wagoner responded “Yes, sir.” “Brand you?” “Yes, sir.” “You and Cowboy were made for each other. You’re nuts.” “Can we make it happen?” “Can we make it happen? There’s no way in hell I would make that happen. You’re crazy. Brand you where?” “Back of the shoulder.” “In the back of your shoulder.” “Yes, sir.” “Why?” “Clout, for fun, because I’m the BMF. I’ll be the girl BMF.” “Uh, yeah, I can’t make that happen.”

White then continued “You look like a very sweet lady. The last thing you need to do is get branded.” (That clip above uses some voice distortion there, but this whole exchange did happen, and can be seen in normal form on the UFC’s official YouTube channel, starting around 10:21.) Have you ever been branded before?” “No. But I’ve done it to someone.” “You have? Oh, you’re into some shit. I don’t know, talk to Eric (points). Maybe Eric will hook you up with Cowboy.” “I’ll see you in Arlington.”

For reference, here’s Wagoner’s original video on the branding, from February.

“What’s up, fight fans. My name’s Abbey, you might know me as the girl always posting crazy clips from all the incredible events that I go to. And one such incredible event that I get to attend this year is the PBR in Arlington, Texas on May 18. Now, why am I attending that: I’m combat sports media? Well, one of the stars from the UFC, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, is taking on Dana White’s Twisted Steel at that event.

“And Cowboy, I’ve got a special offer for you. If you can complete your eight-second ride to glory on Twisted Steel, I’ve got a custom BMF branding iron that I am bringing out to the PBR to give to you. I want to let you brand me if you complete your ride. So everybody, go in the comments, tag Cowboy, let him know this challenge is being issued. And if we want to do it, let me know, send me a DM, I’m going to be in Texas anyway. Cowboy up!”

Naturally, this exchange at an official UFC press conference created quite a storm of criticism on Twitter/X. Here’s some of that:

One particularly notable shot there came from The MMA Hour’s Ariel Helwani, who’s had his own run-ins with White for much more professional lines of questioning and even got banned from UFC events for it:

The PBR Bunkhouse account responded to Helwani with a claim that this was reasonable because the UFC and PBR are both owned by Endeavor (in the UFC’s case, through the publicly-traded TKO division, along with with WWE). Wagoner retweeted that:

Wagoner then put out her own video telling Helwani to “get bent”:

“What’s up, fight fans? I just wanted to jump on here and address something real quick. You can hear it in my voice, I was at UFC Fight Night, Derrick Lewis vs. [Roderigo] Nascimento, it was a good night. Some of you guys might recognize my voice from the post-fight press conference, I was the female reporter who asked Dana White about Twisted Steel and specifically about getting branded at the World Finals.

“Ariel Helwani, I’ve got a lot of respect for you as a reporter and as a trailblazer in combat sports media, because without you I wouldn’t have the job that I have. And a lot of people wouldn’t have the jobs that they have. But you need to recognize, too. Yeah, you’re a journalist, you podcast, you talk to fighters, you and I are in very different lanes. And on top of that, you made it out to seem like I was asking an irrelevant question.

“Dana White’s got a very competitive PBR bucking bull that I’ve been following since last year. I’ve been chasing the Cowboy story, the bull ride, the eight seconds for glory, since they announced it. I was one of the first MMA reporters to give a shit about that story, and I’m one of the only combat sports personalities that shows up at the PBR.

“Other than the Monster crew, I was the only one in Jacksonville covering Twisted Steel, and I went out specifically to Albuquerque. So maybe don’t question my relevancy or my right to be in that room without understanding everything that goes in. And maybe don’t clip the one part of the conversation that Dana took a little bit too far and that I rolled with. It’s news media, I am new, and you are not the end-all, be-all.”

That’s quite the exchange, all right. And it’s certainly not something usually seen at a press conference.

But while Wagoner has a point that she and Helwani are in very different lanes, and while her first two questions on PBR can be defended as UFC-adjacent, her third “question” about the branding was publicly looking for a favor for her own brand (on multiple levels) from a sports executive. And it had her doing so for the express reason of “clout.” It’s understandable why that’s drawn media criticism.

[Abbey Wagoner and PBR Bunkhouse on Twitter/X; h/t to Robert Joyner on Twitter/X]

About Andrew Bucholtz

Andrew Bucholtz has been covering sports media for Awful Announcing since 2012. He is also a staff writer for The Comeback. His previous work includes time at Yahoo! Sports Canada and Black Press.

View all posts by Andrew Bucholtz