UFC CEO Dana White continues to publicly criticize the production quality of his promotion’s broadcasts.
Earlier this month, following UFC 329, White took aim at his producers after another high-profile incident of misidentifying a celebrity attending the event. While showing an image of Shakur Stevenson, a boxer who was recently signed to the boxing promotion owned by UFC’s parent company, a graphic on the broadcast identified him as Oklahoma City Thunder star Jalen Williams.
“We’re the worst EVER to f*cking do it,” White said of the broadcast blunder. It wasn’t the first time UFC had made a similar error. Most famously, UFC mistook world champion boxer Terence Crawford for rapper Kendrick Lamar during UFC 306 in 2024.
During this weekend’s Fight Night event headlined by Magomed Ankalaev-Bogdan Guskov, there were no such celebrity identification issues. But White still found the broadcast quality subpar, and did not hold back when speaking with the media after the card.
Dana White on the production tonight: The production was brutal tonight. Brutal. I was texting with my guy all night long. We gotta lot of work to do. pic.twitter.com/5kiPyGmpss
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) July 27, 2026
“So many nitpicky things tonight,” White said of the production. “I literally have a laundry list. The production was brutal tonight. Brutal. I was texting with my guy all night long. We gotta lot of work to do.”
It’s unclear exactly what White was dissatisfied with over the weekend, but his growing disdain for UFC’s production quality is becoming apparent. Following the World Cup final earlier this month, White joked that he had spoken too soon about UFC’s broadcasts being the “worst ever” after seeing the FIFA-mandated “dignitary shots” during the match and subsequent identification blunders by Fox Sports play-by-play voice John Strong. “We are the second worst,” White concluded after watching the World Cup final.
UFC 330 in August will be the promotion’s next big opportunity to get it right.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.