It was revealed this week that UFC president Dana White had reached a creative impasse with the Showtime production team in packaging Strikeforce and would no longer be dealing with the promotion, declaring himself "100% UFC."
Apparently, though true, White never meant for the disparaging comments he made about the Showtime production team in making that declaration to reach the public. In a recent conversation with MMAFighting's Ariel Helwani, White apologized to Showtime for the publication of those comments.
"I would like to say: the story that came out recently, about things that were said, was supposed to be a private conversation and not said in front of the whole world," White explained. "… Despite our creative differences between me and Showtime, the guys over there I do not dislike. I don't hate these guys, I don't have any ill-will to them and I would never say anything publicly like that to embarrass the network or embarrass them.
"You know, what happens between a bunch of men behind the scenes, when they're doing business, needs to be left behind the scenes sometimes. And that was never meant to be public. So, right here, right now, I'd like to publicly apologize for that stuff being printed for the whole world to read. It was never meant to be. Those were private conversations that I'd had that no way in hell should have ever been published."
White notoriously butted heads with former Showtime head Ken Hirshman and was expected to make headway with Strikeforce in his recent absence. Apparently, he's run into the same trouble with new Showtime boss Stephen Espinoza and will be keeping his hands off the promotion until it's no longer under Showtime's thumb
