While the fights were going on in the Octagon last night at UFC 150, Dana White was getting into a battle of his own at cage-side as he and former UFC fighter Jason ‘Mayhem’ Miller became embroiled in an unexpected war of words on Twitter.
It all started when ‘Mayhem’, who was cut from the UFC back in May after back-to-back losses, sent the UFC boss a fairly innocuous Twitter message.
“You never begged me to retire @danawhite you must not love me. That’s a shame, I love you. It’s ok. Since you never allowed me to officially retire, I am now a Warrior for Peace and Ultimate Fighter for Justice.”
White quickly responded, stating, “lol retire Mayhem I’M BEGGIN U!!!”
If he was joking then Miller didn’t see the funny side of it and the situation began to escalate rapidly.
“Kill yourself @danawhite we are all begging you.”
“I think you misunderstand,” ‘Mayhem’ continued. “I am happier than I have ever been in my life. I put my energy into the wrong efforts, and now my life is shaping up into exactly what I want it to be.
“How about I fight that fight that Tito “ducked” out of but we will do three rounds in @lorenzofertitta’s other cage. The one where you get to wear a shirt. I know you are a bit insecure about taking your shirt off now that you have implemented random drug testing-but I think you look great-Love You.”
Of course ‘Mayhem’ is referencing an infamous story from the UFC’s history when White and Tito Ortiz’s bad blood boiled over to the extent that the two men agreed to have a boxing match – though the fight was later cancelled.
Naturally calling the outspoken UFC president out wasn’t going to go down well and White fired back with both barrels.
“good for u. Then WTF are u bitchin about me not BEGGIN u to retire? Then I respond and now ur fuckin feelings are hurt. u never won 1 fight in the UFC and ur last 2 showings were embarrassing to say the least. then u get kicked out MB for the shit u said to that woman now u want to fight me!!? Ya sounds like ur life is going great.”
I’m not sure what ‘MB’ stands for, but he might be referring to the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino.
“My feelings are not hurt,” Miller responded. “I feel closer to human than ever. There are no exclamation points here.”
“Call me,” White then offered, but his adversary wasn’t interested in entertaining that request.
“No need for phone calls. I appreciate the car. The money I use to feed the people I love, thank you.”
And that brought an end to the conversation, but when asked about it later on by Ariel Helwani, White admitted that he regretted getting into the altercation in the first place.
“I’m cool with Miller and I’m actually bummed out about what went down today. When I first read his tweet I was joking when I tweeted him back and then he went right at it. ‘Mayhem’ Miller is a guy who’s had a lot of problems in his life, personal…uhm, I’m sure right now he’s not in a great place, you know…and he says things are in the works and I hope that’s true.
“Was ‘Mayhem’ Miller my favorite fighter? No. Was I crazy about him? – No. I didn’t like the pink boa’s and all the stuff that he did. I like serious guys, but I don’t dislike the guy, I don’t hate him, I don’t wish any ill will on the guy, and that that thing went from zero to sixty today like that and I was bummed out afterwards. I don’t want to hurt the kid, I just hope he took it for what it is.”
It’s not like White to back down from an arguement so it’s clear he’s genuinely concerned for Miller.
Certainly the former TUF coach did seem at a very low ebb after being released from his UFC contract so hopefully he is able to hold it together and move on to the next chapter in his life now.
