Under Dana White’s leadership, the UFC signed a $7.7 billion Paramount deal, taking over the media space through influencer-driven collaborations with Nina Drama and Adin Ross. However, while the head honcho keeps chasing new ways to market the UFC, many fans feel the promotion has stopped caring about press conferences.

“Just tried watching the press conference to get a little hyped for the fight… questions were: hey volk, are you gonna win?” “How does it feel…? Are you excited to fight in Australia?” “How does it feel fighting in front of your people?” UFC Press conferences have become completely pointless and so boring lately,” No Context Ariel Helwani posted on X about the UFC 325 pre-fight presser. 

In the early days, the UFC shot to popularity on the back of its press conferences, driven by personalities like Conor McGregor, Michael Bisping, and Chael Sonnen, who regularly produced unforgettable moments. In modern times, fans feel that charm has faded, largely because journalists are no longer asking meaningful questions. Instead, obvious prompts dominate the floor, leading to stale and predictable answers, and the case seems to be the same with post-fight pressers as well.  

The situation has not been helped by the UFC CEO’s strained relationship with reporters like Ariel Helwani, who can no longer attend UFC events, which many see as another contributing factor. However, it later turned out that Helwani was reportedly banned not for asking tough questions, but for breaking Brock Lesnar’s return at UFC 200 vs. Mark Hunt before the promotion officially announced it.

With nuances in cases like Helwani’s, combined with fighters dealing with below-par questions, the press conference product continues to take a hit. Even though the UFC once pulled multi-millions of views on YouTube, like the iconic UFC 205 pre-fight presser that sits at 9 million views, current events now struggle to cross the one-million mark.

For example, UFC 300, the biggest card in recent memory, pulled 1.2 million views. That number is still good, but it still pales in comparison to past pressers. As the quality continues to dip, fans have started calling out Dana White, hoping the UFC allows sharper reporters back into the room to ask better questions and make press conferences interesting again. 

Dana White under fire as fans blast ‘boring’ UFC press conferences 

A fan quickly chimed in and wrote, “Not a single current MMA media member is brave, professional, or smart enough to ask a real question. Why? Because real questions might get you attacked by a fighter or banned by Dana.” While the user did not point to any specific reporter being absent from UFC events, the sentiment likely stemmed from figures like Luke Thomas and others no longer being there.

Continuing the wave, another user wrote, “Dana bans anyone who asks real questions,” which again could be a reference to Ariel Helwani being famously banned by the UFC. After that, another fan summed up their disappointment with how much the promotion has changed over the last decade, writing, “2025 was my last year, watching anything UFC/TKO/Zuffa related. The sport in the hands of TKO today, is barely recognizable, compared to ~10 years ago.”

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That fan was not the only one who felt that way. Another user commented, “Are you surprised? been like that and that’s why they don’t draw numbers like years ago.” As the fan pointed out, the changing landscape of pressers, even UFC 317 during International Fight Week, faced similar criticism of not being up to the mark. While stale questions mixed with White limiting media access seemed to be the core issue, one fan pointed to a different angle.

According to that fan, “Its because the matchups are very bad. Make good matchups and press conference is fireworks.” That could also explain why press conferences do not hit the same anymore. Fans want to see the best against the best. When the UFC 319 weigh-ins dropped, they pulled record-breaking 105k live-viewing numbers because two middleweights, Dricus du Plessis and Khamzat Chimaev, squared off, even though the trash talk was far more restrained.

That said, with press conferences continuing to feel underwhelming, what do you think Dana White could do to make them better? Let us know in the comments section below.