Dana White fires back at ‘scumbag Bjork’ Rebney for involvement in MMAAA

Last week’s bombshell announcement that the Mixed Martial Arts Athletes Association (MMAAA) had formed in an attempt to even the playing field between the UFC and its fighters came with some peculiar asterisks. Namely, the presence of Bjorn Rebney, Bellator’s beleaguered former CEO.

With a three-pronged focus primarily geared towards better revenue distribution between promoter and fighter, the group — led by welterweight great Georges St-Pierre, Cain Velasquez, Tim Kennedy, TJ Dillashaw and Donald Cerrone — got a lot of attention.

Yet one person who hadn’t weighed in with his opinion was UFC president Dana White, who finally aired his thoughts on it all on Tuesday.

"Listen, I don’t know enough about it to really speak on it," he said during an appearance on the UFC Unfiltered podcast this week. "The only thing I need to know is the biggest scumbag in the history of combat sports — Bjork — is involved in this thing.

"And if you’re a fighter — listen, there’s three unions out there now all battling against each other. And if you’re a fighter, these guys are all looking to get in your pocket. It’s another business, it’s a business where guys are going to make money. And if you’re a fighter and this is what you want to do, you’ve got to figure out whose hand you want in your pocket. And I guarantee you, you don’t want Bjork’s hand in your pocket. You know what I mean?"

"Bjork" is of course Bjorn Rebney, who is calling himself an "advisor" to the MMAAA. His presence in the association has been a divisive factor for some fighters who dealt with him under the Bellator banner, and for others a barrier to see past.

White has had plenty of words for Rebney in recent years, and he wasn’t letting down now that Rebney is coming after the UFC on the behalf of the fighters.

"The one thing that I do know that came out of this thing, is that this scumbag — who knows nothing about our business — he says, ‘yeah, they only pay the fighters eight percent of the revenue.’ I hope you’re talking about Conor McGregor. Okay? We’re paying eight percent of the revenue, you must mean Conor McGregor, right Bjork, you stupid motherf*cker."

White laughed off the claim that Rebney was more generous under the Bellator umbrella, giving more than half of the overall revenue back to the fighters.

"They’re saying, ‘you know, when I was a promoter, we paid 53 percent of the revenue.’ Because there was no f*cking revenue! You’re paying 53 percent, there was no f*cking revenue! Listen, if that’s the way we’re going to gauge this, back in the old days? Then I was paying 250 percent of the f*cking revenue. What a piece of shit this guy is."

White also cautioned fighters to know who it is you’re doing business with.

"Listen, if you’re going to have a guy in your pocket, and you’re a fighter, you might want to go out and ask some other fighters what their opinion is of this f*cking scumbag," he said.

Asked what the motivation might be for Rebney to be involved in this association, White laughed.

"Yeah, he doesn’t have a job. The motive is he’s unemployed. That’s a pretty good motive."

One of the concerns among the association heads was that there could be repercussions for coming out against the UFC for better treatment and collective bargaining. The word "scared" was used a lot on the two-hour media call that took place last Wednesday, particular from Cerrone, who has always been a company man.

When White was asked if he was mad at the fighters for forming the association, he said he wasn’t.

"Not at all, at the end of the day, here’s the reality — the fighters can go out and do whatever they want to do," he said. "They’re all grown men man, and in life we all have our paths to walk down, and this is what these guys.

"I’m a little shocked that Cowboy Cerrone didn’t give me a call. If you’re that unhappy or whatever. Let me tell you this, too. First of all, he’s only headlined like three fights, right? Fight Nights. He’s headlined three fights in his career, never held a title in the WEC, never held a title in the UFC, right? And a couple of years ago, he was on his boat, he gets into a beef with a guy in another boat. He’s in big trouble. Who does he call? He calls me. What do I do? I go out and find him the best criminal defense lawyer and I spent over $100,000 of my own money.

"So, when I see Cowboy standing up there, it’s like really? Alright."