Dana White has poured cold water on the chances of the UFC striking a deal to use Trevor Wittman’s Onyx gloves, despite renewed talks being reported recently.
Speaking at the UFC Fight Night 279 post-fight news conference at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas, White said he had previously pushed aggressively to make the partnership happen. "We've been talking to Trevor for years," he said.
White explained that Rashad Evans helped bring the product to him. "Rashad Evans, whom I love and respect, came to me and said, 'Hey, listen: I'm invested in this thing. We think we have a great product here and I would love to introduce our glove that Trevor built.' All those guys are like, 'Trevor's a genius, he makes these bags and these gloves.' So we looked at it all and I literally told my finance team, 'Get this deal done. I don't care what it takes. Get the deal done.'"
According to White, the talks stalled over price. "They wanted like $100 million for the glove. You know how many f*cking gloves you've got to sell to make $100 million? It's impossible. So the deal never happened, but I told my team and Denny, the girl who runs that department is a brilliant woman. Brilliant. She came back to me like cross-eyed like, 'I can't get a deal done with these guys.' That deal should've been done a few year ago. I wanted to do that for Rashad. So we'll see."
Asked about his outlook now, White was blunt: "I am not confident at all," adding, "We'll fight in the Colosseum before that deal gets done. It's almost the same money."
