Dana White has been the UFC's fearless leader and president since coming into the fold in 2001. Along the way, he's helped bring MMA from a sport that was outlawed in half the country, to being one of the most popular sports on the planet that is featured on ESPN.

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However, you have to crack some eggs to make an omelet, and White's upset a lot of people over the years of doing business. A lot of those criticisms and critiques derive from his lying when it comes to the UFC, which happens regularly. We're going to take a look at the 10 biggest lies that Dana White has ever told.

10 UFC Fight Island

UFC 251 Fight Island Sign

Where to start on this one?

Well, in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic began, Dana White and the UFC began venturing to find alternative places to hold fights. White quickly teased that the UFC was likely going to buy an island, and stage fights there. Instead of that, they eventually decided to have fights in Abu Dhabi (which cost a lot according to White) and used lots of promotional material hinting that bouts would happen on a cage on the beach.

Well that also, didn't happen. They constructed a venue to hold fights in but had an octagon outside for some reason. In addition to this, it was revealed by Ari Emmanuel that the UFC didn't pay for Fight Island at all, instead Abu Dhabi paid them a fortune to hold fights there instead.

9 Jon Jones Wants $30 Million

 ufc-214-daniel-cormier-jon-jones
Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

One of the more recent entries on this list, Jon Jones and Dana White have been going back and forth about the former's pay. 'Bones' has noted that he would like to be paid more than he currently is, especially if he's going to move up to heavyweight for a 'superfight', like suggested.

However, White shot down Jones' fighting at heavyweight, saying that his number was too high. White said that the former UFC light heavyweight champion wanted $30 million dollars to fight Francis Ngannou, a claim that Jones and his management immediately denied.

8 Jeremy Stephens Arrested

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

In 2012, the day before Jeremy Stephens was slated to fight on UFC on FX 5, he was arrested for a charge pertaining to an assault the year prior. Despite Stephens quite literally being arrested the morning of the show, the UFC and White continued to deny that his fight against Yves Edwards was over, up until the show was live.

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In fact, the UFC didn't even cancel the fight until they were on air, despite everyone on the planet knowing that the fight was off because Stephens was still in a jail cell.

7 Ben Askren Doesn't Want To Fight In The UFC

Ben Askren (1)

An easy Dana White lie to disprove was his attempt to smear Ben Askren in 2013. Following Funky's departure from Bellator, he was one of the hottest free agents on the planet. He requested his release to go specifically to the UFC.

Whether it was his fighting style or his trash talk against Dana, the UFC president quickly announced that Ben Askren wasn't going to be in the UFC because he didn't want to fight there. White made that judgment based on the fact that they refused to even offer him a contract, and it was somehow Askren's fault.

6 Strikeforce Will Continue

Strikeforce Grand Prix Josh Barnett vs Daniel Cormier
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

When the UFC's biggest competitor in Strikeforce got bought out in 2011, everyone knew what was coming. The UFC's playbook for years has always been to buy their competition and then shut them down (which is why they're currently in court for being a monopoly, by the way).

Despite this White declared that business would be normal, and Zuffa would continue to run both Strikeforce and the UFC. They were promptly shut down less than two years later.

5 Reebok Deal Good For Fighters

UFC 245-Holloway vs Volkanovski
Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

When the UFC brought in Reebok to be their outfitter for fighters in 2015, it seemed that the writing was on the wall for fighter's pay moving forward. While fighters' sponsors were a huge thing that would no longer be around, Dana White declared that the Reebok deal would be great for fighters and pay them more in the long run.

So yeah, that didn't happen. Despite White claiming that all of the $70 million dollars from the deal would go to fighters, a little under $40 million actually did.

4 No Women Will Ever Fight

Arguably the worst take of Dana White's career. In 2011, Strikeforce was paving the way for women's fighting. With stars such as Ronda Rousey and Cris Cyborg having massive success in the promotion, White had a different opinion.

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When asked about women coming into the UFC, he said women will quite literally never fight in the promotion. They came in less than two years later.

3 No Mayweather vs. McGregor

Mayweather vs McGregor (4)
Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

There are few things that Dana White hates more than cross promoting. So when he began to shoot down a potential Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match in 2016, it wasn't exactly surprising in the slightest. White even noted that the fight was about as likely as him "backing up Tom Brady".

However, once again White was off. The fight was made a few months after White's comment about playing for the New England Patriots.

2 No Women's Flyweight Division

Valentina Shevchenko Priscila Cachoeira
Jason Silva-USA TODAY Sports

Dana White seemingly loves lying about women. In 2017, the UFC announced via press release that the promotion would be starting a women's flyweight division and the first champion would be crowned on the Ultimate Fighter season 26.

Hours later, White said that the press release had been sent out by mistake, and the division was no longer happening. He reversed course literally a week later.

1 The UFC Isn't For Sale

Dana White at UFC 246 Cropped
Mark J. Rebilas - USA Today Network

When the UFC was finally sold by Zuffa to WME-IMG in 2016, it didn't come as a surprise. There had been rumblings of a potential sale for months and was expected to occur following the promotion's landmark UFC 200 event.

Despite this, White denied there were even sale talks the entire time. White even denied on the night of UFC 200 that the company was going to be sold, which it was, less than 48 hours later.