Brendan Schaub tired of Dana White’s fighter bashing: ‘What are you doing?’

Harsh words have been exchanged between retired heavyweight Brendan Schaub and UFC president Dana White over the past week, but Schaub says the matter extends beyond their relationship.

On his Below the Belt program, Schaub gave an explanation as to why he and his former boss are butting heads over a few pointed comments on social media. White went after Schaub on Instagram for what he perceived to be an unfair analysis of middleweight prospect Israel Adesanya — Schaub would later say he was offering a critique of another kickboxer-turned-MMA-fighter Gokhan Saki, not Adesanya — and Schaub responded in kind, including a written “warning” for White telling him to let the issue go.

Schaub made it clear that he’s not a fan of White’s promotional tactics, in particular his treatment of Francis Ngannou after the heavyweight contender put on a lackluster performance at UFC 226. Having fought in the UFC 11 times and suffered his share of ugly losses, Schaub sympathized with Ngannou and preached the need for positivity when a fighter struggles like that.

“I can’t understand why he does this to fighters,” Schaub said. “He’s notoriously done this for years and years and years where he just talks shit about the guys. And they’re not doing well. Those guys just lost the biggest fight of their lives, they’re gonna have to pay. And they’re not feeling good about themselves and then the boss, who you’re looking for any amount of approval and it would go so far, you’re the captain of the ship, when you’re shitting on all the employees on the ship, it doesn’t make people feel good. When you try to lead by fear, it doesn’t work.

“People go, ‘Dana’s worth whatever, 400 million dollars,’ that’s fine. To me, that doesn’t mean you’re a successful leader,” he continued. “That doesn’t mean shit to me. There’s a lot of working wheels that go into making that deal happen. It’s not just him getting it done. What he’s done with the sport is great. He took that torch, ran with it, got it done, sold the company, it’s a major sport now. That’s great. We should tip our hats to him for that.

“But if you think that with the platform I have I’m not going to criticize you for shitting on these fighters who don’t have much, financially, they don’t have a platform, they have to literally punch other men in the face to make a living. And for you to bring men and women down like that is insane. You’re never going to get a free ride here. Ever. Ever, ever, ever, for as long as I have this microphone in my face, you will always get criticized for that. Always. It’s not cool.”

If anything, Schaub believes a man in White’s position should use his power and influence to lift his fighters up, not push them further down when they’re already stinging from a loss. Schaub compared the fighters to crabs all trying to climb atop one another and White to “the biggest, fat, f*cking lobster” at the top keeping them in their place.

Schaub is tired of seeing the company president publicly shame his employees and get into squabbles with former fighters like himself.

“Why be mean about it? Why be a bully in this day and age? Why continue to shit on people? You’ve won, man. You’ve won,” Schaub said, “You’re the CEO of a billion dollar company and you’re trying to talk shit to somebody who retired four years ago on social media. What are you doing? What are we doing?

“Imagine somebody else, the head of a corporation, they’d lose their job. Talk shit to people like that. What the f*ck are you doing? What are you doing? It makes no sense. It makes zero sense.”

According to Schaub, he’s received plenty of positive feedback for his opinion about White from current and past UFC fighters, UFC employees, Reebok employees, and media members.

He reasons that he’s not the only one who’s had longstanding complaints about White.

“Why do you think all those people are reaching out to me? Why do you think this is getting so many likes? Why do you think this is the topic of all this stuff? Because you’re a dick,” Schaub said. “And no one can say anything because they’re scared to lose their job. I’m not. I need nothing from you. I need no approval, I don’t need promotion, I don’t work for you, I do none of that. I tell you the truth. You’re a dick.

“You think that makes you look smart? Smart people don’t do that,” Schaub said of White’s habit of getting into public feuds. “People who are comfortable with themselves and don’t have ego issues don’t do that. People who have made it don’t do that. People who are comfortable in their skin don’t do that. That’s your problem, brother. It’s just your problem, that’s it.”

Schaub made sure to praise Adesanya, referring to him as an “absolute monster,” and he believes that a reconciliation between him and White wouldn’t be difficult at all.

“After all that, I still have no hate in my heart. I have zero heart towards Dana White,” Schaub said. “If he called me up right now and went, ‘Hey man, let’s stop this shit. Let’s do this.’ Cool, man. I have zero animosity.

“I don’t have time for hate. I don’t have time to continue to f*cking come after you on social media. You asked for this. That tweet, I wrote that on a plane. It took me three minutes to knock that out. It took me three minutes. I didn’t ask for this. I don’t want this. I don’t need this negativity. I’m too busy. We both made it, everything’s all good.”

See the full segment below: