‘You never bounce back’: Old Dana White interview resurfaces after UFC boss slaps wife

White, who was filmed trading slaps with his wife on New Year’s Eve, said in 2014 that ‘you never bounce back from putting your hands on a woman’

After Dana White apologised for slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve, a 2014 interview with the UFC president has resurfaced – an interview in which he said: “You never bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.”

White, 53, was filmed slapping his wife of 27 years, Anne, twice in a nightclub in Mexico after she had slapped him.

The American later apologised in an interview with TMZ, and said: “You’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for [a] guy to put his hands on a woman, and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.”

And an old interview with White has now resurfaced, in which he does in fact use those words while reacting to a video of former NFL player Ray Rice physically abusing his wife.

“It’s a tough one,” White told Fox Sports at the time. “First of all, the video is horrifying, absolutely horrifying. [I’m] a guy who’s been in the fight business since he was 19 years old, [and I think] it is the most disturbing thing you will ever see.

“The thing that’s just as bad as the punch is that he shows no remorse after he does it. You know, if you did something in anger and you go, ‘Oh, my God, what did I do?’ [...] There’s none of that with this guy. I don’t know all the ins and outs of what [UFC commissioner] Roger Goodell did or knew or how it was handled, but it’s definitely bad. I can tell you this: I wouldn’t want to be Roger Goodell.

“We’ve been human beings in letting these guys, other guys, make up for [certain things] they’ve done and come back. There’s one thing that you never bounce back from, and that’s putting your hands on a woman. Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.”

White’s wife, with whom the UFC president has three children, has also spoken out on the New Year’s Eve incident since it became public.

She told TMZ: “Dana and I have been married for almost 30 years. To say this is out of character for him is an understatement — nothing like this has ever happened before.

“Unfortunately, we were both drinking too much on New Year’s Eve and things got out of control, on both sides. We’ve talked this through as a family and apologised to each other. I just hope people will respect our privacy for the sake of our kids.”