Dana White has apologised after he was filmed slapping his wife in the face during a row in a club in Mexico on New Year's Eve.
The 53-year-old White, who has an estimated worth of $500million after building the UFC up into a global money-spinning franchise, has been married to Anne for 26 years, and they have three children together.
While celebrating New Year's Eve at a club named El Squid Roe in Cabo San Lucas, in Mexico, a video showed White appearing to say something to Anne, who reacts by slapping him. He then slaps her back before they were split up by friends.
Fronting up about the incident to TMZ, the UFC chief said: “My wife and I were out Saturday night on New Year's Eve. Unfortunately that is what happened.
“I am one of the guys who says there is never, ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman and now here I am on TMZ talking about it.
“This is one of those situations that is horrible. I am embarrassed. We have three kids and since the video popped up, we have shown the kids and we are more focused on our family right now.
“People are going to have their opinions on this and people's opinions would be right, especially in my case. You don't put your hands on a woman, ever.'
His wife Anne is quoted by TMZ as saying: “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 apologized to each other.”
Back in 2014, White said that there is no coming back for UFC fighters who were violent to women.
The next UFC promotion is scheduled for January 14 in Las Vegas.