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Dana White was saddened but not surprised to hear the news from Justin Thornton.
A former BKFC fighter, Thornton tragically passed away at the age of 38 this week after his knockout loss to BKFC 20. Thornton had been hospitalized since his loss to Dillon Cleckler in 19 seconds on August 20. He was reportedly partially paralyzed as a result of the fight. and battled an infection from a spinal cord injury before succumbing to his injuries.
White was asked about the grim situation Tuesday night at the Contender series post-fight press conference.
“First of all, is anyone shocked? The UFC president told reporters in Las Vegas. “I mean, in unarmed fights?” I am not a big fan. And I become, I guess I would call it concerned, when I see some of our people when they leave here and go over there. It’s like, oh my god.
“But when you look at this, we’ve been fighting for 25 years. I have had over 7,000 fights without serious injury in the UFC.
In addition to hand-to-hand boxing, Thornton was also an MMA fighter who set a 6-18 record in 24 fights. He notably fought Titan FC COO Lex McMahon in November 2020 and faced eventual UFC veterans Chase Sherman and Walt Harris in his 13-year career.
Several UFC veterans have signed with BKFC in recent years, including Paige VanZant, Chris Leben, Hector Lombard, Rachael Ostovich and Chad Mendes.
After Thornton’s untimely death, BKFC Chairman David Feldman wrote in a statement that the promotion was “very saddened” to be informed of Thornton’s passing and sent “our deepest condolences to his family and to his relatives “on behalf of BKFC.
In recent days, Thorton’s death has increased the scrutiny of unarmed boxing and the role of state athletic commissions – and in White’s eyes, that scrutiny is deserved.
“Every year we spend over $ 20 million on sports medicine – $ 20 million a year – on health and wellness or whatever,” White said. “And 25% of our athletes, we send them to specialists. So a guy will come and his brain test won’t come out, it will be irregular, so we send him to a specialist. If something is wrong with his heart, he or she will see a heart specialist, and we spend the money to find out what is wrong with him.
“And as a result of that, our pre-fight screening, over the past 20 years we’ve found 10 athletes who had life-threatening medical issues with them and a career ending they shouldn’t be fighting – that if they weren’t in the UFC, they probably would have fought and they would probably be dead.
“So we shouldn’t even be talking about bare-handed boxing in the same sentence,” White continued. “They are two completely different worlds. And yes, we’re really sorry to hear that this guy has passed away, but you’ll never see any of these other organizations doing the kind of health and safety and medical testing that we do for our athletes.
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