Brendan Schaub has previously been critical of the UFC and its President, Dana White. The former UFC heavyweight contender certainly doesn’t have to tip-toe around his former boss, and given that he now has his own podcast, providing him with a platform to express his views, Schaub isn’t afraid to say it like he sees it.

More recently, Brendan Schaub discussed the topic of UFC moving its pay-per-views to ESPN+. While the likes of Dana White see it as the future of the sport, others believe that it negatively impacts the fighters, taking away the PPV points they used to get before UFC moved the PPVs to ESPN+.

Schaub was critical of his former boss in his assessment, even going as far as saying that Dana White wants to be like Vince McMahon.

“We heard Brock Lesnar turned down the deal“, Schaub remarked on Below The Belt podcast (transcript via BJPenn.com). “Conor… we haven’t heard anything from him. The UFC is content just being in cruise control because they have this reliable nut from ESPN. They’re set there, so they’re not willing to be bend over backwards to get a guy like Brock Lesnar anymore. They don’t need it. They don’t have to give Conor McGregor half the company to come back.

“Everyone wins, but the fighters are so f**ked because it’s such a limited viewership now”, he added. “So your sponsors are less — if you even had any. Your notoriety, your fame, your social media following, your YouTube channel to sell merch… The day and age of a superstar in the UFC is gone, gone. It’s so gone.”

“Notice the direction of the marketing now on ESPN. Who do you see now? Dana White”, he said. “It’s very Vince McMahon… This is the face that you recognize. Because you won’t recognize the fighters, but you recognize Dana White. So his ego and his popularity goes up. That’s the face [of the company] now. That’s not good. All the promos are Dana. It’s all him. That’s insane, man.”