Fighters will no longer be biking on Pelotons when visiting the UFC Performance Institute.
UFC CEO Dana White demanded all of the exercise equipment made by the New York-based company removed from his gyms after comedian Theo Von told him that Peloton demanded that a past episode of his podcast had to be removed. According to Von, Peloton was a sponsor for his show and he was told to take down an interview he posted with presidential candidate Robert Kennedy Jr., which resulted in White slamming the company along with their CEO Barry McCarthy.
“So Peloton, what do they sell f****** stationary bikes?” White said during the podcast. “Peloton sells stationary bikes and they’ve got a problem with Robert f****** Kennedy? F*** you, Peloton. Who the f*** are they? Are you f****** kidding me? F****** Peloton calling and b****** about Robert Kennedy.
“Let’s see Barry McCarthy. Oh f****** Barry McCarthy looks like that guy, 100 percent. He looks like a douchebag.”
White then called in Craig Borsari, the UFC’s executive vice president of operations and productions, to tell him that all Peloton bikes had to be removed from the gym.
“Do we have Pelotons in the gym? Are those Pelotons? We’re getting rid of them,” White said. “We’re getting rid of the Pelotons. Pelotons are out of the gym. That’s what you do. You stop f****** using their products and f*** them.
“I’m not bulls******* you, you can film us. My guys are going to take the Pelotons out of the gym today. We’re getting rid of them. We’re going to go throw them in the f****** garbage today. We’re throwing the Pelotons in the garbage. We’re throwing them out of the UFC gym.”
White’s move came after he previously revealed that a major UFC sponsor once told him to remove a post he made supporting former president Donald Trump. In response, White says he told the sponsor “go f*** yourself,” although he didn’t state if the UFC continued doing business with the unnamed company.
Regardless, White quickly made the move to get rid of Peloton bikes from the UFC gym after hearing Von’s tale of woe about his own experience with the exercise equipment company.
“Imagine that f****** dork f******* picking up the phone and telling you that you can’t have Robert Kennedy, who is a Democrat by the way — you know that guy’s a f****** Democrat — telling you, that you can’t f****** have him on your show,” White raged.
“Who the f*** are you Barry McCarthy? To think you can pick up the phone and call anybody. You sell f****** stationary bikes for a living, you f****** clown. F*** you. That guy is the typical f****** pompous, arrogant f******* douchebag that I cannot stomach.”
As for Peloton’s business, the company has endured a rough run lately after reporting a net loss of $159.3 million for the third quarter of 2023 with sales also dropping year over year for the same period of time in 2022. Peloton stock was trading at $4.44 per share on Monday — down from $17.83 per share in February.
Peloton did announce partnerships with both the NBA and WNBA recently, with McCarthy stating that there wasn’t a company in the world that “wouldn’t kill to partner with Peloton now.”
He can probably remove the UFC from that list after White’s rant aimed at his company.