President Donald Trump and his supporters were thrilled by the presence of UFC president Dana White at Thursday night’s rally in Colorado.
Not so thrilled by her former boss’ political pump-up speech was Bellator featherweight Leslie Smith, whose feud with the UFC brass is well documented.
Smith, who has long advocated for fighters’ rights, parted ways with the UFC right after Aspen Ladd pulled out of their UFC Fight Night 128 bout in April 2018. Shortly thereafter, Smith signed with Bellator.
Due to the nature of her UFC release, Smith filed a labor complaint with The National Labor Relations Board in May 2018. However, her complaint was dismissed in July, three days after White met with President Trump at the White House.
In late 2018, Smith’s attorney, Lucas Middlebrook, told MMA Junkie they thought White and Trump’s meeting led to the dismissal.
On Friday, Smith voiced her displeasure with White’s appearance at Thursday’s Trump rally in a series of tweets interpreting White’s words as they relate to her prior complaint.
Smith’s tweets read as follows:
“This guy is so loyal and such a good friend that he shut down that meddling little bitch’s case that almost cost me MILLIONS of dollars, thanks to him I can keep classifying the fighters that are my employees as independent contractors. Vote for him!” – Dana
My charges against the UFC for retaliation and misclassification were found to have merit. That mean the NLRB agreed that we seemed enough like statutory employees to pursue the case. But a few hours later that decision was pulled back and the Division of Advice
(Trump’s appointees) commandeered my case & a few months later dismissed it without examining our status as statutory employees- they said I had not been retaliated against even though I had a 3 fight win streak in my weight class when I was cut in unusual circumstances
The article says Region 4’s director made the decision but it wasn’t him- it was Washington DC’ s Peter Robb. Region 4 gave a merit determination and Peter Robb abused his power to distort the NLRB’S role in protecting employee’s rights again- again
Smith (11-8-1 MMA, 1-1 BMMA) is currently scheduled to return March 13 at Bellator 241 in Uncasville, Conn., where she’ll fight Jessy Miele (9-3 MMA, 1-0 BMMA).
Bellator's Leslie Smith speaks out after Dana White's appearance at Trump rally