Jack Osbourne defends his choice to attend UFC fight at the White House over the weekend and said some critical comments he’s received have been “absolutely insane and like what the f—?”
The former reality star shared a video on his YouTube channel to discuss the backlash he’s received, and he shared several examples of comments on social media saying things like “So disappointed” and “This is kind of devastating, not gonna lie.”
“I went to a sporting event. That was it,” he clarified. “I didn’t go and throw my hat in the ring for a political office.
“I wasn’t there to support a politician or some kind of, you know, foreign affairs issue. Nothing. I literally went to the White House to see the UFC.”
Osbourne explained that he has been interested in martial arts all his life, including doing taekwondo at age 6, studying Muay Thai in Thailand in his late teens and early 20s, and practicing jiu-jitsu in his 30s.
“I’ve also attended UFC and PRIDE fights going back to the early 2000s. It’s something that’s been a part of my life since I can remember,” Osbourne said.
he said when he was invited by President and CEO of UFC Dana White”Of course I would go. Any person out there who wanted an invitation would have gone.
“I’m sorry, there’s nobody I can think of that would have been like, ‘No, I don’t want to because I don’t approve of Orange Man’ or whatever….”
He called the backlash “ridiculous” and emphasized that it “wasn’t a political event — or in my eyes it wasn’t. It was a fight in the White House. Who gives a —?”
The 40-year-old said he told his wife at the event that it would be great if there were more sporting events at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, pointing out that some past presidents held events on the White House lawn.
The “Night of Terror” host took umbrage at fans who said his father, the late Ozzy Osbourne, would disapprove of his participation.
“You didn’t know my dad. You didn’t know where he stood on things,” Osbourne said. “Yeah, he wrote a song called ‘War Pigs,’ of course. Anti-war song. He wasn’t anti-UFC. He wasn’t anti-going to a White House event. He was anti-war.”
He pointed that out his father attended a White House Correspondents’ Dinner during the Bush administration and showed a video of him jumping up excitedly when he got a shout from the former president.
Ozzy also did USO tours and visited wounded service members at Walter Reed Medical Center, his son explained.
“So shut up, basically,” he added. “To bring my father into this to say he would or wouldn’t have approved is completely insane. I was simply participating in a sporting event for a sport that I have a lot of respect for and something that has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember.”
He added: “So thank you and I’m sorry you weren’t invited.”
