UFC fighter David Onama found himself caught in the middle of the ongoing controversy surrounding Country star Zach Bryan after Onama shouted him out following his victory at UFC 309 and then said on a podcast this week he was asked to namedrop the “Pink Skies” singer.
Bryan has been making headlines following his split from Barstool Sports personality Brianna “Chickenfry” LaPaglia and she has since alleged that Bryan had been emotionally abusive toward her during their relationship.
LaPaglia had been in attendance for UFC 309 and during an appearance on SiriusXM’s “Fight Nation” podcast, Onama was asked if he was a fan of Bryan since he had seemingly shouted out the singer out of nowhere during his post-fight interview with Joe Rogan.
“To be honest I didn’t know who Zach Bryan was,” Onama said after telling the hosts that someone had reached out to his management and explained that Bryan wanted Onama to give him a shoutout.
The host then described it as a “promo” for Bryan, which Onama agreed with.
“Exactly, that’s literally what it was,” Onama added.
The clip started blowing up after Barstool founder Dave Portnoy seized on it in order to rail against “the smallest man,” who has become enemy No. 1 at Barstool since the split between LaPaglia and Bryan.
Onama attempted to clarify his comments on the podcast in a statement on his X.
“Feel like this is getting blown out of proportion,” he wrote. “A promoter offered me comp tickets to one of Zach Bryan’s concerts if I made a shout out for his upcoming stadium shows. I did it because my teammates love Zach and Zach has always taken care of them when he played in Denver.
“Zach did not reach out to me at all about this. Was simply supporting someone who always supported my team.”
The comment that kicked off the controversy was when Onama told Rogan that he would be back next month to see Byran.
The country singer is slated to play a pair of shows at Barclays Center.
In his video seizing on Onama’s comments on the podcast, Portnoy called Bryan a “pathetic little man.”
LaPaglia has been revealing more and more details about the emotional abuse she was allegedly subjected to by Bryan during their relationship, which ran a little more than a year.
In one of the more disturbing instances she revealed, LaPaglia detailed during her birthday that Bryan had allegedly screamed at her friends and broke glass while demeaning them.
“He stood up at the fire and just started screaming at my friends, ‘You’re not going to be anything, you’re a f–king loser,’ like just the most horrible s–t. ‘You’re never going to make it,’ like, ‘you live off other people,’” she said.