Stephen A. Smith has called on Dana White to punish himself after slapping his wife.

An incident involving the UFC boss and his wife, Anne, was recorded at a nightclub in Cabo, Mexico on New Year’s Eve. In a video published by TMZ, White could be seen saying something to his wife, who then slapped him. White slapped her twice in response, before the two were quickly separated.

Smith addressed the matter on “First Take,” on Wednesday and called on White to dole out discipline to himself that he would with one of his fighters.

“We have to maintain consistency in pointing out — you do not put your hands on a woman if you are a man. You do not do it,” Smith said. “Dana White knows that and all I can say is he has spoken out on men who put their hands on women before, and whatever punishment you would exact under these circumstances to somebody else is what he should apply to himself.”

Smith disclosed that he is a close friend of White’s.

“Dana White is not just somebody that’s connected in the world of sports,” Smith said. “He’s a friend. I love the guy personally. So this is a very hard subject for me. We talk all the time. We certainly connected, briefly, since this happened. He knew there’s no way on Earth that I wasn’t going to talk about it. My heart goes out to his family because this is a very, very embarrassing situation.

“He says it has never, ever happened before. He is completely ashamed and utterly disgusted with himself that he finds himself in this situation where he would have ever done such a thing to a woman he’s been married to for 30 years, who’s the mother of his three children, and he makes no excuses for it. I think it’s important to point that out. I also think it’s important to point out that she validates what he asserts, that it’s never happened before, that it was completely out of character.”

Beyond the friendship, an additional interesting facet of this segment is that Smith is repped by Endeavor, which owns UFC. ESPN is the exclusive rightsholder of UFC, and earlier this week former ESPN talent Dan Le Batard wondered if the network would hold White’s feet to the fire.

In 2014, White described domestic violence as a career ender in UFC.

“There’s one thing that you never bounce back from and that’s putting your hands on a woman,” he said at the time. “Been that way in the UFC since we started here. You don’t bounce back from putting your hands on a woman.”

In the aftermath of the incident with his wife, White apologized in an interview with TMZ.

“My wife and I were out for New Year’s Eve, and, unfortunately, that’s what happened,” White said earlier this week. “I’m one of the guys, you’ve heard me say for years, there’s never, ever an excuse for a guy to put his hands on a woman. And, now here I am on TMZ talking about it.

“My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years. We’ve known each other since we were 12 years old. We’ve obviously been through some s–t together. We’ve got three kids, and this is one of those situations that’s horrible. I’m embarrassed, but it’s also one of those situations where right now we’re more concerned about our kids. We’ve shown the kids the video, and we’re more focused on our family right now.”