Dana White is Bad for MMA

by: DarthMolen 1 year, 2 days, 13 hours, 56 minutes ago 0

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I can officially say that Dana is the most unprofessional CEO of a billion dollar+ company that I have ever seen.

The whole interview with CBS was totally unprofessional but that's nothing new and seems to be Dana's schtick. He's so enamored with hearing himself cuss, that he can't even lay off to do a national interview.

I would like to say that Dana is brutally honest, but that isn't necessarily true. He just has emotional Tourettes. The man speaks the first thing that comes to his mind, regardless of the veracity involved. It seems his business decisions follow the same model.

Dana constantly bad mouths the competition and he seems to have it out for the IFL. First off, the IFL model is great and if they can survive the costs of starting up a league (and thats a big "if") then they will be providing great entertainment for years to come. Every non-mma fan that I have talked to lately has nothing but praise for the IFL. They might not know the league's name but that is a marketing issue that can be overcome. Even my grandfather watches it and asks me about "those fighting dudes on TV" whenever he sees me.

Just because Dana comes from a boxing background and not a wrestling background, he thinks his "solo man against the world" model is the only valid system. Teams in combat sports and traditional individual sports have been around for longer than Dana has been alive. Wrestling, gymnastics, 400 meter / 1600 meter relay, and swimming are all examples of individual sports with team components to them. must I go on? Just because the IFL thought of a way to market the concept first, Dana has to bang on them.

Oh, and speaking of business choices, how about the biggest slice-n-dice job in the short history of MMA?

Q: I know it's easy to second guess, but with Pride's demise do you feel that in hindsight Zuffa made some miscalculations when it came to due diligence that led up to the acquisition?

DW: No. No, not at all. I knew I wanted that library bad. It was what I wanted. So no, we didn't miscalculate anything except the whole deal was a nightmare. Getting that deal done was a nightmare. We didn't miscalculate anything. We knew we wanted it and we got it.

Q: With it proving to be a nightmare, if you guys knew then what you know now, would you still go through with it?

DW: Yes.

Q: Because you felt with the library that it was worth it?

DW: To me it was. To me, personally, I wanted that library.

Since when does somebody pursue a HUGE problematic business acquisition because of a personal desire for a tape library? Dana is too shrewd a business man for such a response. For all his faults, he isn't dumb. His cryptic answer smells of back pedaling. All the reliable sources out there at the time of the acquisition were stating that the UFC did no due diligence until AFTER there was a verbal agreement for the PRIDE purchase.

They probably knew that there were problems, just not how bad they were. With all his vaunted honesty, why can't he just come right out and admit that he bought PRIDE to eliminate the competition, disallow others from resurrecting the giant, and had no intentions of actually running it as a separate entity.

Dana is for one thing and one thing only. Lining the Fertitta brothers pockets. In a capitalistic world, he has that right but don't expect us to believe that your sole cause in life is to further MMA. The one beneficial thing that the Zuffa era of the UFC has been sanctioning in a lot of states. The only reason Dana has sought sanctioning in each state is so that he can run his PPV's in any venue he wants across the country.

Where is health insurance for your fighters?

What "feeder" and grassroots organizations are you supporting with Zuffa money to further the MMA cause past the next PPV?

What alliances have you established with other organizations for the betterment of the sport?

What youth outreach programs have you supported in an effort to educate younger people about the benefits of MMA and martial arts in general?

What martial arts / combat sports ideal have you touted to the public as being a life-long commitment? (discipline, honor, comraderie, restraint, pliability, humility, self-assurance)

Instead he touts guys with personal issues, who break the rules, and espouse nothing from the discipline of martial arts, as being "nice guys" and "I'd let them back in spite of their flagrant violations of sportsmanship and honor...". He "gets" the thug element in the fight game and ignores the high road of discipline and honor. Real good message there Dana. Keep up the good work. You do us all proud in the MMA community.