MMA Spotlight 4.03.08: Dana White Shouldn't be President of UFC

Posted by Reuel Mante on 04.03.2008

It's true...



This is not an article of how much I hate Dana White. I don't hate him. I think he has done wonders for MMA. However, he has made some serious mistakes lately that could come back to haunt the UFC.

What he's doing is eerily familiar.

For many years, I was a fan of pro wrestling. WWF (E) and WCW were the two organizations I adored. As everyone probably knows, WCW is no longer around. Why? The reasons are endless.

1. WCW took wrestlers who were already established in other companies and paid them high salaries for just showing up.
2. The company made little to no attempts to build up younger stars that would potentially carry the company in the future.
3. World Championship Wrestling was notorious for unnecessary spending that resulted in zero extra pay per view buys or higher ratings.
4. WCW had a bad infrastructure pertaining to writers, managers, bosses, and morale.
5. Storylines were written with no explanation, no substance, and pretty much made no sense.

These are just five of a multitude of reasons why the company went under*. The point I'm trying to make on WCW is that no matter how much money they made and good business they did in three years, it took one year for the company to lose all credibility, not to mention $100 million. How does the death of WCW apply to UFC?

In the beginning of 2007, UFC did what many thought was impossible. They bought Pride Fighting Championship. Many MMA fans were happy and excited. "Think of the possibilities!" Personally, I was sad. Then Dana White had to say the one thing that got me into it. "…we're going to run Pride as a separate entity in Japan…" What an announcement! He would further promise that there would be some Pride vs. UFC events to take place in the future. EVEN BETTER! Here we are, March of 2008, Pride is dead and Dana White retracts his statement saying that there were too many problems and they can't get a deal in Japan to televise the events. Why didn't he just say it? "I was too excited and made promises that we couldn't live up to."

Next to the acquisition of Pride was the question of Fedor Emelianenko. Where is the Pride Heavyweight Champion going to go from here? Dana White promised Fedor will be signed to UFC. What's the next Fedor news we here? Fedor has signed to fight for Bodog. That's okay. He needs to stay active while negotiations with UFC continue. Dana White continues with comments about signing Fedor by fall of 2007. Then the announcement comes in October.

Fedor has signed with M-1 Global in Russia.

So much for making every attempt to sign the number one heavyweight in the world who happened to be a free agent at the time. So much for getting the best fighters around the world to fight for the UFC. To be fair that wasn't all Dana's fault. I completely understand why the UFC would want to sign their fighters exclusively for their company. I know all about the repercussions of having a UFC fighter lose in another promotion. But what was wrong about being able to have the one fight fans wanted to see? Or better yet, what was wrong about having the one fight Randy Couture wanted since winning the belt from Tim Sylvia?

What should have happened was to sign Fedor for one fight for the sole purpose of a true Champion vs. Champion fight to see who the true number one heavyweight in the world was. Instead, we get Fedor in Russia, Randy Couture retiring, and now we don't even know have a clear picture of who is the real number one guy in the heavyweight division. Some say Fedor, some say Randy, some say Big Nog. What is this? Boxing?!

Aside from the Pride fiasco, Dana White made headlines stating that they are planning to feature UFC events on HBO. That's huge news! There even were statements made that alluded to possible HBO events featured by the summer of 2007. Once again, it's March of 2008. Mr. White has stated that a deal with HBO has fallen through while EliteXC has signed a deal with CBS and Strikeforce is in the process of signing with NBC. While smaller organizations are making these deals for national exposure, the UFC and Dana White are looking like incompetent fools for not even making it on HBO. In an attempt to counter this, we learn that UFC and Bud Light have signed an endorsement deal. That's great, but it's not in any way bigger T.V. exposure.

Finally, Dana White needs to readjust his attitude towards other organizations and fighters not signed to UFC. The comment that sticks out in my mind was during the UFC 76 press conference. White was asked what he thought about smaller promotions like EliteXC or Strikeforce. "They suck." Nice, Dana. Let's be honest, UFC is the big show. It's where the best fighters in the world or friends of Dana White come to fight. Without Pride, there is only the UFC to go to. However, the smaller promotions are where the stars of the future are going to refine their skills. To outright blast these smaller promotions in a press conference could potentially cause irreparable damage that will put those promotions out of business. Then where do the stars of the future go?

On the other hand, EliteXC and Strikeforce obviously aren't planning on being the smaller promotions for long now that they have broadcast TV exposure. HDNet Fights signing Randy Couture isn't small potatoes, not to mention Mark Cuban's bottomless wallet. IFL's fight structure appeals to football, baseball, and basketball fans who like team sports. If Dana White mocks these younger fighters, when the time comes, would they want to sign with UFC when they're ready? Or ply their trade in another organization that does not have an elitist attitude? This also applies to free agents who've been top fighters in other promotions. Yes, I'm talking about Fedor. White has repeatedly insulted Fedor in public saying he is a joke and he is not the best heavyweight despite an undefeated record. Now that Fedor is a free agent again, I have no doubt that he will pass up the opportunity to sign with a man that has disrespected him so much.

Dana White could be good for UFC. He knows his stuff but his mouth needs be checked. He has said a lot of things that do not help the general public's view. Instead of the UFC being brutal "cock fighting", the UFC could be seen as an unorganized circus with Dana White as the ring master.

In closing, I'm not calling on the UFC to fire Dana White. That's unfair. However, a reassessment of how business is handled should be done. Attitudes need adjusting, personal bias needs to be dropped, and hot-shot news flashes should be stopped before anything is finalized. Unfortunately, there seems to be no end in sight to these bad practices at the moment. If that is truly the case, then 2008 may in fact be more damaging than 2007 ever was. Something needs to change and it needs to start with the face of the UFC.

*For more in depth research, I strongly suggest R.D. Reynolds' The Life and Death of WCW. It's a very good read and tends to put a humorous spin on the ridiculousness of many of their business decisions.