Dana: "Stop Fighting MMA"-NY Daily News

 

Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Georges "Rush" St-Pierre, right, kicks an opponent in the Ultimate Fighting octagon on Dec. 29, 2007.

 

If you've paid any attention to mixed martial arts over the past decade, you know the sport has exploded. It has the highest pay-per-view numbers of any sporting event, is broadcast on numerous cable, satellite and network television stations, enjoys mainstream sponsorships and has a large and diverse fan base. It is sanctioned in 45 of 48 U.S. states that have athletic commissions and across Canada and Australia.

Unfortunately, MMA fans in New York are forced to enjoy the sport from afar. Here in New York, MMA is totally banned.
It's long past time to overturn that prohibition. It's a safe and respectable sport that's every bit as legitimate as boxing or professional football.
I won't pretend to be objective. I run the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the single most popular MMA promotion company. While I think that our fans here in New York and the city would profit immensely from legalization, it will also certainly affect my bottom line.
But the benefits go far beyond my business. Bringing MMA to New York would make public policy sense in a city and state that need jobs and tax revenue badly.
I understand some people think no amount of economic activity is worth selling the state's soul - and some people insist that MMA is simply too brutal to allow. But MMA is completely different from the spectacle New York legislators banned back in the 1990s.
When MMA first came to the United States, it was modeled after a Brazilian sport known as vale tudo - "anything goes." Its early days were marked by a distinct lack of strong regulation - no weight classes, no time limits and no rules.
In 2001, MMA reinvented itself. The Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts were written and adopted by the leading regulatory bodies working closely with promoters, including the UFC. The rules include provisions for weight classes, rounds and time limits. Dangerous maneuvers are totally outlawed. In the UFC, we have multiple ringside doctors at every fight, mandatory pre- and post-fight MRIs, comprehensive drug testing and a competitive atmosphere.
If a fighter gets a concussion, he is forced to sit out of matches and training for a mandatory period determined by the regulatory body overseeing the event. No other professional sport has such strict concussion rules.
All of those changes have produced two incredibly positive results: First, no athlete has suffered a serious injury in the history of UFC - nothing beyond a broken bone. Second, the sport has gained worldwide popularity and firmly established itself as the fastest-growing sport in the country.

At this point, it's very odd that New York would allow and even celebrate a sport like football, in which people have experienced serious and lasting physical injuries, and cling to the fiction that MMA is legalized assault.
How successful would the sport be here? We got a taste a few weeks ago. A fight at the Rogers Centre in Toronto brought in ticket sales at the gate of more than $12 million - the largest for any event ever held at the arena. The sellout crowd of more than 55,000 - bigger than when an NFL game was held there - poured in to the city early and stayed late, purchasing arena concessions, staying in hotel rooms, dining at restaurants and taking taxis.
I am positive that an event in New York would have the same kind of success. While Madison Square Garden is obviously a pinnacle for any sport, we have a large fan base in cities like Buffalo, Syracuse, Rochester and Albany, all of which could use the economic lift.
We commissioned an economic impact study to demonstrate how much revenue one of our events would generate for the State of New York. The study, by HR & A, found that sanctioning MMA in New York City would generate more than $23 million in net new economic activity. In Buffalo, an event would generate $5.2 million in economic activity.
Those figures assume only two UFC events, and we estimate we could do as many as three per year in New York State.
Little wonder momentum is growing to overturn the ban. The state Senate recently voted overwhelmingly to sanction mixed martial arts and the Assembly's tourism committee followed suit; now it's time to allow a full Assembly vote.
The sports capital of the world deserves access to one of the world's fastest-growing sports, one that will bring money and jobs to state and local businesses.

White is president of Ultimate Fighting Championship

Dana White Discusses UFC 131, Blasts Bob Arum and Gary Shaw

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- MMA Fighting caught up with UFC president Dana White following Saturday night's UFC 131 event to discuss Junior dos Santos' win over Shane Carwin, Cain Velasquez's return, what's next for Kenny Florian, the questionable judging and more. White also strongly rebutted recent comments by Gary Shaw and Bob Arum about Zuffa's purchase of Strikeforce.

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Make It/Take It: Does the UFC Need to Lose Dana White?

(Round 5′s new Talking Dana White action figure says eight phrases. All of them are “Fuck you.” / Photo courtesy of liverkick.)

The rules of Make It/Take It are simple. Two MMA writers face off on opposite sides of a hot-button topic, and make their case to the Potato Nation. The “winning” writer — based on number of votes cast in the poll on page 3 — returns next time to battle a different MMA pundit.
This week, “Writer X” from Parts Unknown (aka, a friend of ours from a different site who has chosen to remain anonymous*) goes up against CagePotato’s own Ben Goldstein. Read on, and let us know your thoughts in the comments section…
* No, it’s not Maggie Hendricks. Or Chad Dundas.

“The UFC Needs a Businessman at the Helm, Not a Character”
By Writer X
Dana White and the Fertitta brothers have taken a sport that was once referred to as “human cockfighting” and built it into a business worth billions of dollars and for that they should be commended.
On its website, the UFC claims that it is the fastest growing sports organization in the world and while that very well be 100 percent true, is there really that much competition out there for them? NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, FIFA, these are all established organizations that have put in their time and gone through their growing pains. They all have been where the UFC is now.
The dilemma the UFC now faces is how does it grow beyond a niche sport into a major league sport like those mentioned above? To start, the promotion needs to move Dana White out of the spotlight and replace him with a new president that is more acceptable to the masses.
I know that the idea of getting rid of the guy that has become the face of the UFC may seem blasphemous to some of you. I get it, you love him, he’s just like you, he curses, he says what’s on his mind, he’s a t-shirt and jeans kind of guy.
White’s also the president of a billion dollar business. He’s a millionaire flying around the world in a private jet. Don’t let the image fool you, because it’s just that, a carefully crafted image. White knows what his key demographic of 18-34 year-old males wants and he delivers, tied up in a nice “Dickhouse” tee and jeans.
The problem is that key demographic is really all the UFC has to hang their hats on. Outside of the 18-34 year old males, you’ll be hard pressed to find a huge number of people that are MMA fans. Make no mistake, the UFC wants to make inroads into those other demographics; they have to, or they will continue to stagnate.
That’s right, the UFC is stagnating. The promotion can talk about the growth of the sport all they want, but the numbers in pay-per-views tell another story. According to the folks over at MMAPayout.com Blue Book, UFC 57 back in February 2006 brought in 400,000 PPV buys, fast forward to UFC 128 in March 2011 and the number is 445,000. So, where’s the growth?
Sure, there have been a couple 1 million-plus PPV events, but the average for PPV buys between UFC 57 and UFC 128 is actually 498,704. So, I ask you, where is the growth that White and the UFC speak about?
Most of the UFC’s income comes from these PPV buys. If they have remained stagnant over the past five years, can they really claim true growth?
If the UFC wants to truly grow and average more than a million PPV buys per event, they are going to need to keep the key demographic of the 18-34 year old male and make some serious inroads into other age brackets and to do that, they will need to shed Dana White, or move him to less of a frontline role.
Two recent incidents made me come to the conclusion that while White is not hurting the growth of the UFC, he surely is not helping it. The first was the Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson interview with Karyn Bryant following Jackson’s win over Matt Hamill at UFC 130.
Jackson made some joking comments that the part Jamaican Bryant was, “Jamaican me horny,” and he then went on to make another joke about “motorboating” her. After the interview, Bryant said she was not offended by Jackson’s antics and while that’s nice, it doesn’t make the actions excusable or appropriate for any athlete, yes, even an athlete that makes his living inside a cage.
I’ve heard that excuse bandied about; the “boys will be boys” talk, the “when did the world become so PC” lines and you know what, they all ring hollow. White and the UFC brass are trying to grow the sport and actions like Jackson’s don’t allow that. Sure the demographic likes it and thinks it’s funny, but what about the people outside that group? Please don’t tell me in one breath that they don’t matter and then tell me you want to grow the sport, it’s one or the other folks, you can’t grow if you stay in the same fish tank.
The second incident occurred when UFC commentator Joe Rogan called Yahoo.com writer Maggie Hendricks take on the Jackson incident “cunty.” Rogan later apologized saying he meant the word as another word for “bitchy.”
In all of this, one voice was absent and that was the voice of Dana White. [Ed. note: This column was written before the release of White's brief statement on the matter.]
Had one of the NFL’s start players done what Jackson did in a post game interview would Roger Goodell have been silent? If Terry Bradshaw had called a print reporter, “cunty” would there have been no outcry? The answer is no and no, so why the silence from the UFC? Is White afraid to be seen as politically correct by his minions in the 18-34 age group?
A stronger president would have dealt with both men; hell, with a stronger president neither incident would have taken place for fear of what the repercussions would be. White will never be the guy to deal with behaviour like this and until someone comes in that will, the UFC will be a niche sport and the late night shows will repeat incidents such as Jackson’s performance in their gag reels and the rest of the world, the ones that could help the UFC grow, will laugh and shake their heads and never purchase a PPV event.
Another way to tell that the sport is a niche sport under White is to take a look at where MMA ranks on websites such as ESPN. MMA sits in the “more sports” tab three notches below “Soccer (US)” and three notches above “High Schools.” Growing sport? Nice try.
The UFC needs a businessman at the helm, not a character. White can get on the microphone and stand in front of his fans and sing the praises of his organization and how it is growing quickly, but until he pursues active growth outside of the 18-34 male demographic his words of being the biggest sport in the world are nothing more than hyperbole.
With Dana White at the helm the UFC will never grow to its full potential.

Ben Fowlkes: Dana White: UFC Is 'Talking to Everybody,' but No New TV Deal Yet

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Though reports that the UFC was in talks to buy a controlling interest in NBC Universal's G4 channel were all over the internet recently, UFC president Dana White stressed on Thursday that, as of right now, it's nothing more than talk.

And just because The Wall Street Journal reports on the talks, White insisted, that doesn't mean there's a deal.

"I told you guys the last time we all talked, we're talking to everybody right now. It actually blew my mind that huge media sources would go out and announce that when there is no deal," White said. "It's strange. It's crazy."

White said he was "not ruling out anything," including a renewal of the UFC's deal with Spike TV. And as for reports that Spike is already moving on and planning on life after the UFC?

"I don't know. Maybe they are," White said. "I don't know. I told you guys last time, we're in negotiations, and negotiations are never fun."

As MMA Fighting's Mike Chiappetta reported, Spike employees are said to be openly referring to the cable network's upcoming season of The Ultimate Fighter as "the last season." Spike executives are also said to have visited recent Bellator events, leading many to wonder if the cable network is resigned to losing the UFC and is already on the lookout for a new MMA partner.

Spike's contract with the UFC ends this year, and a recent report on Bloomberg.com suggested that a controlling stake in G4 might cost the UFC as much as $600 million, though White said he had no idea where that number came from.

"It's stupid for me to talk about this while we're in negotiations," White added. "It makes no sense whatsoever."

Dana White Discusses How GSP vs. Diaz Was Signed, UFC 131, UK Events

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- MMA Fighting caught up with Dana White following Thursday's UFC 131 press conference to discuss a whole host of topics: how he signed Nick Diaz vs. Georges St-Pierre, why he decided to make all non-title main events five rounds, Clay Guida's win against Anthony Pettis, why the UFC isn't returning to the UK in 2011, slow ticket sales in Vancouver, why Kenny Florian dropped down to featherweight and his acting skills on the new UFC Bud Light commercial.