Quote of the Day: Dana White Talks Gina Carano
by Luke Thomas on Oct 30, 2008 11:14 AM EDT
in MMA News
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"Gina Carano's a talented fighter...She's a star. She should've been the main event (on CBS' last EliteXC broadcast). My thing with women and fighting is there isn't enough good women to create a whole division. Could I do some one-off fights here and there? Yeah, but that's not really what we do."
-- Dana White talking to USA Today about Carano, Strikeforce and a potential relationship between the female phenom and West Coast promotion.
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But he can’t use them.
Can you imagine how much whining there will be if every other PPV has a non-Gina female fight on it?
That would have to happen to build up the division, and people just won’t care.
That’s not fair to say people just won’t care granted Gina is a good draw there are others that could be promoted just as well.
Yes it is.
Firstly, it hasn’t been proven that even Gina can sell a PPV. Second, look at how the internet works. People only care about names.
People say Banned was the best card of the year because of all the names that were on it, but when you look at it from a matchup standpoint. There have been many UFC’s just as good. People only care about names, there are no women names right now.
FEMALE FIGHTERS
there are alot of decent female fighters, but not enough of them around or about the same size. gina is usally alot bigger than most of her opponents(thats why i wanna see her fight cyborg-same size), and girls like michelle watterson only weigh 125 . if all the good female fighters were close to the same size, then you could have a actual womens division-singular. elite didnt exactly have awomens division imo, they had gina and cyborg and would gring in certain other girls. if someone like Affliction was serious about womens fights, they would have to include tara larossa.
WEC is the only way!
At least, I think it’s the only way Zuffa could take on a female division. Get rid of all the heavier classes like they are. Add a female division, then you have guys like Urjiah (sp?), Jens, Miguel with Gina and you might be able to sell a WEC PPV, I think it’s a good fit. I would buy the card for sure. Then run the non-PPV WEC fights every other event to have some female fighters and develop some footage to set up opponents for Gina & Cris Cyborg.
"Men like me are like comets, destined to be consumed by lighting up their century"
- Napolean
I agree that the WEC would seem to be the right fit. I don’t think Zuffa will break form and do one-off matches with no divisions or roster. Female MMA needs more faces, so to speak. Whoever goes forward with it needs to leverage Gina’s popularity in order to elevate the stature of other women. It’s relatively easy to market Gina Carano, but there are other women with compelling stories out there that could do well with some marketing effort behind them. If other fighters aren’t focused on, then you just get a match here and there of Gina vs. somebody and no viable structure for the bulk of women in the sport.
by Cannon Jacques on Oct 30, 2008 11:39 AM EDT reply actions
It’s hard not to agree wtih Dana on this one. Though the WEC would be the best place to start a women’s division. Yeah, there aren’t too many good female fighters, but the point is you’d have to develop them. I don’t know how willing Zuffa would be in allowing a women’s division time to grow and develop. I think the money is there, especially down the road. There just needs to be a commitment.
Its been said before, but do a season of TUF where at least one of the divisions is women. Would solve all the problems and draw big ratings to boot.
Since they are short on both heavyweights and women for a division, why not a heavyweight women TUF?
Who wouldn’t want to see a house full of 265lb women all hit their ‘cycle’ at the same time?
This shifting (’evolution’) of Dana’s position reminds me of what they say about Steve Jobs and Apple. First the press asks him about a product and he says nothing. Then they ask him and he says, “we have not interest in that.” Then they ask and he points out the problems with making such a product. Then he releases the product.
Dana for a while said that he didn’t think women should be competing. Then he said there were no good fighters. Now there aren’t enough good fighters. I’m thinking that TUF season 10 is guaranteed to be TUF: Carano vs. Cyborg.
Don't believe a word I say, I don't train BJJ. -- TangleBones
No shock
Not a shock that White said Gina should have been the star of the show, though I don’t necessarily disagree.
Until there is a bigger interest in female MMA, I agree that it should be left off UFC events… for now. Maybe if he’s able to find enough talented women fighters to sign, then throw them on a UFN and see how the public likes it.
But like others have mentioned, I think there would be whining every time it’s not someone like Gina or Cyborg fighting.
Using the WEC solves a lot of the issues with women’s MMA that people have brought up. You don’t have to have a huge division just 6 to 10 fighters to get started. The WEC doesn’t get much mainstream exposure so the perception issues with the public wouldn’t be as big of a deal. It helps the WEC with moving to PPV if they can pick up Gina Carano and gives them another thing that differentiates them from the UFC. There are still quite a few issues (such as all women’s fighters don’t fit into one weight class) but it would be a start.
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