Dana White Not Happy With New TUF Format
by mythbuster on Nov 2, 2008 11:57 AM EST
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Fronted by Luke Thomas.
In an article for The Sun, Dana White expressed his displeasure with the next season of TUF.
I said from day one I hate the UK v USA idea.
It's dumb, I don't like it — it's not USA v the UK, we're looking for the best fighter in the world.
We put on a card one time, the USA v Canada, it was f***ing retarded.
I don't care if you're from the UK, Croatia or Brazil because at the end of the day, when Michael Bisping comes to America — Americans don't boo him.
When GSP comes down and fights in the US more people cheer for him than the guy who's from America!
When Tim Sylvia from the United States fought Antonio Nogueira from Brazil, everybody booed Sylvia on the way in and cheered for Nogueira. The reason is because in this sport it's not country versus country.
You either like the guy's fighting style or personality — nationality has nothing to do with it.
That's the way it used to be with boxing, with the exception of Ricky Hatton because everybody hates Floyd Mayweather!
But with the exception of that, you never saw guys from one country cheering a guy from a different country.
That's what's changing in what we're doing.
We're looking for the best fighters in the world — this country versus that country is irrelevant."
I kind of agree with him. It's an obvious gimmick to try to bring the TUF ratings back up, and whether it works or not we will have to see. But with Junie Browning being allowed to stay, and next season being something Dana is so against - makes me wonder just how much control he still has over things.
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He has as much control as ever. There have been tons of decisions over the years he has disagreed with, there are a bunch of people that put input into certain things and then in the end they all come to a decision. For example he wanted Rampage on the November card, others thought it was smarter to hold off until after a hearing. He lost that one.
Yea, I think people on the internet have a very distorted image of how things at Zuffa work.
Just because Dana has been the face and made all the announcements, that doesn’t mean that he has been 100% responsible for every decision, good and bad.
Dana White is the president, and therefore has most control of everyone, or should. However, as Mr. Rome pointed out in June of this year, his role got diminished when Lorenzo Fertitta decided to share decision makin’s. Fertitta “will be primarily focused on international expansion” and a US vs UK TUF is more about international expansion than the needed filling out of divisions.
With this, in the past we have seen Dana take a no nonsense approach to what he wants as a representation of UFC fighters – and I think most agree that Junie would have been kicked from the show in a heartbeat even as recently as last season. That he was allowed to stay for ratings again points to signs that someone else (producers? SpikeTV execs? Dunno) has more say than him in what goes into that show, as compared to previous seasons.
You should read more of the Michael Rome/Kid Nate article I linked above. It has some very interesting things in it, that I believe may be starting to show now.
(disclaimer: I have a bad cold so I’m hoping very much that this makes sense)
He's right though...
I agree with what he says – it doesnt matter where a fighter is from. The good thing about it is it will probably encourage more UK fighters to enter…but thats also to do with it getting more well known / popular.
I agree
I think a TUF that helped to fill out some divisions (heavyweight, womens, even super heavyweight) would have been much better.
The issue with those is the general lack of talent not signed with anyone at those levels. Hell people are complaining that this season has no decent fighters, which is complete bull.
The one time they had heavyweights…the two that stayed with the UFC after dropped to LHW, and Rashad seems to be pretty small for that division.
DANA
dont forget spiketv pays ALOT of money to zuffa for the rights to air tuf and everything ufc. i’m pretty sure they have alot more pull and alot more input (especially with tuf) than what alot of people give them credit for. this could be a big reason why junie wasnt kicked off the show, when so many others have done less and got the boot. spike knew this kid was a ratings bonanza (good or bad) and dana could have not liked the idea from the get-go, but spike probably had the final say. plus dana is a promoter 1rst, so no he doesnt make all the decisions. for along time some people thought that dana was dr. evil and the fertittas were “the nice guys”, but i always knew all along that these 3 were all in agreement when it came down to final decisions.
I don’t like it either. i know that they are looking to spread popularity in the UK and such, but the USA vs UK idea is just lackluster. There are way to many fighters out there to limit the region which they fight out of.
How about TUF: Validation, using fighters that were from rosters like EXC, that folded? Really, i think about anything would be better than US vs UK.
Sidenote: I see the WEC reality show is coming. This is actually an ok play off of TUF, imo. Hopefully it will be to recruit guys at the lighter weights than they have in the UFC.
http://eliotmarshall.com/
Dana always says they are looking for the best fighters ever. But then they put a guy like Danzig in the house who has fought in Pride with a guy like Bowman who wouldn’t even last in the WEC. I know there are plenty of Pro’s with great records trying out and getting rejected from TUF because they don’t have TV personality. So Dana can’t say he’s looking for all the best fighters.
Whilst all fighters are generally well-received...
… you can’t deny that hometown talent normally gets more support on any given fight.
Most recently I saw Marcus Davis enter the Octagon too the jeering of the crowd since he was up against local lad Paul Kelly.
When Marcus had fought at 72 (Belfast), 75 (London), 80 (Newcastle) and 85 (London), he’d received thunderous applause and had garnered a great fanbase. That counted for nothing when he found himself up against a UK fighter :)
I don’t doubt that Season #9 of TUF is “gimmicky” with the whole UK vs. US theme but believe me; there’s plenty trans-atlantic rivalry to be exploited since the UK MMA athletes want to prove that their abilities are every bit as potent as their cousins across the pond – despite (or because of?) having less avenues in which to hone and showcase their skills.
by VikingPhotography on Nov 3, 2008 8:44 AM EST reply actions
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