UFC 118 Preview: Dana White Brings Back the Zuffa Myth for an Ignorant Boston Press
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 12:04 PM EDT
in MMA History
Email
Print
The ride into Boston has been an interesting one indeed for Zuffa and President Dana White. Sure, the tickets aren't selling and thousands of seats will either be empty or filled with freeloaders. But at least they get a chance to dust off the "Zuffa Myth" again for yet another rapt reporter. This time the victim was Boston Herald stenographer Ron Borges, who wrote a glowing profile of White that bordered on hagiography:
That belief never wavered, even after four years of having doors slammed in his face, phones slammed in his ear and the word "No" as his constant companion. The fighter’s spirit he learned at McDonough’s was never extinguished as he rewrote UFC’s rules to exclude troubling practices like groin shots, eye gouging and head butts, and civilized things as much as one can when the object is to break a man’s spirit, perhaps by breaking his nose.
Of course, assuming Borges is a victim may be a bit naive at this point. He wrote a similar piece four years ago for the Boston Globe, filled with this and other fictions:
Las Vegas casino operators Frank Fertitta 3d and his brother Lorenzo, and former Boston boxing aficionado Dana White, the three men who in 2001 resurrected UFC from the scrap heap of bad marketing and no-holds-barred mayhem when they bought the company name from Bob Meyrowitz for around $160,000. At the time ultimate fighting had a sullied reputation. No state would sanction its bouts because it had no rules and boasted of its refusal to cooperate with state regulatory bodies. Not even cable television would carry its bouts, having dropped it in part because of pressure from people as powerful as Arizona Senator John McCain, a prize-fighting fan who termed the no-holds-barred form of mixed martial arts ``human cock fighting."
Zuffa has long promoted the myth that Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG), the previous owners of the UFC, ran away from regulation while they ran towards it. White credits himself with cleaning up a dirty sport. The problem-his account is mostly fictional. SEG went to great lengths to get the sport approved in New Jersey and California (where the battle raged for years). After Campbell McLaren's early marketing based around the sport's brutality backfired, the UFC went into overdrive to change the public perception of the sport. Techniques like head butts had been eliminated long before White came on the scene and eye gouges were never allowed. And even the Unified Rules used to govern MMA today came from the Mixed Martial Arts Council (MMAC) manual created by UFC Commissioner Jeff Blatnick for SEG.
Blatnick explains how the UFC's preexisting rules were adopted around the country in the full entry:
I read our rules to him line by line and they took almost all of them. The only change they made was to eliminate wrestling shoes. They wanted standards and uniformity for all the fighters so they didn't want some people in shoes and some without them.
The rest was almost verbatim from the scoring system to the fight rules. It was all taken from the Unified Rules which was essentially the MMAC manual. People in the know, they know where it came from. They say they created the rules and in a way they did. The Unified Rules and the rules in Nevada. But what had changed from the rules we already had? That is a different question.They were our rules, but they didn't belong to me. People were promoting MMA shows before I ever came around. I didn't create them from scratch. We just wanted to create a fair balance between grappling and striking and we wanted to protect the fighters. And I think we did a good job. We must have because they are still using our rules today.
Of course, it's easy to understand why White prefers spreading fiction to the truth, as amazing as that truth is. It's not enough that he and his partners were able to right a sinking ship and turn a $2 million investment into a billion dollar behemoth. That story is too complicated. As Jake Rossen explains, it's easier to just say "I built it." The actual story may be too complicated for mass consumption:
The UFC and MMA as we know it today is the product of many, many people: the Gracies, who popularized the idea of disparate styles meeting in Brazil; the boxers who would consent to fighting a wrestler sporadically throughout the 20th century; Bill Viola, who strapped headgear and pads on martial artists and let them punch and submit each other in Philadelphia at the height of the Toughman craze; Pat Jordan, who wrote a 1989 Playboy article on Rorion that brought [Art] Davie to his Academy; Davie and Rorion, who packaged it as a commercial property; SEG, which turned it into a viable television product; Joe Silva, who can make sense of the bigger picture in matchmaking; and White and the Fertittas, who used money and connections to make it digestible to the masses.
The Zuffa Myth is simply part of a larger marketing plan to promote White as the face of the UFC. Nothing can be allowed to get in the way of that agenda. When you see big boxing matches being promoted, it's the athletes that are front and center. Floyd Mayweather makes appearances on talk shows and on ESPN to promote his fights. So does Oscar De La Hoya. When the UFC gets a similar opportunity, they minimize the importance of the fighters-instead sending White to shill the show. It's a genius plan to promote the brand over the athlete. And the UFC brand is Dana White-the Zuffa Myth is just a small part of the Dana White mythology, the brain child of a promoter who believes his best product is himself.
118 comments
|
0 recs |
Do you like this story?
Comments
Ron Borges is a lazy boxing writer once suspended by his employer for plagiarism. Honestly, how long would it take some of these guys to find out that eye gouging had been outlawed before the days of Zuffa? They get paid for this shit aswell!
by sheikybaby on Aug 26, 2010 12:14 PM EDT reply actions 2 recs
I didn't know that
This guy is a hack and a half.
"I am a man who pisses largely and frequently, which they say is a sign of great mental activity" -Henry Miller-
Has Dana White ever once said that he, “invented the unified rules”? Does Zuffa generate press-releases that say so? If so, then I imagine he deserves all the criticism he’s received in your’s and Rossen’s pieces. If not, than doesn’t the onus fall on the one’s publishing these stories?
You gotta pay the troll toll, to get into this boy's soul.
Yes, they tell reporters this. Where do you think the idea comes from?
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 12:20 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Rossen claims they don’t
Does the UFC circulate a press kit with this fiction? Probably not
You gotta pay the troll toll, to get into this boy's soul.
by WestbergIDFC on Aug 26, 2010 12:23 PM EDT up reply actions
I didn’t say they released a press kit. But they spread their myth. And the reporters also search for other mainstream press stories-it’s an endless cycle of bullshit.
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 12:29 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I don’t think they spread it like you say. Cynicism need not apply only where it’s convenient for you.
And then God created Saturn... and he liked it, so he put a ring on it.
Twitter me and what not.
Josh Gross
Said this was in their press kits in 02 and 03. I don’t know that for sure, though.
Follow me on Twitter: @MMANation.
by Luke Thomas on Aug 26, 2010 12:56 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Read this article then saw this...
@danawhite Thank you to the boston globe and herald for the incredible UFC coverage this week! FUCKING AMAZING! http://twitpic.com/2id4j8
Made me laugh…
"I fight because I can’t sing, I can’t dance, and it beats working all day. Now ask me a question that doesn’t sound so fucking stupid." – Phil Baroni
outside of ESPN, mainstream media organizations do not give a shit about their sports coverage, and unfortunately ESPN jumped the shark long ago. unless news is related to some issue that can be used to manipulate/polarize people’s political party leanings (i.e. racism, religion BS, taxes, so-called taking of freedom, war, etc.), it is not given enough of a budget for thorough editing and fact checking, and when fact checking is provided for, it’s only to prevent people from discrediting whatever spin/agenda that media organization happens to be supporting.
blame the media for eveything.
a life: it's the shit that happens while you're waiting for moments that never come -Lester Freamon
by eastcoastatlas on Aug 26, 2010 12:26 PM EDT reply actions
UFC brand is Dana White-the Zuffa Myth is just a small part of a promoter who believes his best product is himself.
Well I never would of guessed that. Btw is anyone else getting the dana white action figure this christmas?
by chunkyass on Aug 26, 2010 12:27 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
Those exist?
"I am a man who pisses largely and frequently, which they say is a sign of great mental activity" -Henry Miller-
Round 5 Figures,
http://www.round5mma.com/blog/?p=489
They also have a Bruce Buffer. I want both. I’ve got Kenny Florian sitting here on my desk.
Avira keeps getting a virus detection, although it could be a false positive.
SO YOU WANNA BE A F*CKIN ACTION FIGURE?!
Toronto FC - Where road games are forfeited and we STILL have no idea how to play from behind.
by SSreporters on Aug 26, 2010 1:31 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Where's the Wanderlei Silva figure!!!!!!!!
by higgledy-piggledy on Aug 26, 2010 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions
Who the FUCK is Wanderlei?
He ain’t Dana WHite
/sarcasm
Better known as Black Lesnar
Read me at WatchKalibRun
by S.C. Michaelson on Aug 26, 2010 2:34 PM EDT up reply actions
Wanderlei...simple typo. And quit being a cheeky git, you know who I was talking about
by higgledy-piggledy on Aug 26, 2010 2:35 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Uh, there was no typo
I just asked “Who the FUCK is Wanderlei Silva?” you know, all sarcastic like as in “What has he done to deserve a doll over Dana White?”.
Is there a typo?
/sarcasm
Better known as Black Lesnar
Read me at WatchKalibRun
by S.C. Michaelson on Aug 26, 2010 2:40 PM EDT up reply actions
Mythmaking
plays an integral role in building any enterprise. Favorable fabrications based on distant realities is the very essence of marketing. But it only works if there is more than just a veneer of authenticity. White comes off — intuitively to people — as hardscrabble. Evidence to the contrary seems only circumstantial in the face of this impression he (artfully?) conveys. And, in his many interviews, he seems to give the fighters (fighters who are not exactly hiding under rocks) their just due.
by Charlie Custer on Aug 26, 2010 12:30 PM EDT reply actions
I guess Dana is also responsible for all the articles describing MMA as blood thirsty.
Or, the papers have people that don’t know anything about mma write articles about it in a short timeframe.
Look at the corrections section on the NY Times once in a while and you will learn papers make a lot of mistakes that some nerds think should be obvious.
What?
This isn’t a question of a small editorial mistake that would only be picked up on by a meticulous pedant. This is a case of a poor journalist reporting the PR and spin of a corporation as fact, without any scrutiny whatsoever.
That should hardly go without critcism.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Aug 26, 2010 4:17 PM EDT up reply actions
I get knocked every time I say this, but the truth is that the biggest draw in MMA isn't Brock Lesnar or GSP.
It’s Dana White. And that’s why the UFC is brilliant. They have their biggest star on EVERY SINGLE PPV. Every single show of theirs features the biggest draw of the entire sport. They have him do the mainstream hype for all of the UFC shows. He does video blogs for each card. He was on the cover of the magazine’s first issue. He was on the cover of Mens Fitness before any fighters, who are actually in shape.
That’s not enough? Why did they put him on the fucking WEC PPV when he’s not even the promoter for that organization? Because without him, it wouldn’t have sold. Dana White is the biggest star of MMA and it’s not changing any time soon.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
Really close, but...
The biggest draw in MMA isn’t Dana White, it’s the UFC brand. That’s why Dana was all over the WEC PPV advertisements. Dana’s image is synonymous with the UFC.
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 12:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Without Dana, the value of the UFC branding drops significantly.
Imagine Lorenzo trying to sell us fights. It doesn’t work like that.
The truth is that people listen to what Dana says. They want to hear from him. They don’t know what they think about something, so they go to him for the information.
Think about what differentiates the UFC, as a brand, from other MMA. It boils down to Dana White, the Octagon, and TUF. The Octagon, while iconic, doesn’t draw people any more than Bellator’s circle cage or Strikeforce’s hexagon. It’s about being in a cage. TUF is the major thing that puts Ultimate Fighting™ in the public consciousness. Yet who is on every single season of the show? Who hypes up the next episode and tells you how great the fights are going to be next week? Who was the focus of the most iconic moment of the show in the “Do you wanna be a fucking fighter?” speech? It’s all Dana, all day.
It’s a valid point that the UFC brand sells, and that’s the standard belief. I guess that’s true on the surface. But Dana is an essential part of that brand and it’s strength is significantly neutered without him. He is instrumental to it’s continued dominance of the MMA consciousness.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
by pdl on Aug 26, 2010 12:57 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
It is of course true that Dana White is inextricably (well, as much so as possible) bound with the UFC brand. And he is a large part of it. But it’s not Dana’s image that ultimately convinces people to drop $50 on a PPV; it’s the UFC’s reputation for providing, usually, high-quality and exciting fights. And Dana certainly plays a large part in making that happen, yeah. We’re kind of arguing the same point on a slightly different axis.
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 1:04 PM EDT up reply actions
What I see is that Dana White, by talking about and hyping even the most bland night of MMA,
can sell 300k PPVs. Tom Attencio, Donald Trump, and Golden Boy, while selling a pretty sick card in Affliction: DOR, couldn’t do a third of that.
While people obviously aren’t paying $50 to hear Goldy tell them to follow Dana on twitter, the Dana White Stamp of Approval means a lot more than people give it credit for. Which is why he vocally disapproves of competitors.
I just think Dana is more important to the UFC than people give him credit for. This idea that he needs to step back away from his Mr. McMahon character for the good of the sport doesn’t make sense now.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
White + UFC = 300k buys
White + random MMA does NOT equal a whole lot
random dude + UFC = somewhere in between.
They’re synonymous with each other, but the UFC itself is more important than Dana.
http://www.instrength.com
by Tim Burke on Aug 26, 2010 1:16 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Aldo vs. Faber FC did 2-3x what it was projected to sell
as soon as Zuffa booted Reed Harris out and brought in their so called “Pay Per View Team.” Spearheaded by Dana White. Who was highly visible during the card. And AvF FC did way better PPV buys than any non-Dana endorsed card.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
That was NOT Dana White. That was UFC + random MMA.
That was the entire UFC’s production, announcers, etc. Promoted all over UFC events. If they stuck with everything they do on Versus and it was promoted as a WEC event with Dana screaming from the hills, it doesn’t do half the business.
http://www.instrength.com
That was Dana White using his marketing ability.
It was a combination of Spike, UFC and Dana
W/O Spike that show would have done peanuts
Precisely. But Spike (an outlet for promotion) and the UFC (the brand name) are the 2 biggest ones. You take Dana out of the equation and put Reed Harris all over Spike on UFC shows advertising the shit out of it, and it still does well.
You take those 2 out of the equation and it’s just Dana White telling everyone to buy it over twitter or in a video blog? Peanuts. It’s obvious to me what’s more important.
http://www.instrength.com
Funny thing about Borges:
In addition to being a plagiarist and a hack, he was for many years staunchly against MMA, describing it in the most disagreeable terms. The guy’s a fraud.
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 12:42 PM EDT reply actions
And yet Jorge Luis Borges is one of the greatest writers of the past century.
Garden of Forking Paths for the fucking win. And I don’t want to hear you say shit about Joyce being a better writer.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
haha
You know, I almost brought up JBL but thought it might be a little pretentious. Oh well.
And Joyce was better, I think. Certainly technically superior. I doubt Borges with his massive ego would have agreed, but he said on occasion that he greatly admired Joyce and wanted to do for Buenos Aires what Joyce did for Dublin — a literary Universal City. It’s true also the Borges was very much attuned to the Irish modernists: Joyce, Beckett, Brian O’Nolan, etc.
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 12:50 PM EDT up reply actions
No idea who that is.
I blame mild dyslexia for my error.
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 1:05 PM EDT up reply actions
A guy going by the pseudonym of StephenDedalus was worried about sounding pretentious? Interesting.
Hehe, I get in tons of arguments with one of my best friends and a family member who both love Joyce. While I clearly respect him as an influential figure and incredible talent, I just cannot stand to read Ulysses. Portrait was hard enough for me to power through. So I mock him at every chance I can get and regularly bring up the “milk for pussens” passage in Ulysses for being so ridiculous.
I’ve been a huge fan of Borges since sophomore year of high school when I discovered Ficciones. His ability to blend surrealism, modernism, and near reactionary rejection of realism is fascinating to me.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
Don't make me recite Stephen's little diatribe on aesthetic principle from Portrait.
I’m a great admirer of Joyce, though he’s not my favorite writer. (That would go to Melville, or maybe Pynchon or Beckett.) The great thing about Ulysses is its multi-layered humor. Joyce once said, “There isn’t a serious word in the whole of it.”
I like Borges too. I’ve got the Penguin edition of his Collected Fictions next to the keyboard as I type this, in fact. My favorite stories of his are The Aleph and The Book of Sand.
What do you think of Bolaño?
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 1:10 PM EDT up reply actions
I knew Bolano was going to come up
and must admit, I haven’t read him yet. I know, it’s shameful. But it’s on my list.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
People may tell you otherwise, but start with 2666. People exaggerate its difficulty, and it’s probably the first literary masterpiece of the 21st century. (The second of which I believe to be — shameless plug, sorta — my friend Joshua Cohen’s novel Witz. If you don’t like Ulysses you probably won’t want to pick it up. But there it is.)
by StephenDedalus on Aug 26, 2010 1:22 PM EDT up reply actions
Thanks for the recommendations.
As soon as I have time to read again, I’ll get on it. I have upcoming travel to NorCal, London, and Brazil, so I’ll have some time allotted real soon.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
This thread had promise.
It was looking like it was going to be a good old-fashioned knock-down, drag-out literature fight, but look at you two all buddy buddy now.
This is what’s wrong with literature nowadays :P
If you fight, you fight. If you hope, you hope.
I admire your obvious affection for Borges,
but, outside of South America, you may be alone in your opinion that he rivals James Joyce.
by Charlie Custer on Aug 26, 2010 1:08 PM EDT up reply actions
I don't think he rivals Joyce.
I think Borges is a significantly more enjoyable author to my tastes. That’s all.
"Someone is WRONG on the internet. What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong!"
-Randall Munroe
Right on.
In that case, I say Joyce has nothing on Charles Portis!
by Charlie Custer on Aug 26, 2010 1:25 PM EDT up reply actions
Little known fact
Dana White was the original inventor of BJJ.
He originally taught the art to Carlos Gracie. He was just too modest to take the credit himself.
" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "
by aaronb on Aug 26, 2010 12:46 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
I don’t think Dana White is too modest for anything.
www.mmalinker.com
by exsanguinator on Aug 26, 2010 3:00 PM EDT up reply actions
Another little known fact
Before Dana White invented fighting. People just yelled and argued to settle differences.
" Tell me something Steve, How does a guy from Puerto Rico loose a ball in the Sun? "
Floyd Mayweather makes appearances on talk shows and on ESPN to promote his fights. So does Oscar De La Hoya. When the UFC gets a similar opportunity, they minimize the importance of the fighters-instead sending White to shill the show. It’s a genius plan to promote the brand over the athlete. And the UFC brand is Dana White-the Zuffa Myth is just a small part of the Dana White mythology, the brain child of a promoter who believes his best product is himself.
Dana says “No!” to co-promotion. Whether it is with other promoters or the fighters themselves. It doesn’t make business sense for him to give up that power.
by truck on Aug 26, 2010 12:55 PM EDT reply actions 1 recs
My question is....
How are they not selling out the place? It blows my mind that they go into Boston and can’t sell it out.
Being from Southern Ontario, I have a hard time understanding how this sport isn’t selling out every place they go to.
Sheeeeeeeee-it
it's a big ass arena
holds 18k+ i think. i’m going and found it nearly impossible to get decent seats (other than through a broker or stub hub) online. It’s going to be Mayhem in Boston this weekend, don’t let anyone else fool you.
Dana says all the time that they get about 1k in walkup business so anything under 1k the day of the fight, they call a sellout. I think they’re gonna have to paper in this case to get the building full.
http://www.instrength.com
still though
w/the money they’re making on the fan expo, i’m sure Dana is happy as can be. me and my GF paid $30/each for the fan expo (just one day), so i’m not sure what to expect, but some of the VIP (now sold out) tix were going for $1500/pop! sick
For sure
No one is saying that the UFC isn’t making mad cash off the deal. I think people are just a bit pissed that they’ve priced themselves out of a sellout when there are plenty of people willing to attend, they just can’t afford to.
http://www.instrength.com
Hey Beer Monster
I always enjoy your insightful comments, just a few questions on this topic:
1 – What is your source for the 11k paid figure? I am not doubting the figure, just curious how the general public could obtain such information on a consistent basis. Seems like only Zuffa, Venue, and Ticketmaster employees should have access to such figures, no?
2 – What is the process by which Zuffa papers the dead spots? Again, just curious.
Thanks.
by BrothersGottaAndyHug on Aug 26, 2010 9:09 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
WHO CARES?
Seriously, why does it matter? Some sports writer has inaccurate info and it brings out people hating on Dana White. I’m convinced people who write blogs like this will hate on Dana White no matter what. Thanks for wasting 2 minutes of my life reading this garbage.
You cared enough to leave a comment.
"I fight because I can’t sing, I can’t dance, and it beats working all day. Now ask me a question that doesn’t sound so fucking stupid." – Phil Baroni
by midwestbred on Aug 26, 2010 1:03 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Because we're not pro wrestling fans and won't stand by while promoters butcher actual history.
And I will not see sports media treat MMA like Pro-Wrestling because of this.
"Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment."
-Lao Tzu
Dana McMahon is already well on that path
The funny thing is Vince actually did what he says he did
/sarcasm
Better known as Black Lesnar
Read me at WatchKalibRun
by S.C. Michaelson on Aug 26, 2010 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions
"The Zuffa Myth is simply part of a larger marketing plan to promote White as the face of the UFC"
That’s simplifying things a little isn’t it? PULEEZ.
It isn’t Dana’s job to be a MMA historian, he is a promoter. Smart enough to know that 95% of MMA fans pretty much want Pro Wrestling style entertainment that’s real.
No one cares about the rest.
..!..
It may not be Dana’s job to be a historian, but he has no qualms about manipulated public perception of history to further his goals. Its propaganda.
"I am a man who pisses largely and frequently, which they say is a sign of great mental activity" -Henry Miller-
by Neil Manich on Aug 26, 2010 1:11 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
Me thinks
the gentlemen doth protest too much. When you boil it down, the headline here is "promoter is full of shit’ which is pretty much a universal rule of thumb in fight promotion.
Am I saying that White’s version of history is right? No. Am I saying that it doesn’t make me a little uncomfortable that one man/company has so much control over the history of this sport? No. But is this really any different then Mark Pavlich claiming that MFC is “the first serious MMA promotion in Canada” or Scott Coker saying that Batista vs. Lashley is “a fun, PPV worthy fight that fans wanna see”. Fight promotion is the buisness of BS slinging, and White slings more and faster then anyone else.
Give me smallest finger on man's hand. I'll produce information. Computer unnecessary.
zuffa makes shit up we know this cause frank shamrock doesnt exist
but they put on great fights so i really dont give a fuck
We have a saying back home that if your coming on, COME ON!!!!
Being from Boston
Ron Borges is the Boston Herald version of Dan Shaughnessy. Both rely on saying ridiculous things in their columns because they can’t think of anything else to write about (Shaughnessy was pissed when the Sox finally won the World Series because he had to stop peddling the “Curse of the Bambino”)
Please remember, Borges openly called for Bill Belichick to get fired even after the Pats won Super Bowls. He makes a living on writing controversial things that he probably doesn’t even believe. Don’t take him seriously. Even better yet, don’t read his stuff so maybe the Herald will finally let him go and hire someone else.
Overblown, Yes? Underserving of credit? No!
Though I agree with your overall point that White likes to exaggerate his hand in ‘cleaning up the sport’ (which is still dirty as ever) the fact remains that he turned UFC from a 2M venture into a 2B world class enterprise that boasts the most talented fight roster around the globe. Hard to argue with success, and with Disney-owned ESPN now covering MMA he’s certainly raised the sport up from the slums of professional sport at the very least…
"Every day gets better for me, you know what I'm saying? If anyone has a chance to beat me, it was yesterday..." - Kevin Ferguson
by bloodsportmmadotcom on Aug 26, 2010 1:41 PM EDT reply actions
The road to promotion success:
1) buy very well known promotion that previously sold up to 300,000 ppvs a show for cheap because they can’t get on ppv, but has made all the rule changes needed and is only waiting for NSAC to sanction it to get back on.
2) use your partners connections with NSAC get it sanctioned and start selling ppvs.
3) struggle for 4 years
4) get a reality show on cable channel with a WWE lead in and watch the ppvs takeoff.
by John Nash on Aug 26, 2010 2:04 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
lol
Facts don't come with points of view.
by Robert Livingston on Aug 27, 2010 1:26 AM EDT up reply actions
Zuffa spins BS, M-1 spins BS (Fedor/Rogers was seen by over 25 million, with 15 million in Russia, except that Russian numbers were actually less than 10%), Pride spun BS (Pride ran shows with attendance of over 90,000 only that never happened)…nothing new. It has happened and will continue to happen.
Frank Shamrock says that his bout with Le stayed standing because SF was counting on that bout to be exciting and secure the CBS deal…a deal that was announced prior to the bout.
More of the same in a sport full of it.
Dana loves the first person singular
Dana is constantly taking verbal credit for things that other people in the company or industry have done. It’s always that he made this or that fight, he built this or that, he fought for regulation. Sometimes is laughably transparent that he is putting the ‘I’ into the sentence in place of ‘Joe Silva’ or ‘we’ or ‘a team of people’; you can actually see him make the replacement in interviews. He’s slightly uncomfortable with the “I”, or there’s a hesitation and then I get a smarmy feeling. I can’t be the only one who notices this.
http://twitter.com/usatmma/status/20079326137
If MMA were the car industry, Dana White would be Henry Ford — not the inventor or primary influence on the basic template, but the man who spread it to the masses.
Sergio Non,
MMA writer, USA TODAY
http://mma.usatoday.com
You think? SEG sold hundreds of thousands of pay per views and PRIDE attracted almost half a nation to some of their TV broadcasts. Zuffa took a failing industry, pumped money into it, made a lot of mistakes, and finally found a formula that worked. That’s a worthwhile thing-but not nearly as dramatic as your comment!
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 2:01 PM EDT up reply actions 1 recs
I still like Hyundai and Chung Ju-yung
They started off with some struggles and have developed into an industry leader.
Chrysler sucks…
Just like Subaru would not exist without GM Hyundai would not exist wiithout Ford.
we each must become like fishermen, and go out on to the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea
by Barack Lesnar on Aug 26, 2010 2:51 PM EDT up reply actions
And everyone else
is John Z. Delorean, and not in his GTO days, either.
It’s hard to see the difference between White and any other great promoter (and most famous inventors) who assimilate what others have done and become it’s greatest advocate, and who become the face of that advance. Edison didn’t invent the light bulb, Bell didn’t invent the telephone, Gates absconded with the best ideas of his predecessors, etc…
The real talent is turning those great ideas into a practice, make money , and ingrain them into America’s psyche, just like what Dana has done.
Edison and Bell
were dicks.
"Don’t quote old fucks to me" – Brent Brookhouse
by Chris Barton on Aug 26, 2010 2:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Nikola Tesla
that is all
we each must become like fishermen, and go out on to the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea
by Barack Lesnar on Aug 26, 2010 2:50 PM EDT up reply actions
Yeah
Edison gets a really bad rap from people who view themselves as “informed”.
She was no saint, but he was still a genius. And yes, I do know who Joseph Swan and Nikolai Tesla are…
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Aug 26, 2010 4:30 PM EDT up reply actions
Direct current was inferior and Edison knew it. He also hired Tesla and stole his ideas without compensation. A motherfucking C you have Tesla to thank for the modern world as you know it. Oh yeah he also transmitted wireless energy before 1900. Suck it Edison you prick.
we each must become like fishermen, and go out on to the dark ocean of mind, and let your nets down into that sea
by Barack Lesnar on Aug 26, 2010 6:35 PM EDT up reply actions
That's some pretty strong language
Over something like this, and I really don’t think it was fair to refer to me in that way.
I wasn’t trying to belittle Tesla, but rather trying to point out that some people get a bit carried away with the anti – Edison stuff.
You really don’t have to inform me about what Tesla did, I’m pretty clued up on all that.
"All the time he's boxing, he's thinking. All the time he was thinking, I was hitting him." - Jack Dempsey
by Drunken cutman on Aug 26, 2010 7:45 PM EDT up reply actions
MMA turned out to be a fad in Japan and was looking to be one under SEG. To extend the auto analogy, SEG was like the Duryea or Eli Olds — successful for a short period, but no staying power.
Whatever else can be said about Zuffa, there’s no question that it has given the sport a far more solid footing and carried MMA to what seems to be lasting mainstream acceptance in much of North America. That’s pretty much what Ford did for the car.
Sergio Non,
MMA writer, USA TODAY
http://mma.usatoday.com
by Sergio Non on Aug 26, 2010 6:10 PM EDT up reply actions 2 recs
Zuffa deserves lots of credit, for persistence as much as Anything else. But you are doing SEG a disservice. They weren’t failing at the marketplace because they were inferior promoters. In fact, they understood things it took Zuffa time to learn.
There wasn’t anything magical about Zuffa. They actually took the promotion backwards financially at first. A lot of things coalesced to make the current success possible. Dana White’s “genius” isn’t at the top of that list.
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 11:22 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Fuck it, I'll say it
They wouldn’t approved the UFC for license in Nevada to get the price low
/sarcasm
Better known as Black Lesnar
Read me at WatchKalibRun
by S.C. Michaelson on Aug 27, 2010 11:25 AM EDT up reply actions
uhhhh
Mainstream MMA in Japan lasted almost a decade and the sport still exists, although not on the level it did previously. Let’s see where North American MMA is in a few years….it’s only been 5 years since TUF. Still way too early to say if this is a fad or not.
by JimmersonzGlove on Aug 28, 2010 6:12 AM EDT up reply actions
Put your anti-Zuffa hat down
You state that as if MMA would exist today if Zuffa didn’t buy it, and anyone else would have lucked into the “formula.” It took (1) Dana White, (2) The Fertittas with money, (3) the passion for martial arts to continue after losing 34 million, and (4) an idea to get a reality show and (5) paying $10 to finance that show themselves after every network balked.
MMA is lucky to have all 5 things intersecting at the same time. Give credit where credit is due. The UFC in anyone else’s hands (Scott Coker?) would be disastrous. There would be no MMA in 2010 as it exists today.
I’m certain MMA would exist without Zuffa. The UFC would exist. It probably wouldn’t be as big as it has become. But the concept was undeniable. It would have captured an audience.
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 26, 2010 11:25 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
That’s awfully optimistic. There was always an audience. Hell, there’s still an audience for boxing. But without competent (if not “genius”) management combined with adequate resources and an actual – not fake, not manufactured – love of the sport, the audience doesn’t have shit to watch.
When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are in a confederacy against him. - Jonathan Swift
Contributor for WatchKalibRun.com
Still Subo at Fightlinker.com
by Derek Suboticki on Aug 26, 2010 11:49 PM EDT up reply actions
What you’re saying is true, but it’s the concept that only Zuffa or Dana White had the secret/magic formula to make it work that gets a little grating. The secret was that they bought the UFC name and logo and then they got TUF on after the WWE. That was really it. averaging less than 100k in sales before TUF, averaging 400k 18 months later.
If there was any secret to their success it was purseverance and faith.
by John Nash on Aug 27, 2010 12:31 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Persistence was their key attribute.
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 27, 2010 8:17 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
First off, I don’t know what the hell purseverance is, but since perseverance is the act of persisting, I’d say we’re both right.
by John Nash on Aug 27, 2010 12:40 PM EDT via mobile up reply actions
As far as the picture at the beginning of the article...
I always liked this version better:
JONNNY "SNOWED IN "
I thought this was some incredibly clever prose, until I perused the Boston Globe article and saw that Jonny boy had stolen most of it,.. as per usual.
See me @ cagestoker ifithd
STOKER MAC
What gave away that he stole it?
That it was in a fucking quotation box?
by John Nash on Aug 27, 2010 12:34 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Probably the link to the source? My prose may need work but I would never get my history so….wrong.
by Jonathan Snowden on Aug 27, 2010 8:14 AM EDT via mobile up reply actions
Comments For This Post Are Closed
Secondary Sidebar
User Tools
Related FanPosts on Bloody Elbow
Related FanShots on Bloody Elbow
FanPosts
Community blog posts and discussion.
Recommended FanPosts
Recent FanPosts
MMA Rankings
