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Media quote of the day
By Zach Arnold | September 5, 2006
Dana White in the Miami Herald on an impending HBO deal:
‘There’s never a deal until a deal is done, . . . but, yeah, we’re going to do a deal with HBO,” White said. “HBO is getting pulled, kicking and screaming, into this thing. They’ve obviously spent millions of dollars on boxing. [HBO Sports president] Ross Greenberg has boxing gloves running through his veins. It’s a real kick in the [groin] for all the boxing people to see this thing coming up the way it is. It is what it is. It’s here. It’s not going anywhere. This is what all the young people like. It’s going to be around for a while.”
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Gotta wonder how long it would take for Showtime to jump into the MMA pool. Perhaps more than just infomercials from the WFA could make its way onto Showtime’s schedule.
[...] Source: FightOpinion.com [...]
I’d love to see MMA/UFC on HBO, but after Dana made an official announcement about Silva-Liddell only to have it fall apart because of a premature announcement on live PPV, I think I’ll wait until I actually see MMA on HBO myself before I believe this now.
Instead of talking about the rich history boxing has had on HBO, and hopes of MMA one day have the same rich history on HBO, he talks shit on the sport of boxing. Dana White needs help in the PR department.
I would kill to see Lampley give the lead in to a UFC event…BWAHAHA
Tobin - the most bizarre thing about Dana’s comments is that he doesn’t have a deal in place with HBO right now, yet before a deal is even signed he’s already talking down HBO - his potential big TV partner! Dana needs to become very careful that TV executives don’t lump his attitude in the same category as they have with Vince McMahon. That will cost UFC money.
I seriously have my doubts about there actually being an HBO deal on the table. I don’t see where the value added is for HBO. They pretty much have reached a saturation point as far as subscribers, adding UFC to their slate isn’t going to yield any significant level of new subscribers. Boxing has a long history on HBO, it’s true, but it would have hit the bricks long ago if not for the fact that HBO has a lucrative PPV division to reap the benefits of all the hype it gets on the network channel. IF HBO PPV isn’t getting a piece of the UFC action, what is their impetus to do a deal? I can’t see dana parting with any percentages on PPV’s when they are making money hand over fist in that department. I think this is a case of Dana talking this up big, hyping UFC being so mainstream that HBO wants in, when there is probably little there.