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Dana White gives Sherdog media credentials while Loretta Hunt & Josh Gross continue to live in his head rent-free

By Zach Arnold | December 26, 2012

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Ariel Helwani talks with Dana White about this weekend’s PPV from Las Vegas (MMAFighting.com)

I wasn’t sure what to expect in this 25 minute interview. There’s really not a lot of talk about the upcoming PPV this weekend. It just doesn’t have the buzz like the St. Pierre/Condit fight had last month.

Dana claimed that he didn’t know the severity of Cain’s ACL injury before the first fight with JDS, but indicated that fighters can fight with a blown-out ACL.

When Testosterone Todd Duffee was mentioned, Dana White went into “we treat fighters better than any other promotion ever has” mode. He addressed boxing promoters like Golden Boy “copying” the UFC.

“We pay guys money that we don’t owe them. We’re doing something right over here. … They’re all starting to copy us now.”

Dana stated that big fights will remain on PPV and that the PPV revenue avenue will live on. Regarding all the injuries in the top fights that hurt PPV buys this year…

“Was it a horrendous year? No. It was still a good year for us, but it could have been a lot better. … I think we delivered great events all year except for Calgary. … The fight(s) might not stay together but you know we’re going to put together great fights and put on a great show.”

Regarding the future of the UFC/Fox 7-year TV contract: “We couldn’t work together better. … They’re young, smart, aggressive guys.”

When asked about the death of Strikeforce, Dana seemed very relieved about the mess ending. He refused to elaborate on why the relationship with Showtime fell apart, other than to say that “it wasn’t meant to be.”

“I have a lot of respect for all the [fighters] over there who have put up with all the bullshit that’s gone on over the last year.

“A lot of guys were hurt by this deal.”

When asked about Showtime sticking around in MMA in the future… “Who knows? Who gives a shit? Who cares?”

The greatest part of the interview, however, comes at the 14:30 time mark when Ariel Helwani asks Dana White about the MMA media and what he thinks about the quality of the reporting. Dana announced that he’s giving Sherdog their media credentials. No more Loretta Hunt or Josh Gross? No problem, according to Dana.

Words cannot describe Dana’s tone of voice and emotion when he started ranting about how ‘dirty’ Loretta Hunt & Josh Gross are as writers. It’s clear that those two live in the guy’s head rent-free. He’s still obsessed with Loretta about the fact that he got in trouble over using nasty language in that Youtube rant of his. You can read the transcript text of it right here.

“I think she’s a horrible reporter.”

The charm offensive didn’t stop there.

“I just think that they’re bad people. … Those two I’ll never forgive or forget.”

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

10 Responses to “Dana White gives Sherdog media credentials while Loretta Hunt & Josh Gross continue to live in his head rent-free”

  1. Chris says:

    Welcome to Dana Land. Strange, bizarre, and often quite silly.

  2. david m says:

    I just read on mmamania.com an article in which the headline reads (in pertinent part) “Juan Manuel Marquez finally got PASSED Manny Pacquiao” (my emphasis)

    This is why I treat most mma media like a complete joke. Frankly, almost all sports writers are imbeciles, but mma media may actually be a cut even below the average sportswriter.

    Zach is one of the few mma media members who actually investigates stories and thinks outside the box, which is why I like his site. There is a good writer on bloody elbow who breaks stuff down (did 2 good pieces on the fighting style of the Diaz bros compared to the style of bare-knuckled boxers of yesteryear), Dave Meltzer is a HOFer, fightlinker is funny, but the rest leaves something to be desired, shall we say.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      They are just fans with a backstage pass.

      Dana White was asked about Eddie Alvarez in another video interview and he said it was “going to get ugly”.

      My guess is that Bellator won’t release some of his likeness rights or are trying to play hardball on PPV Numbers despite not being on PPV.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    Dana White was asked about Eddie Alvarez in another video interview and he said it was “going to get ugly”.

    My guess is that Bellator won’t release some of his likeness rights or are trying to play hardball on PPV Numbers despite not being on PPV.

  4. Jason Harris says:

    Outside of each other and MMA websites looking for a controversy, who honestly cares 1 bit about Josh Gross or Loretta Hunt or if they do/don’t get free passes to events to write about them?

    Nobody is sharing their writing as pinnacles of quality. Nobody is clamoring to read their articles.

    Why should we care if they are credentialed or not? Because they manage to get affiliated with websites with relatively big names? Who cares?

    • Zach Arnold says:

      You just made the point everyone has been making without stating it today.

      Watch the video – Dana claims that he was thinking about Loretta Hunt. Why in the hell would he continue to obsess about her or Josh Gross now?

      As I said in the RSS description, he’s like the football coach that minimizes winning Super Bowls and instead harps on forever, seething over losing a preseason game 55-0 from five years ago.

      • Jason Harris says:

        I would imagine he continues to think about it because the media that talks to him continues to bother him about it?

        Loretta hunt not getting media credentials is a non story, and writing about it in a roundabout way by making the story about Dana White talking about her instead of her directly still doesn’t make her or the story relevant.

        I am not surprised Dana White harbors ill will towards people who have been a thorn in his side. Why wouldn’t he? Why should we think it is bad or unusual that he doesn’t just decide to be buddy buddy with them?

        There’s an implication that we should continue to demonize Dana White until he forgives them somehow (by renewing their free tickets?) which is kind of ridiculous.

        • shocbomb says:

          George Steinbrenner just loathes and downright hated alot of the memebers of the media but could you imagine him not letting Mike Lupica have media credentials ? It would never happen no matter how much ill will or discontent he had for any member of the media.

          Its absolute BS that 2 high ranking media members who have coverd MMA for years are not alloweed to obtain media credentials to the UFC. The only reason being the hurt feelings of 1 man Dana White. All MMA media members should be outraged by this.

          And lets be honest about this yes the video rant Dana did and the fire storm that came down upon him for using derogatory language added a ton of fuel to the fire but that fire had been buring for some years prior. This all goes back to Dana being pissed off at Gross for spoling season 3 or 4 what ever season it was of TUF by saying the winners on sherdog radio and then writing a story on sherdog before the show had even aired. This all happend why Hunt was the head edittor at Sherdog and thats what pissed Dana off at both of them. The straw the broke the camels back was that stupid Fighting Politics video about Matt Lindland are the childish reasons why D White still holds his grudge that he does to this day. Any MMA journalist who appeared in that Lindland doc have been on Whites black ball list. Like I said above its complete BS and it would happen in any other sport for a negative atricle or write up only in MMA were 1 man holds almost all the power !

  5. edub says:

    Josh Gross, great writer and good reporter in my opinion.

    Loretta Hunt, most overrated writer/reporter in mixed martial arts. I have absolutely zero care for her not getting credentialed, and actually find it amusing that she still doesn’t.

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