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Drama between Miletich & White continues
By Zach Arnold | August 4, 2006
By Zach Arnold
2006 has publicly proven to be quite the interesting year between superstar MMA trainer/businessman Pat Miletich and UFC President Dana White. Tim Sylvia, Miletich’s top heavyweight, remains UFC champion. Miletich gave a witness deposition statement in the UFC vs. IFL court case earlier this year, in which he talked about Dana’s displeasure with the IFL hiring and using former UFC employees (and their apparent business data sources).
Today, the Quad-City Times reports that Pat Miletich is claiming that UFC President Dana White is creating scheduling conflicts for both he and his fighters, forcing his camp to have to make tough business decisions as to which shows to appear on (the UFC or the IFL).
I strongly encourage everyone to read the article. It’s an explosive piece that could be a sign of trouble coming. UFC has the brand power, but Miletich brings the leverage of training some of the world’s top fighters. This could end very ugly.
“I’m sure he does think that. Pat’s a paranoid lunatic, and he thinks that the UFC’s always trying to (mess) with him,†White said. “The IFL sells 1,000 tickets. It wasn’t a dig on Pat, but he’ll think it was.â€
Jeff Thaler has more thoughts on the article.
Topics: All Topics, IFL, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 10 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Interesting but when a camp such as Miletich’s expands so much in a period of growth for MMA it’s only natural this kind of conflict would come up. Pat has a lot of commitments it seems, be it coaching his 3(!) UFC champs, his IFL team and relaunching his own fight career.
As much as I like that camp and the fighters who come from it he has really taken too much on to justify being pissed with Dana.
It’s not like Hughes and Pulver have a lack of corner men to choose from when you talk about that camp, I’m sure Franklin and Silvia be there for them.
While he may not have purposely set the same date to screw with the IFL (which I think is more likely than messing with Militech personally) I’m sure he didn’t feel bad about using the same date. But hey, thats business.
I admittedly don’t know how to organize a multi-million dollar PPV sporting event. But there has to be quite a few factors involved. Things like logistics, unions, insurance, licensing, inDemand, Spiketv, site fees, availabilities, taxes, and I am sure considerations for their competition is justifiably somewhere on their metrics.
I doubt he did it to piss off Pat and Pat may well be a bit of a fruit… For Dana to say that is really pretty… well… Dana-like really. Plankish.
Before anything else, let us take a look at September:
Sept 2nd: That would a week after UFC 62. That does not work.
Sept 9th: That would be two weeks after UFC 63 AND would conflict with another IFL date.
Sept 16th: In Vegas, there is boxing ppv for the WBO Welterweight title. Would not be smart to book that and the ppv cable companies would likely fight that.
Sept 23rd: Pat fights on an IFL show.
Sept 30th: That would be two weeks before UFC 64.
So, which date makes the most sense? Which date is pretty much in the middle of UFC 62 and UFC 64? Anyone else think Pat is coming across as a tad bit whiney? He has a lot of fighters and has a lot of oars in the water. I am sure this will not be the only time there is a scheduling conflict.Dana can be an ass, everyone knows this. But I just don’t see the UFC building their schedule around Pat and the IFL.
Pat’s ego sounds like it might be as big as Dana’s.
That article refers to the IFL event as a ppv. It is not.
Indeed, I only saw IFL on Fox Sports, and it was poorly advertised (even on their own network). Maybe if Dana had said WFA instead… but I really don’t put it past him to screw with Militech.
White doesn’t have a problem with IFL? What happend to that “lawsuit” thingy over IFL taking a UFC employee?
ssshhh…Dana’s trying to make IFL look less signifigant.
Dana White is a work.