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Dana White and his mysterious new ‘big business deal’
By Zach Arnold | June 2, 2009
Here’s what he said last night (June 1st) in video form:
“So today, I told you guys that I had a bunch of big news for you. Obviously, you heard Kimbo Slice is in the ultimate fighter season 10 which we started filming today and Lorenzo and I had a killer, killer meeting in Los Angeles today, and uh I was hoping I’d be able to tell you about it today but the way deals go, they take time, so I can’t tell you today but I can tell you it was a great meeting, and I’m feeling very confident that we’re going to get this deal done, and it’s literally going to change the UFC forever and mixed martial arts.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 31 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
lololol EVERYONE GO CRAZY. Watch it be Colony taking the Fertitta’s last chunk of Station so that the other brother can go pretend to do something with the UFC.
Bobby Lashley in the house as well with UFC on one of the big networks?
It could be something big, but the last time Dana White promised something that would “literally change MMA forever,” it was just Lorenzo Fertitta jumping off of a sinking ship right before it hit the proverbial iceberg.
Samoa Joe vs. winner of Frank Mir/Brock Lesnar? Michael Jordan vs. Anderson Silva? Zuffa buys out WWE and TNA wrestling? God damn it Dana, what the fuck is it?!?!?!
Patrick Cote vs. Ed “Short Fuse” Herman at UFC 104.
I predict that the UFC is going to announce that they sign a deal with Epix, the premium network lunch by Viacom, MGM and Lionsgate. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epix_(TV_network)
Epix need original programming to compete with HBO and Showtime. Being an upstart network, they are not going to ask the UFC to produce the show like HBO…
Toy deal part 2.
Alan – I got your mail earlier today. You said you were going to write back with more — let me know you do. Thanks.
Isn’t Fedor in CA right now?
It’s either Fedor or TV deal.
Hmmm …
I don’t know about the whole epix thing.
It hasn’t even launched yet & there’s no guarantee that there would be remotely enough of an audience to attract Dana & the boys to sign with them. I mean, at this point there’s no subscriber base & no info regarding how many or which of the cable/satellite services will pick up the channel.
HBO would be BIG news. ABC, NBC or Fox would be BIG news. epix? Not so much IMO.
But then, at this point anything’s possible I suppose …
That’s the reason UFC and Epix might team up. Epix absolutely needs the UFC brand to sell their network. HBO not so much.
Dan Severn is coming back to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 107
Fedor would be insane news. I’ve convinced myself it’ll never happen to keep my hopes from getting crushed, so I’m going with a TV deal.
“Dan Severn is coming back to fight Brock Lesnar at UFC 107”
lol, that one actually isn’t too far-fetched given the fact that they actually booked Lesnar vs. Mark Coleman for last August, and the only reason it didn’t happen is because Coleman tore his MCL.
Thank God Fedor wasn’t Coleman’s last opponen before the cancelled Lesnar fight.
Without reading the comments.. my guess is
ESPN
E S P N
EESSPPNN
At least Severn’s still an active fighter, or was up until last year. Still busting up the minor circuit with Kimura finishes.
Gotta hand it to him, if he doesn’t know when to quit, at least it isn’t showing yet.
Change MMA and UFC forever?
How about Dana gets a surgery to correct his cranial – rectal inversion.
Now that would be big news.
Dana was voted most likely to be Tony Schiavone in his high school yearbook
Can’t be ESPN because the SpikeTV doesn’t allow for it. Unless they bought Bellator and are running that promotion on ESPN. But then technically that wouldn’t be big for the UFC. Unless they consider it like their minor leagues.
Also, I believe ESPN is headquartered in Connecticut, not LA.
Dana is a blowhard. Last time I remember him saying that something “would change MMA forever”, it was simply an endorsement deal for some redneck product like Harley or Mickey’s.
I’ll believe it when I see it. Until then, I’m not going to bother.
Correct. Bristol, CT.
How about this one….
Zuffa is purchasing Affliction MMA. They are purchasing many of the contracts with it, including Fedor’s. The Affliction 3 event will be on SpikeTV.
Never happen, but if it did, 20,000 pride fanboys would explode at the same time.
ESPN’s headquartered in Bristol but they’re setting up shop in LA.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/06/espns-los-angeles-studio-_n_183431.html
They’ve been running commercials about moving Sportscenter to California.
Rp
Someone mentioned on Zach’s myspace page the possibility of it being Gina Carano…
While this wouldn’t be up there with the news of a network TV deal, it would change the landscape of MMA. Creating a woman’s division in the UFC (or WEC) would generate a lot of hype
I spoke to Fedor this afternoon. He confirmed to me that he\’s signing with the UFC.
We\’re all in LA now.
It’s not going to be Gina. My guess is they met with Spike TV regarding a weekly television deal.
“I don’t know about the whole epix thing.
It hasn’t even launched yet & there’s no guarantee that there would be remotely enough of an audience to attract Dana & the boys to sign with them”
Sounds a lot like SpikeTV back in 2005.
I think Dana & the Fajitas like being partnered up with a network that is completely dependent on their product.
Seriously, where would they be if TUF had run on USA or TNT rather than Spike? Sure, those networks have a much bigger audience, but there is no way in hell they would let Zuffa monopolize their broadcast schedule the way that Spike does.
There are some pretty huge advantages to getting in on the ground floor with a new premium network.
The Spike brand as a whole might have been a newer concept in 2005 but it was hardly an unwatched network. Remember prior to UFC, WWE’s Monday Night Raw was regularly pulling in rather high cable ratings on that station.
Spike was some other network before it was Spike anyway, it wasn’t building from nothing. I can’t remember if it was TNT or TNN though.
TNN
It started as The Nashville Network. Then around the time ECW came on (around 1999) it was changed to The National Network. Then it went to SpikeTV.
The Spike brand as a whole might have been a newer concept in 2005 but it was hardly an unwatched network. Remember prior to UFC, WWE’s Monday Night Raw was regularly pulling in rather high cable ratings on that station.
…and of course was the leadin for TUF. Meanwhile, what would Epix have for a lead in for UFC? I mean, if as popular internet talk is that Versus is to blame for the failures of the WEC to attact/keep an audience, how would some new *premium* cable service succeed?