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UFC President Dana White’s crusade against the media this week
By Zach Arnold | January 1, 2010
We all read the transcript or saw the video of White’s rant (again) about Sherdog and Jake Rossen, but I honestly didn’t believe that he would continue feeding oxygen into this for the rest of the week. I was wrong. White is now doubling-down on it and there were a couple of interviews that highlighted this.
The first interview was a nine-minute interview with Steve Cofield. Cofield, an ESPN radio host who talks about most sports on his local Las Vegas show (and writes for Yahoo Sports), was poking holes into what White was saying about what the media’s job should be in terms of covering MMA. White tried to claim that what Rossen wrote wasn’t necessarily what set him off but rather the fact that Sherdog didn’t give UFC 108 a lot of press coverage. White vocally discussed how he doesn’t have to give out credentials to the media.
The second interview with MMA Fighting gave us a better idea of what his motives are. He said that he doesn’t like the mainstream media that gives UFC coverage to start reading and taking their leads from “the Internet” when it comes to writing negative stories. A recent LA Times story (December 22nd by Lance Pugmire) talking about UFC’s momentum stalling has driven White crazy and he absolutely cannot hide his contempt for the article. He is making claims that the media is not reporting facts and is reporting both lies and negativity.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 26 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
White and the UFC are underdogs and the media is an evil conglomerate.
It’s all a really bad combination.
1) The main stream media is completely clueless about MMA. They end up outsourcing it to crap journalists, or use those journalists as a source of information.
2) The actual MMA Media is self destructive much like the Pro Wrestling fans were about the WWE. They crap on the very product they say hey enjoy.
3) Dana White has thin skin and a big mouth and hates the media.
Oh the drama!!
“He is making claims that the media is not reporting facts and is reporting both lies and negativity.”
I’m not sure they are purposely reporting lies, but they certainly report on things they don’t fully understand or don’t have all the facts about. Writing a story on something you don’t have all the facts about is almost worse then completely ignoring it. Putting out half truths (whether intentional or not), is a dangerous game to be in. And it seems to be the norm with MMA stories.
Just look the sponsorship stories. At one point it was reported that the UFC was forcing sponsors to pay $100,000 to even be eligible to be a sponsor. As more facts have come out on that issue, it seems like those initial reports were really half #ssed articles that didn’t do the leg work on what was really happening.
And this is just one of the many examples….
Dana White needs to keep his mouth shut… But this anger he is having is legit and deserving of the media. But he should be keeping these comments private…. Nothing good comes of making it public…
And say what you will about Dana White’s big mouth and his conflicts with his fighters… But he knows MMA. Saw this from BE about what he said on Ishii a YEAR ago…
“I don’t believe in the Japanese philosophy, let’s throw him in there and get him (expletive) murdered like Sakuraba,” he spat. “You know, the whole guts and glory thing over in Japan. I believe in taking a kid, putting him in the right weight class, moving him up, and taking time.
“If he does it the right way with us, he’ll be a superstar in Japan. It’s a much better deal for him than going in and getting executed by guys who have been fighting for a long time…because they need to make a fight right now so they can survive. See, Dream-needs him. I don’t. I want him.””
He was 100% right on this. He also predicted the reasons why his competition would fall much sooner then anybody else. So for a guy who obviously knows MMA better then anybody else, I think he has a hard time handling people with less brains then him (on MMA) disagreeing with his ways.
They say Steve Jobs is brutal when it comes to his products. That he can be a real a-hole. I believe Dana White is the same way. But Steve Jobs doesn’t talk to the media outside of a rare interview with a hand picked guy once in a while.
Perhaps Dana White should study the Steve Jobs handbook. It would come off a lot better….
My respect for Cofield has risen after this interview.
So you’re not allowed to have an opinion about the very entity your dollars keep afloat?
The WWE comparison is a bad one. It wasn’t until they became openly pissed off at their audience hating the product in mid-2001 and clearly continued going in the direction the fans hated out of spite that the division between the company and their fans got nasty. Up until then outside of the usual elitists that crop up complaining when anything becomes too popular there was no “self destructive” backlash. Why shouldn’t the very fans who they depend on for survival get to have a say when they don’t like their direction? You speak like they’re doing us a favor by staying opened.
And we’re supposed to bow down and thank the Lord for Dana White because he said he didn’t like Sakuraba fighting outside of his weight class? Come on, that’s as obvious as saying “I don’t think a high school football team should play The New England Patriots because it isn’t fair.” Plus running Randy Couture at 230 pounds and 46 years old versus Brock Lesnar at probably 285 pounds and 30 years old was just as bad (if not worse than) Sakuraba versus Wanderlei 2 and 3.
Whining is Dana’s anti-drug
Yeah yeah, 45 Huddle, cause Yoshida was that hard opponent for Ishii. It’s Satoshi who fucked up. He wasn’t in any case thrown to the wolves.
“Plus running Randy Couture at 230 pounds and 46 years old versus Brock Lesnar at probably 285 pounds and 30 years old was just as bad (if not worse than) Sakuraba versus Wanderlei 2 and 3.”
Only in hindsight. At the time, many thought Couture would win, and the gambling line was even until the day of the fight. It’s fun to think about how if Couture had fought Fedor instead, there’d be no talk of mismatch, even though so many think Fedor > Brock. Instead, it’d be a milestone victory that sealed Fedor’s legacy for all time.
I should mention that the biggest bet I’ve ever made was on Lesnar at +110. Thanks for paying rent that month Brock.
Dana is surprised that 5 years after these mainstream media started covering the sport they’re finally not parroting everything he says anymore? Man, it was so much easier in the days where the media would just print press releases as news and fact.
6 minute mark of the Cofield video he only mentions Iole as the guy who’s doing things the right way LOL. BLAF has officially lost his mind.
And LOL at 45 thinking Yoshida was throwing Ishi to the wolves. How much bigger of a softball could they have given him? The only win he had had since 2006 was vs a mid 40’s Maurice Smith. And he’s a blown up middleweight who was giving up mad size. Gee willikers, that Dana guy sure is right about Japan again.
How much slower could they have possibly brought him along? LOL
Ishii lost because he didn’t train properly. Hell, his handlers kept delaying his debut because they were trying to get him to learn how to fight instead of going to a big name gym for 2 weeks, taking a lot of photos with the press and moving on.
I’m with you Dave. Before we write off Ishii, let’s see what happens if he trains with one gym full time and not go on another world training tour.
There is no way Ishii was thrown to the wolves.
That’s not in hindsight, that’s due to fanboyisms. The CAPTAIN AMERICA~! myth of an ageless fighter who would always beat the odds. I think part of it were people feeling dumb they picked Gonzaga to beat Randy so they thought for sure he’d give Brock the Mir treatment. But in reality he was a guy who hadn’t fought in a year, who was 46, who beat the overrated Sylvia and a mentally weak Gonzaga. While Brock is probably the greatest physical specimen MMA will ever have who negated every bit of Randy’s grappling ability. In reality, putting aside Joe Rogan leading the Randy worship brigade and mythology, there was only one way that fight was going.
Couture/Lesnar was a 50/50 fight from both a fans, media, and fighter stand point. to deny this is to revise history.
Here’s the link to the interview with commentary, since Zach only linked to the Youtube and not the actual site the interview came from.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/The-role-of-the-media-in-2010-and-beyond-White-?urn=mma,211378
1) Takanori Gomi signed with the UFC.
2) Alistair Overeem is saying that he can’t fight Fedor in April. Perhaps May or June. Scott Coker must be loving this guy right now. Co-promotion and non-exclusive contracts…. A real winning formula!!
Yoshida was a total softball for Ishii. How many fights is Ishii signed to for WVR? His contract has to be huge.
http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2010/1/1/1229804/why-dana-hates-internet-media
Article of the new year so far. And the comments section only makes it better.
My issue is that while Dana White may dislike much of the MMA online media now, what happens in the future? I feel that we have not seen a true crossover just yet, but when in 20 years when this generation of 18-34 year olds, 12-17 year olds, and even younger grow up, accept higher profile jobs and become the main driving factor in the country, then what? What happens if you have writers like Stephen Smith or commentators like are heard on sports talk radio in most major cities begin covering MMA in earnest and not with maybe 2-3 articles per year for big fights? I don\’t even think we\’ve seen anything happen yet.
I did not deny that Couture was a favorite, he clearly was and betting odds were either split or had him with the edge. I said logically it was impossible and those that did (the media, fans and fighters) were picking favorites rather than who logically could take a year off, come back at nearly 50 years old and take on a fighter 15 years younger, over 50 pounds heavier who is just as good at your best technique (wrestling) as you are.
As for the Fedor comparison, while he is Randy’s size which puts him at a disadvantage Couture does not possess 1 punch knock out power and is very mediocre at submissions. Therefore Fedor wouldn’t be banking on going 5 rounds to win like Couture did. Of course it is very possible that Lesnar would maul Fedor with takedowns, but he has far more tools than Randy ever did.
Can’t believe Gomi signed with the UFC. I doubt Zuffa matched whatever WVR or DREAM would have paid him so this seems unusual to me. Either way, it’s pleasant news. A game Gomi has a great “UFC style” (sprawl n brawl) and is an exciting fighter to watch.
mmalogic at his best – I hate that I even give the guy the time of day, as if to give him any credence whatsoever.
The guy’s supposed to be some big-shot important business/industry insider, yet he spends hours on an mma blawg writing fanposts and using charts he stole from Da Metlz’? lmfao
Talk about the ultimate goalpost moving, re-defining arguments too. Saying you can’t look at a company’s quarter performance? Isn’t that how all (public) companies are evaluated? Granted they aren’t a public company – but they too have internal projections and estimates, and the fact that they obviously did not hit what any sane person would have projected for them after UFC 100 (and didn’t even match 08’s 4th quarter) is imho a clear “loss of momentum”, if only for a quarter.
Of course, as evidenced in the comment section – to say so based on the actual numbers clearly means “you hate the UFC and pray to Jeebus every night that it will fail and Elite XC will take over the world!”
People who believe in MMALogic are such fools. Also he showed what a fraud he is with that laughable write up of a Machida-Shogun preview. Not only did he expose himself as faking being associated with Zuffa, he exposed himself as a novice to the sport. I never insult people who came in through discovering The Ultimate Fighter, but he’s a “TUF noob” if I’ve ever seen it.
And I wish Eddie Goldman would come back to prominence so the Zuffaites can see what a real irrational UFC hater looks like. To realize there’s a huge difference between criticism and bitterness.
I love that you saw that “write-up” as well…it was such drivel. That’s the big industry insider from Zuffa that has 95% of the people over there kissing his ass and hanging on his ever word?
He’s a total fraud, he doesn’t know anything about “da biz” outside of what anyone with a college diploma in business, an undying love for Zuffa and far too much time on their hands could conjure up – yet since he uses a few “fancy” words he learned in Biz 101, tells people he’s from Dubai (whether he is or isn’t is not important) and makes the same tired arguments (over-and-over-and-over) people have bought his schtick…which doesn’t speak too highly of their ability to separate the wheat from the chaff.
“And I wish Eddie Goldman would come back to prominence so the Zuffaites can see what a real irrational UFC hater looks like. To realize there’s a huge difference between criticism and bitterness.”
Yep. Goldman probably mumbles very bitter things about Zuffa in his sleep.
Yoshida looked like he was a cheeseburger away from being Tank Abbott and still knocked Ishii all over the ring. What a disaster that fight was!!
Hilarious stuff – some blog poster just tore apart mmalogic’s (the huge industry/biz insider) entire “statistical analysis” and “forecasting” of ppv buyrates, which ‘logic posited proved there was no lost momentum (among many other things) – total gold.
Of course, while everything ‘logic wrote is “rec’d” to the moon by all the mouthbreathing sycophants, this guy’s stuff is largely ignored. Lmfao – the internet’s smartest crowd indeed.
I’ve excerpted below (‘logic’s thesis’s in [square brackets]):
[This is how trending works… unless that new resistance line doesn’t clearly break then there is a 100% certainty that there will be a new peak in the near future (comparable to the time between the old record/UFC66 and the new record/UFC100).]
You’re assuming that previous buys are entirely predictive of future buys. This ignores a host of variables including 1) timing of events, 2) current economic state, 3) fighters on the card, etc. that are possibly more predictive than previous buys.
[So the next show that does 1.2 to 1.6 million buys you’ll know that the record is about to be broken (or at least the market will be ready to break that record and all Zuffa would have to do is deliver a card worthy of that within 6 months or so of that time frame).]
The first part of this — “the record is about to be broken” — is entirely wrong. There’s no evidence that the peaks are a) predictable based on previous buys or that b) a strong buy on one card indicates an imminent record on a subsequent card. The latter statement is far more accurate — “the market will be ready to break that record” — but the six month time frame is something that, frankly, you are just making up completely.
[Unless this resistance line breaks there’s absolutely no evidence that the UFC has lost momentum.]
While “momentum” is somewhat ambiguous as a phrase, this statement is misleading at best and likely just plain wrong. Assuming a projected growth rate based on the past X events (it would be wise to see how past events project future buys with some regression analysis), you could see a declining growth rate representing either a) saturation or b) an approaching zenith both of which would represent a declining momentum. I’m not arguing those are imminent (I don’t think they are) but you don’t have to break the resistance line prior to losing momentum.
[Rule of thumb: When you don’t know something assume those who are spending 10’s of millions and who have been successful at it, do… otherwise do some damn research or consult with some experts so you can add to the conversion.]
Your conclusions (which largely seem to be non-sequitur from the data you provide) may be right, but they are right for all the wrong reasons. Your analysis of buy rates and their predictive capabilities is superficial at best. It shows an inherent lack of understanding on the statistical trends and predictive aspects of these past PPV buys. It’s very naive in it’s approach to the subject.