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Report: Dana White angry at BJ Penn and co-author of new Penn book
By Zach Arnold | April 15, 2010
The topic de jour yesterday was Dana White’s interview on Jim Rome defending his actions in regards to his handling of the Chuck Liddell/Tito Ortiz situation. What hasn’t gone completely noticed was an article by Josh Gross of Sports Illustrated that came out the same day.
The article claims that Dana white approached BJ Penn and Penn’s attorney regarding a book titled Why I Fight: The Belt is Just an Accessory, which Penn worked with author David Weintraub on. White was reportedly furious about what was said in the book.
White told SI.com that after he became aware of the book, he approached Penn and Penn family lawyer, Gary Levitt, with a question: “Why would you put out a book that is 90 percent not true?”
“I asked him why he would write lies in there and he swore to me that he didn’t write it or read it,” White said. “So did Gary. If today they are saying they didn’t say that, then I feel sorry for them.”
The SI article goes on to claim that Weintraub ended up losing employment with UFC (through a production company called Exit 9 Films) after his participation in the book with Penn.
“I never thought for a second that the book would be received by the UFC in a way they wouldn’t want to promote it or help B.J. I never thought it would be like that,” said Weintraub, who worked with the UFC on video projects and penned articles for UFC magazine before he said he was was let go two weeks ago based upon his participation with the book. “I thought it would be something they read, reflected upon, and looked at how they owned this company. B.J. started at the same time they bought this company.”
Is the UFC President upset at the fact that UFC is not in charge of producing the book and not getting a cut of it? HarperCollins is a pretty big publisher for Penn to score a deal with.
It’s the latest controversy for the UFC boss, who seemingly is always involved in starting or putting out a fire one way or another. The more of these stories we hear, the more a media narrative will be created about White & UFC management.
Update: As my brother from another mother points out in the comments section, David Weintraub responds…
Penn’s book is more than honest, which is what led to my demise, and has stoked the fire of White. When pressed by Josh Gross about the parts of the book which are dishonest White balked, choosing to say there won’t be a lawsuit. Oddly enough, just a day earlier, he did threaten Gary Levitt, Penn’s attorney, with a lawsuit. He also said, “I’m going to write a book, and my book is going to sell a lot more than your book.”
He also denied knowing whether someone else in the company let me go. Had no knowledge of this either. Beep Beep Beep Beep Beep — You know what that is? It’s the bullshit truck backing up to Dana’s desk.
Addendum: More controversy? This time, chatter regarding a “UFC takeover” of the WEC PPV event on 4/24. No Reed Harris, no Joe Martinez as ring announcer. No Todd Harris or Frank Mir on commentary.
Cageside Seats: Dana White only lies to those he doesn’t trust
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
White will always fly under the radar at the level the UFC is at….
If Penn didn’t read his own book before it was published… And he had the authority of what could be written in the book… Then he is just flat out stupid.
Good job commenting before having an informed opinion. LOL @ taking Dana’s word as gold.
From the author’s own blog (http://weinish.blogspot.com/2010/04/book-stuff.html) he says:
“Fact 2: BJ Penn, Gary Levitt, David Weintraub and many people at Harper Collins read the FINAL MANUSCRIPT (and other manuscripts many times). That clump of papers was later sent to a printer, who then put the whole thing together, and created a book.”
Another great line from the blog:
“Penn’s book is more than honest, which is what led to my demise, and has stoked the fire of White. When pressed by Josh Gross about the parts of the book which are dishonest White balked, choosing to say there won’t be a lawsuit. Oddly enough, just a day earlier, he did threaten Gary Levitt, Penn’s attorney, with a lawsuit. He also said, “I’m going to write a book, and my book is going to sell a lot more than your book.””
Poor Dana. How can you be so rich, powerful, yet so fucking insecure?
In answer to your last question: money, fame and power do not equal security. It never has.
Dana White wants to be THE MAN in UFC, and THE MAN wherever he goes. That Penn put out a book that he didn’t have a hand in sticks in his craw, as do many things.
The insecurity of White goes very deep, long before anyone knew who he was.
You really think BJ didn’t read his own book that people are likening to a type of biography?
Dana White lies more than any other human being on the planet. LOL at him saying BJ’s book is 90% lies. Translated into human speak, Dana is saying that BJ’s book exposes some shitty Zuffa business practices and that he doesn’t want us to read/believe it. I am going to buy BJ’s book just to spite that clown.
I’m a missive sceptic, so I’m going to suggest that this is simply a ‘Controversy Creates Cash’ situation whereby White has made a couple of unspecific comments to stir the pot and give Penn’s book sales a boost.
I don’t know, Dana is such a control freak I believe he’s legitimately angry with Penn. The Bischoff book was published by the WWE so of course the “outrage” at it was purely a work (and the book sucked BTW.)
But as David M says it is hysterical that Dana White of all people is mad that someone is stretching the truth. It’s like the Son of Sam getting mad at a fellow murderer.
I’m with Brad on this one, and feel the same way about many of the ‘controversies’ around DW. He is very good at what he does.
But Dana only does things he gets paid on or gets big publicity for UFC. BJ Penn, to my knowledge, doesn’t have to give any income to the UFC for his book (although I wouldn’t be shocked if that rule is now put in place.) And fighter autobiographies haven’t exactly set the literary world on fire. Knowing how full of self-hyperbole Penn is I’m sure the book sucks anyway. 20 pages will be devoted to vaseline I’m sure. No homo.
So I see no motivation for Dana to go all Mr. McWhite on Penn about this issue for a publicity stunt.
zuffa “the most open, honest company in sports” – DW
Is there a day that goes by that Dana White doesn’t get MAD? Must suck.
D Dubya, just like George Dubya (W) are insecure cowards! They get all of their security, identity, and ultimately, their self-esteem is derived from their jobs. Take away their employment, and you take away their identity.
Albeit, they are good at what they do, essentially manipulative the masses. In White’s case, I like the majority of manipulating he does because it has helped him build HIS brand of MMA, unfortunately, I hate hypercapitalism and he has miseducated the fans by pseudobranding MMA as “ultimate fighting” which is soooo annoying when I tell people I’m watching an MMA event. They ask what is MMA, “mixed martial arts” I reply, and then it’s, “oh thats the UFC, like ultimate fighting”.
Maybe that’s a pet peeve, maybe it’s miseducating the fans, but I am steadfast in my belief that Dana White and George Bush are similar personality types, both patriarchal, and both derive a sense of self from the amount of controlling they can do.
Apologies for my psychosocial analyses whether real or farce. Hope someone gets something from it and that it can explain why Dana is upset when a LEGENDARY fighter publishes a book outside of his control domain. It would be one thing if Junior Dos Santos published a book but BJ is a different story. Unless Dana wants to share the root of his discomfort, in the meantime we can all assume he’s not respecting the fighters. Shocker?!
Dana isn’t getting a cut, so of course he’s going to be mad.
It’s just another teenage temper tantrum. Nothing new to see here.
So…let me understand this correctly.
Dana White is starting a controversy about the accuracy of book, one which he probably has not read. Neither is he able to identify the inaccurate facts with which he has a problem.
Must be a slow news day.
Na it’s just the mma media looking for another fake controversy to write about instead of actually talking about the fights which is what MMA is about. I wish I had a dollar for every Dana White false controversy trumpeted by alot of insecure media types mad that he doesn’t give a damn about them or their opinons. The funny thing is that everytime they write one of these pieces they only prove him right in the end.