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Dana White: Both Rampage Jackson and Rashad Evans should be proud for making history, and what they’ve said isn’t anything worse than what you’ve heard before

By Zach Arnold | May 28, 2010

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I’m not sure if calling another fighter an ‘Uncle Tom’ in 2010 is exactly racial progress, but clearly UFC President Dana White (in this interview with MMAFighting.com) really had little bad to say about the way things are playing out for Saturday night’s fight. When you see the dollar signs and hear the cash register cha-chinging, well, money talks and BS walks.

Josh Gross on Sports Illustrated says that Dana White missed the mark on whether or not he should have jumped aboard the racial language bandwagon to sell a PPV:

(Dana) White, obviously, is not accountable for words he didn’t say. But he is responsible for the use of those words in pay-per-view advertisements that seem to run every 10 minutes on television, none of which seems necessary. Imagine the NFL hyping a Sunday night matchup between Donovan McNabb and Terrell Owens by pushing the “black-on-black crime” line McNabb said about his former teammate in 2005. It would never happen, and you know why. It’s inappropriate and out of place.

On television, Josh is right — the NFL would get heavily criticized for promoting such an event in that fashion. However, don’t think that the players themselves are above-the-fray in terms of using that language on and off the field.

Transcript of quotes from his interview with MMAFighting.com can be seen in full-page mode.

How are you feeling after that whirlwind of a media trip earlier in the week?

“I actually feel good, man. I’m in Vegas. I’m pumped up for the fight this weekend and obviously the Fan Expo, the release of the video game has kicked ass. Everything’s good, man, I couldn’t be better.

“I dressed up for the press conference yesterday, too, but I’m back in Vegas now dressed up as a homeless guy.”

You named former CFL boss Tom Wright to head your Toronto office. You guys seem very different.

“You know what? He’s got an incredible resume. You know, all you have to say is that he’s the commission of the CFL. He was the President of Adidas and the last goes on and on. Then when you meet the guy, he’s very professional, he’s very motivated and fired up and he’s got an extensive background in sports in Canada. He was just, he was the man.”

What’s the end-game in Canada for UFC?

“Listen, we probably should have done this a while ago. The business is so big up in Canada that it needs somebody to focus on all the time. Not to mention the fact, and the reason you know, everybody’s like, ‘oh, they’re going up there to open an office in Toronto just to put pressure.’ He lives in Toronto, that’s why we did it in Toronto. We’re not going to make him move to Vancouver or Montreal or something. And the other thing we like is really Toronto will serve as our East Coast office. I mean, you’re an hour away from New York, it’s good stuff and it’s long overdue.”

With the way Rashad Evans and Rampage Jackson are talking to each other, it has a similar feel to Frazier vs. Ali. Did Rashad cross the line with some of the remarks he made?

“No, not at all. Listen, you know… when two guys of the same race start calling each other names, you know, I think it was more… nobody had ever seen that or heard that really in the public back in the 70s when Frazier and Ali were doing it, you know what I mean? Believe me, you’ve heard a lot worse than that between two guys of the same race and I don’t think this [is] really a racial type fight. You know somebody brought it up in the media today, you know Rampage says… “black on black crime” and that the way Rampage talks, that’s the way he is, nothing new.”

You’re not uncomfortable with the language?

“Not at all.”

History is being made in the UFC with two prominent African American fighters headling. Good for the sport?

“Yeah, Absolutely. I think it should be a proud moment for these guys, you know… I think the reality is you’ve never seen two African Americans in this sport because of a wrestling base and martial arts and you know most African Americans and the Hispanic fighters come from boxing because if you were involved in boxing, you came from some ’get kids of the streets’ program. You and I growing up, there was no boxing gym down on the corner, your parents didn’t go sign you up for boxing, you know you played soccer and all these other sports. It’s always been an urban… ‘get off the streets’ rough kind of sport and right now you’re going to see as Mixed Martial Arts continues to explode not only here but all over the world all races, all colors, all languages, you name it, everybody’s getting into this. There’s a lot of money in it and it’s available everywhere.”

What’s your relationship like Rampage Jackson right now?

“I’m the boss, man, I’m never going to make everybody 100% happy. You know, you never are going to be in a situation where like, yeah, everybody’s ‘yay Dana!” You know? It is what it is and I like Rampage, I respect him, we get along well when we’re together, but he’s never going to like 100% of my decisions and I haven’t been 100% happy with his decisions, either. It is what it is.”

Will Rampage finish his career in the UFC?

“I know he will. He’ll finish. Listen, at the end of the day, whether he agrees with me or disagrees with me on some things, this is where he makes his money. Even in the movie business, right here right now Rampage is a huge star, he’s a big draw, and this is where he’s making his money.”

Your job is made easy with the way these fighters are hyping up UFC 114. A self-promoting fight.

“Yeah, listen, I’m a big fight fan and I love when you get two of the best fighters in the world in their weight class fighting each other. But when they hate each other, it’s that much more fun.”

In the semi-main event, you have a fighter in Dan Miller who has gone through such personal turmoil in his life. Do you ever tell fighters to take some time off and take care of them or do you leave it up to the fighters to make that call?

“Listen, the thing about fighting it is definitely up to them and the thing is about fighters, every guy who’s a fighter has had to overcome some adversity but in the real world listen, let’s be real — I hear lots of fans talking such dumb shit sometimes like ‘oh, this guy and that guy’ this is the real world, man, the real world nobody waits for you, nobody babies you, nobody takes care of you. If you’ve got some problems in your life, does Versus or AOL say, ‘hey, listen, I know you’re going through some hard times, why don’t you take the next year off, OK? We’ll pay you, we’ll keep paying you and everything, but go ahead.’ That’s not the real world, that’s not how shit works. The real world, nobody gives a shit, the real world is hard and you got to get out and you got to overcome adversity to get to where you want to be and he’s an incredibly talented guy and this is a huge opportunity for him and you know we’ll see if he can rise above everything else and go out there and this is the stuff that incredible stories are made of, you know, these are the kind of things that people read about years later and he inspires other people.”

How excited are you to see Todd Duffee in action?

“I’m really excited. You know there’s a lot of hype around this guy. He’s a big, explosive powerful guy. An awesome addition to the heavyweight division, we just got to see him fight some guys now and see if he’s for real.”

What are your thoughts on Diego Sanchez going back up to Welterweight? Any idea why?

“You got me. You got me. I don’t know. Well, no, listen, I want the guy to fight at wherever he’s comfortable. Wherever he feels comfortable and feels like he can do his best and give his all, that’s where I am want him, you know and Diego must have not liked cutting to 55.”

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