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Your mandatory “Dana White talks about meeting Vince McMahon” video post
By Zach Arnold | July 24, 2011
Video courtesy of MMAFighting.com
The amount of hedgy, coded answers one can read into what was said during this interview is rather numerous in nature.
- When asked whether or not Rich Franklin was offered a replacement opponent for UFC 133 after Antonio Rogerio Nogueira pulled out of his fight, Dana says that they offered Alexander Gustafsson and Franklin’s camp declined. “I don’t disagree with Rich’s position on it.”
- In response to Lyoto Machida’s camp asking for ‘Anderson Silva money’ to fight Rashad Evans at UFC 133: “For Machida to think that he’s even on the same Anderson Silva is completely disrespectful to Anderson Silva.” Dana says the reason Anderson Silva gets paid top money is because he’s undefeated since 2006 in the UFC and “I think he’s the best fighter ever in Mixed Martial Arts.”
- From the 5 minute to 9 minute time mark, his comments about Alistair Overeem was uniquely entertaining. He put the onus on Showtime for what happened with the ‘hard event date’ booked in September and said that it was Overeem’s camp that pulled out of the fight, not any sort of pressuring that he did. Furthermore, Dana claims that while he was in Philadelphia last week that Golden Glory called him up and said that they wanted to negotiate with him. His claim is that he doesn’t run Strikeforce and that he doesn’t know who Overeem’s camp is negotiating with (Scott Coker or “Joe Silva and crew”).
- When asked about Alistair wanting to fight Vitali Klitschko, Dana was amused. ‘His hands didn’t look that good out there against Werdum,’ so what makes him think he can compete with the Klitschkos?
- The subject of Ross Greenburg’s departure from HBO came up. Dana claims the UFC had a deal with HBO a few years ago and it was i place but “every bone in my body told me that deal wasn’t right.” He didn’t sound very optimistic about working with HBO for MMA.
- In response to what he and Vince McMahon discussed recently when Dana paid a visit to Stamford, Connecticut (home of Maury & Jerry Springer now) at Titan Towers, “we shot the
shitabout business.”
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, StrikeForce, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Dana famously only sleeps about four hours a night and works constantly, and that was when the UFC was the only thing on his plate. If Lorenzo said he wasn’t sure about the particulars of a STrikeforce negotiation I’d say it was complete
bullshit, but it actually doesn’t strike me as that unbelievable that Dana isn’t really directly involved.Vince McMahon has already made the move from SpikeTV to a NBC network.
Dana White is thinking about doing the same.
Comparing notes perhaps?
It’s actually fairly well known in fighter circles that Dana and Vince talk on the phone regularly regarding ppv scheduling. (it’s not good for WWE or UFC if their ppvs are on the same day.) I doubt this is anything but two guys who talk regularly having lunch and catching up.
Can I just say that MMA is a different beast when it comes to owners and promoters and reporters when it comes to the clothes that they wear?
Dana is wearing a black t-shirt, and Helwani is looking like a hipster in a black plaid shirt and tie and a beard.
Compare them to some of the ESPN guys….and David Stern.
If you want to look at attire…aside from a few select fighters(GSP, Rashad Evans, Jon Jones, Florian at least on MMA Live) dress poorly…not saying they should were a suit to EVERYTHING…but at least the press conferences man!