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On Dana White and women fighting in the UFC…
By Zach Arnold | October 23, 2012
A report from Melissa Segura of Sports Illustrated tonight:
UFC president Dana White tells SI.com he’s working on a female division of the UFC, largely because of Rousey’s influence.
“It’s absolutely going to happen,” White said Tuesday of the women’s division.
Rousey’s manager Darin Harvey says, “Nothing is immenient. She’s a Strikeforce champion not a UFC fighter. We still have three fights left for Strikeforce.”
Rousey is obligated to Showtime until at least 2014. Dana isn’t announcing anything, he just likes to casually tamper w/fighters he fancies.
Is it crazier talk than Lorenzo Fertitta claiming that Zuffa research has found that India’s youth is tiring of Bollywood and wants to see an entertainment/sports product like the UFC? Jordan Breen’s “TUF India” punchline is actually coming to life here.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
India? There goes a wasted venture. Just like how NBA talks about tapping into India and just because its huge, it will produce another version of “Yao Ming”, yet this is not happened yet and probably never will. Cant see an Indian fighter becoming a cross/mainstream star globally.
“Rousey is obligated to Showtime until at least 2014.”
Smoogy’s quote here is only somewhat accurate. If the Showtime deal expires then it is null. Rousey could then be moved to the UFC brand. See Meltzer’s comment from last summer where he clarified that:
“I said as long as Zuffa and Showtime have a deal, they can’t fight on a UFC show unless Showtime gives the okay.”
This whole thing has been very misunderstood by most observers.
White only has one gear…. and that is expansion….
He should be worrying about his smaller weight classes getting traction before he even entertains the idea of more divisions…..
There’s already a TUF India in the form of SFL Challengers. I’ve only watched one fight from the show and it included 80’s-style punch sound effects dubbed over the fight audio.
Basically, the article in SI is not really news. So I wrote this on my blog.
http://frankp316.blogspot.ca/2012/10/lets-not-get-too-excited-about-women-in.html
So now dana is creating a rousey division for the ufc?!
Hopefully a kim kardashian division and an ahston kutcher division are next on his twitter based agenda of bright ideas.