Dana White

You do know that Zuffa (UFC) have bought Strikeforce?

In regards to Dana White i have always like him...i'm glad a man as passionate about MMA as him is in charge...i can see why people don't like him but i think there could be a lot worse men than him in charge of things.

He should be applauded for what he has done for the sport

ALthough Dana is a marmite person (you either love or hate him), he has done a lot for the sport. There is no doubt that he has popularised it into the mainstream and as the figurehead (and not necessarily the brains) I think he does a good job in creating interest.

Through good and ludicrous comments, he certainly garners attention.

Controversy creates cash. Now who else used to say that?

I don't personally like him, I think with the rise of UFC in the mainstream so has his ego. However he has done a great job in promoting the sport and always looks to put the best fights on for the fans. He used to be a boxing promoter so he has taken the good aspects of that whilst realising their flaws and creating a new product which has definately proved effective.

When I first knew little about MMA and the promotions and heard things he said i disliked him but when you look at what he done for the sport he should be applauded.

He literally has pulled MMA from small arenas where fighters are making small change to a huge worldwide sport with media attention, huge crowds, generating millions of £ and allowing fighters to earn a living full time as a fighter i.e. living their dreams.

Not only does he control the bulk of top tier MMA talent but he actually makes the best fight each other which all the fans can ask for.

Yeah he's cocky and runs his mouth a bit but I think he has earned the right to do that.

He may have his disagreements with fighters, organisations and certain media people but deep down he truly cares about he sport and his image.

There are plenty of examples i.e. when Rua was robbed against Machida he doubles Rua' purse for the fight, giving fighters extra money in TUF episodes which for them is a huge gift etc.

Clunge4life wrote:You do know that Zuffa (UFC) have bought Strikeforce?

Yeah I know. What will Danas plans be then for this? I quite like Strikeforce its probably the next best thing to UFC in America in terms of fighters and big crowds. At the end of the day you need feeder leagues like Strikeforce, Dream, Bamma etc for the fighters to work thier way up the ranks. I just dont want Dana owning everything as that would be bad for the sport

My guess is that Strikeforce will probably stay and be the like the UFC 'B' League and if you do well you get promoted and if you do bad in UFC you get 'relegated' to Strikeforce.

Valero's Conscience wrote:My guess is that Strikeforce will probably stay and be the like the UFC 'B' League and if you do well you get promoted and if you do bad in UFC you get 'relegated' to Strikeforce.

Yeah once the heavyweight GP is over I can see the landscape change significantly. Whether Dana decides to build the strikeforce brand up or simply use it as a sister group ala WEC to build fighters up is anyones guess.

Dana takes a lot of what he does and says from Vince McMahon, he is never shy in admitting that, I think like Vince you either love him or hate him, both had the vision and the balls to take their sports mainstream but both got to a point where they have almost outgrown their product and in doing stuff to take it to yet another level they annoy the loyal fans

i would rather a bold and up front character like Dana than some old out of touch dinosaur like sepp blatter at fifa.

Love or hate the man he tries his hardest to get the big fights on and that can only be good for the sport.

I agree with most of whats already been said (if thats possible), Dana has done a hell of a lot for the sport & does really live & breathe it. I can see how many dont like his on screen/UFC persona & his ego has definitely grown alongside the sport, but I think thats all it is, if you see him in the early days he's a more normal down to earth guy but he is a promoter & he promotes himself to fit the stereotype to an extent. I think he gets a bit to much bad press but then that is to be expected when you are that much in the picture & all the time. I have come round to the guy in a way, I'm not a fan as such but I dont dislike him.

Sorry lads but I can't stand the dude. Yeah he did alot for the sport but if it wasn't him somebody else would have seen the chance and jumped at it just as hard. Perhaps somebody who didn't run his mouth and strut around as if he was a fighter instead of a walking cheque book. Have you ever watched his video blog? Cringeworthy, the fact he has one says it all. So yeah, 10 points on marketing but a big 0 for everthing else

Dana White gives the fans what they want. But have you seen the pay some of their fighters get? $5000 for being part of the PPV. I'm sure that with over 1m PPV buys, they can pay the guys much more. Some of these guys fight 4 times a year. Rampage earns $250k per fight. In the grand scheme of things that is peanuts. Can you imagine Floyd getting out of bed for that much?

To be fair - Floyd wont get out of bed for 20 Million!

azania wrote:Dana White gives the fans what they want. But have you seen the pay some of their fighters get? $5000 for being part of the PPV. I'm sure that with over 1m PPV buys, they can pay the guys much more. Some of these guys fight 4 times a year. Rampage earns $250k per fight. In the grand scheme of things that is peanuts. Can you imagine Floyd getting out of bed for that much?

Agreed, personally i think Dana isn't all that bad and comes across pretty well on TUF but he does shaft fighters on fight purses.

I mean UFC 129 with GSP vs Shields generated $12m on gate revenue alone without including the 800-900k in PPV buys!

There are a hanful of fighters who do extremely well i.e. GSP, Lesnar, Anderson and possibly Penn who with PPV buy deals earn in the millions (Brock earned $5.4m for last fight) and then you have the rest of the elite who earn between $100-250k per fight excluding bonuses so relatively little, i mean they earn what some Euro level boxers would earn so Zuffa and Dana are taking a huge slice of the pie.

UFC makes the big fights happen, the problem is, their contracts restrict the fighters' earnings.

I like Dana he seems down to earth and has a lot of time for the fans.

People go on about how much the fighters get paid but the disclosed figures aren't accurate. Jon Jones for example got a disclosed 140,000 for winning the UFC title but has admitted he got well over a million dollars for the fight. I think UFC treats its fighters a lot better than the fans think.