Dana White 'Fans Stop Whining About UFC 112, You've Been Paid Back'
by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 28, 2010 11:00 AM EST
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Dana White, 8 months ago:
"This was a historic event for us. The arena tonight was incredible. The energy was amazing, and to end it the way that we did was an embarrassment for me, the Fertittas, the UFC and the sport in general. I apologize, and I will - I don't know how yet - but I will make this up to the fans who bought this sh*t tonight. I'd rather have somebody say, 'Let's not buy the Anderson Silva fight tonight because he knocks people out in two minutes,' rather than, 'He runs around like a jackass for five rounds. Anderson Silva might be the first champion in history fighting on a prelim. How do you sell Anderson Silva after tonight? How do you do it? People don't want to see that sh*t. I don't want to see it. It makes me sick to my stomach. I'm going to make it up to the fans - that I guarantee you, I just don't know how yet."
Dana White, 6 months ago
"I'll get on my Twitter every once in a while and people will be like, 'Hey, when are you making it up to us?'" White told MMAjunkie.com. "Give me some [expletive] time. I will. I've got to find the right time and the right opportunity."
Many fans have suggested White take a big fight that would normally fall to a pay-per-view event and instead put it on basic cable with either of the UFC's broadcast partners, Spike TV or Versus.
White seemed warm to the idea, though he refused to commit to the deal.
"Maybe it is taking a fight and putting it on free TV," White suggested.
Dana White, a week ago
Dana White's idea of "paying back the fans" is...doing ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Hilarious. Don't say some dumb shit like "I will pay back the fans" and then not follow through and respond with some hackneyed answer like "I put free fights on TV." No shit Dana White. You put free fights on TV. That's how you paid us back. You're like that friend you let borrow some money and he's all "I got you, bro, I got you." And then two weeks later he's still "Bro, I got you man, lemme move some things around". Then he disappears for a little bit and comes back around acting like he already paid you back. Surprised that Ariel even ASKED the question, then again, it did take 6 or 7 months.
Oh, and I know the Tighty-Whiteys (and I'm so claiming ownership of that) that read this will eviscerate me in the comments for this, but what the hell was up with the Dana lip-biting/head-shaking at the beginning of the video. Legit LOL for 2 minutes.
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Meh
What did people really expect? They’re on a schedule, moving things around because Anderson acted all schizo in one fight was never plausible.
"One thing I will never do is I will never say never." -Dana White
Preaching to the choir.
His payback to us was buying the most boring fighter alive from Strikeforce.
John
RAIDERS - AS ROMA - CUBS - WARRIORS - MUAY THAI - HIP HOP
by Ionnes on Nov 28, 2010 11:56 AM EST reply actions
Jake Shields is a great fighter.
in his last 11 fights he has 2 ko’s and 6 subs.
Go watch some of his fights.
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
For real. I don't know where the Jake Shields is boring talking point came from
Maybe the Mayhem fight, his one non-finish in a long time.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 28, 2010 4:01 PM EST up reply actions
He is not incompetent.
The guy just doesn’t deliver anything entertaining against big name fighters. Lay and pray vs Hendo and Kamp… zZzZzZzZz
Lawler is his only career “finish” of anyone worth noting in my opinion.
Shields and Fitch are like living Ambien for me on a card.
John
RAIDERS - AS ROMA - CUBS - WARRIORS - MUAY THAI - HIP HOP
~R.I.P. Patrick Patterson~
by Ionnes on Nov 28, 2010 7:17 PM EST up reply actions
He sub'd Paul Daley quick
Something Kos couldn’t do, and Kos is the numbah 1 contender
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 29, 2010 11:57 PM EST up reply actions
I was sober when I watched the Henderson fight and I still don’t remember anything happening after the first round other than Shields getting mount and… well nothing, I guess.
Shields has got skills but he doesn’t turn the heat up in the fights I’ve seen. Excitement is a “what have you done for me lately” game.
"One thing I will never do is I will never say never." -Dana White
I've been saying this for so long, I forgot the Hendo fight happened already
LOL
Reppin' the NYMMAI.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 28, 2010 11:12 PM EST up reply actions
2 free PPVs
In less than a month.
You’ve been paid back. You’re not getting a free Lesnar fight, which is apparently the level people think they should get. Get over it already
by Lunatic-Fridge on Nov 28, 2010 12:14 PM EST reply actions
They were going to be free anyway
No one said anything, Dana is the big mouth who said he was paying the fans back. He did nothing, but what he was going to do anyway.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 28, 2010 1:38 PM EST up reply actions
It was 3 months after abu dahbi
Before 120- was announced to be free. And another bit before 122 was announced as free. Nothing is set in stone so “They were going to be free anyway” is a load of BS.
He tried to give us Belfort-Okami but shit happens. Dana should have pointed to 105 and told the whiners to shove it.
by Lunatic-Fridge on Nov 28, 2010 3:40 PM EST up reply actions
But the overseas-cards have been free for a while now. I think S.C. is completely right to assume that they would’ve been non-PPV cards with or without the UFC 112 incident.
To save me some time on 25% of all threads, here's the universal answer to the Fedor-debate: Fedor is the most accomplished MMA fighter ever. That is a fact. If he still is the best fighter at this point in time is up for debate.
UFC 120 and 122 were free. UFC 120 was pretty decent as a whole. We’ve been given two free Jon Jones fights. This season of TUF has been must watch every week, full of entertaining fights.
I think we’ve been “paid back”.
Really? Because the UFC delivered a quality season of TUF (in your opinion) Dana has made good on his promise? That is clearly ridiculous, don’t you think? And the european cards would’ve been free in any case as they were last year.
There is nothing to suggest that Dana White has done anything extra to “pay back the fans”. And when he announced this at 112 clearly you had to assume that he was talking about an added bonus not about “the rest of our scheduled programming this year will make up for this guys!”. The most telling sign: Dana has kept quiet about this. If he really HAD made it up to the fans don’t you think he’d have been all over the press announcing his fantastic service to the people?
To save me some time on 25% of all threads, here's the universal answer to the Fedor-debate: Fedor is the most accomplished MMA fighter ever. That is a fact. If he still is the best fighter at this point in time is up for debate.
Your problem was that you assumed it was going to be a free event, I dont think Dana ever said specifically what he will do to pay the fans back.
So a quality season of TUF, 5 fight cards in an 8 week span, the WEC merger could all be signs of paying the fans back.
You just assumed we were going to get Anderson Silva vs Fedor free on SPIKE. Thats the issue.
I never felt entitled to begin with
A.S.‘s antics in Abu Dabi didn’t bother me too much.
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 28, 2010 2:58 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
That's how I feel, I was entertained
That said, DANA was the one who brought it up.
Reppin' the NYMMAI.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 28, 2010 4:02 PM EST up reply actions
Dana says alot of things.....
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
And he needs to be held accountable by the press. What S.C. is doing here is absolutely right. It’s the medias job to keep people like White in check by calling out their bullshit.
To save me some time on 25% of all threads, here's the universal answer to the Fedor-debate: Fedor is the most accomplished MMA fighter ever. That is a fact. If he still is the best fighter at this point in time is up for debate.
Meh
I’ve got bigger fish to fry.
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
After all, these things happen sometimes in Mixed Martial Arts
"One thing I will never do is I will never say never." -Dana White
Me either.
I thought Maya should have come to fight.
John
RAIDERS - AS ROMA - CUBS - WARRIORS - MUAY THAI - HIP HOP
~R.I.P. Patrick Patterson~
by Ionnes on Nov 28, 2010 7:18 PM EST up reply actions 1 recs
yup
basicly this
"We just had a near life experience."
Semper Fi' (Now a proud member of Couch Company, 1st Civ Div.)
Pain don't hurt...
by RolloTomasi on Nov 29, 2010 11:58 PM EST up reply actions
dishonesty in a promoter
It doesn’t make it right just because we should expect it. It should still be called upon.
Thats part of being a promoter/salesman, you tell the customer what they want to hear. It was simple damage control on his part after the event.
Thats like purchasing a prada bag in India and being upset when you find out later it was fake. You knew you were dealing with a shady individual from the start, so to expect complete honesty is silly.
No one would've cared. Everyone hated Anderson after that. Not him
Reppin' the NYMMAI.
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by S.C. Michaelson on Nov 29, 2010 12:33 PM EST up reply actions
Thank you
Thanks for the article/follow up on this.
My take on it (at the risk of sounding like an ungrateful bastard): If he repaid the fan at some point (like he feels) he should have said “Here, this is me keeping word, this is for UFC 112”. There would have been closure, lol.
Honestly, right now it feels more like he just let things follow their course, hoped everybody would forget and for those that did not, now that time has passed, he can highlight the positive things that happened in the meanwhile and identify them as pay back.
And I like how he says he wants the promotion to keep getting bigger and bigger and that he’s doing it for the fan. Let’s not be naive, first and foremost it’s for the money, to run a successful business. It’s ok, he’s doing his job (a good job considering the UFC’s success) and he obviously loves the sport, but to say your doing to please the fans and that we should be grateful…
It’s more like “Hey, I try my best to successfully run this business, just be grateful that you fans get the side effects of it (bigger audience, more events, more media coverage, etc.)”. Just don’t pretend it’s all about the fans, especially considering you didn’t do anything specific to keep your words.
Everybody who’s been following the sport knows that Dana White says a lot of wild things here and there, but would have been cool if for once he would have made the effort to follow through correctly on this.
my two cents
He’s right fans have already been paid back, this repeated idea that some fans think they are owed something baffles me. We are lucky to be getting as much free mma as we are and will continue to do so, just these past few months alone has been insane with how many cards we’ve gotten so what is there to complain about really?.
"they mad at me, I keep going hard reppin/
cause what's your Rampage to Rashad Evans/"
-Joe Budden (Something To Ride To)
http://www.zshare.net/audio/76866807deabe3c1/
The man himself said it. Fans wouldn't care if he hadn't said anything
Reppin' the NYMMAI.
Black Lesnar aka Slap ya Favorite MMA Writer
Follow me on Twitter
Read me at WatchKalibRun . Imma write til the wheels fall off.
by S.C. Michaelson on Dec 1, 2010 12:27 AM EST up reply actions
