Even with all of its faults (long shows with poor pacing, cliche marketing, underwhelming production values) the UFC is at least doing some interesting things internally with UFC Fight Pass. We just got Pride Week with a look back at some classic MMA moments, and now we have an interesting interview with UFC president Dana White that digs deep on the busy and foundation-shaking year that was 2016.
In The Exchange, Dana discusses his life growing up and all that jazz, then we get to the meaty bits — the UFC could’ve been sold for way more, but in the end, the former owners decided on Ari Emmanuel and WME-IMG to take the UFC to the next level. That next level being more interim belts and underwhelming shows, it seems… (I’m just being mean!)
“I was never in this for the money ever. When we bought this thing we bought it for $2 million and then we were upside down and everything else. For me it’s always taking it to the next level. When we were doing this deal, there were two groups that came in for more money than Ari. There was one for $5 billion.”
“One of the million things that I respect about the Fertittas, they weren’t just going to let this thing go for the money. They were gonna make sure it went to somebody who could actually take it and bring it to the next level.”
“If you look at what Lorenzo, Frank and I accomplished when we had no production experience, no connections to Hollywood, television isn’t what we did, we’d never been in the pay-per-view business before and you look at what we did. Now, we’re with a guy who is the king of Hollywood and doing deals like this is what he does. It’s just gonna be so much bigger for the sport, obviously for the brand and for the fighters.”
That last part about being better for the fighters is arguable. Since the sale, fighter unrest has hit an all-time high with various fighter quasi-unions being formed and disbanded, as well as more fighters asking for bigger paydays from the company that shelled out billions but can barely pay most of the roster a relative living wage considering they’re being punched in the head for a living.
Hey @ufc go fuck yourself
— Al Iaquinta🗽 (@ALIAQUINTA) April 23, 2017
(Via Sherdog)
