There's more to Dana White than trash talk and a
foul mouth. In fact, it's been his brash method of thinking - and speaking -
that has made the UFC president look like a genius as he continues to guide a
sport once regarded as "human cockfighting" into a sophisticated brand of
in-your-face action that men ages 18 to 34 - and even women - can't get enough
of.
In advance of tomorrow's UFC 101 event at the
Wachovia Center, the Daily News grabbed White and picked his brain on
Philly, his competitors and what it takes to have the foresight to see a good
thing when it punches you in the face.
Q. Why Philadelphia? What attracted you to this
city?
A. I am so happy to be here, this is a great city,
a phenomenal fight town, rich in boxing history and tradition. We're overdue out
here on the East Coast and it's the UFC's time to showcase our talented group of
fighters. I am happy to be here, but I can't wait to go to places like Boston,
New York; it will happen, if it happens tomorrow or 7 years from now, it doesn't
make a difference to me, and it's gonna happen everywhere else around the world.
There's no stopping [the UFC], there's no stopping it.
Q. How important is it to get away from the Vegas
lights and book more cards in other parts of the country, especially here on the
East Coast?
A. We want to start doing more shows on the East
Coast, we have a great [bleeping] fanbase out here. Now, we've got Pennsylvania
and like I said we are trying to open it up [to other cities] more and more, so
we'll be coming back to the East Coast a lot.
Q. What do you credit the continual rise of the
UFC brand and this sport of mixed martial arts to, even though many people still
see it as barbaric?
A. I credit it to a lot of things actually. For
one thing it's how exciting this sport is; two, it started with an incredible
underground Internet fanbase that just continues to grow everyday; and three, is
the fact that we are just dominant with males 18-34. This sport is very
addictive, I mean there are people right here in this room [at the Independence
Visitor Center] that hated this [bleep] 5 years ago and now they [bleeping] love
it. Hell, me being one of them 9 years ago, I wasn't a huge fan but once you get
touched by it, man, this [bleep] is addictive.
Q. You told our boxing writer Bernard Fernandez a
few months back that you feel the UFC will be bigger than the Super Bowl and the
World Cup in terms of growing popularity in the sports world. Explain, please.
A. I stand by that [bleep] man; look we just had a
pay-per-view event in [UFC] 100 that was the biggest grossing pay-per-view of
all time. We just did a deal down in Mexico to air UFC 100 and we got 25 million
viewers for that - which are just astronomical numbers. Then they were frickin'
begging "more, more, more" and we put together a taped show of fights from guys
that are fighting on this [UFC 101] card and it pulled something like 17 or 18
million viewers ... The next 10 years are going to be a hell of a lot easier
than the first 10. The biggest problem for us is time; there just aren't enough
hours in the day to do all the things that we want and need to get done.
Q. I know you are sick of talking about this, but
heavyweight fighter Fedor Emelianenko just signed with Strikeforce even though
you guys were pursuing him. What happened on both sides? Because a fight between
him and your heavyweight, Brock Lesnar, would be historic.
A. We went in there 100 percent ready to make a
deal and when we knew that it was not happening, [snickers] I was literally
miserable for 2 days [that we couldn't pull this off]. I'm telling you, if you
were on this [phone] call ... it wouldn't have mattered if we flew to Russia and
sat on his lap we weren't doing a deal that day. It just wasn't gonna happen. We
offered him a great deal, a great deal. I guarantee you the deal that he got at
Strikeforce [pauses] isn't even in the [bleeping] same universe as what we
offered him. The deal he got at Strikeforce probably isn't even the deal he got
with Affliction.
Q. Thoughts on your competitor Strikeforce?
A. Competitor? They have no money, no money. They
have no fighters, they have nobody. They are a small-time show that's trying to
act big. They have guys who haven't defended their titles in like 2 years. Two
years!
Strikefarce, man. It's a [bleeping] joke.
MMA News 
