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View Full Version : New Dana White Interview thanks to MMAWeekly.com



shyne
24-05-2005, 15:44
Source: MMAWeekly.com
http://mmaweekly.com/this_week/news/index.html


Dana White, UFC president, spoke with MMAWeekly Radio recently about multiple topics. Dana discussed "The Ultimate Fighter" season two, UFC 52 buy rate expectations, the in's and outs of the pay-per-view business, and Tito Ortiz.

MMAWeekly: How are you doing Mr. President?

Dana White: I'm good.

MMAWeekly: You staying out of trouble?

Dana White: Yeah. I have no time to get in trouble.

MMAWeekly: I was going to say, you're in Boston. You're flying all over the place. Tell everybody what you're doing right now. What's going on with you because I know you're busy?

Dana White: I was in New York. We just wrapped up the deal with Spike when I left a week and a half ago in New York, and they have over there what is called the up-fronts, MTV's up-fronts. Spike is apart of MTV Networks, so MTV had their up-fronts, and it was MTV, VH1, Spike, Comedy Central, Nick at Night, Nickelodeon, all those stations announcing what their big launches are next season, and the UFC was Spike's big launch. Doug Herzog, who is the president of Spike and Comedy Central, announced, basically it's for advertisers. The place was filled with like 4,000 of the top advertisers in the country, and it's pretty awesome. Spike had presenting Halle Berry, Samuel L. Jackson, and me and Chuck [Liddell].

MMAWeekly: Did you get a picture with Halle Berry?

Dana White: No. I didn't get a picture with her, but she's beautiful though. She's real pretty. She's beautiful.

MMAWeekly: What was she wearing?

Dana White: A dress.

MMAWeekly: Hey now. [laughs]

Dana White: They had Black Eyed Peas perform there, and Chris Rock came out and did some stuff, John Stewart, Maria Carey played. It was pretty cool.

MMAWeekly: Very cool. Being in the television industry, we get this insider publication called Television Week, and Spike TV took out a full page ad, and had a couple of stats saying we did better than, you know, we were the highest rated program for the day, talking about the finale. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing because the Masters, that was the third round of the Masters going on that day. I know there was probably NBA Playoffs going on. It's pretty amazing to see when you compare numbers on that Saturday, it's pretty staggering what you guys did with The Ultimate Fighter.

Dana White: It's awesome man. You know, we've been waiting so long for this and finally all the hard work, the focus, and everything that we knew we wanted finally paid off, and were there. We've just got to keep it rolling now. Now is the hard part to tell you the truth. It seems like getting here was hard. You know? From here on out is going to be even harder.

MMAWeekly: Dana let me ask you, I know you never ever give public figures for pay-per-view numbers, but how big of an increase did you see because of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV for the pay-per-view?

Dana White: The pay-per-view numbers were horrible. The worst ever.

MMAWeekly: Whatever.

Dana White: [laughs]

MMAWeekly: How big of a spike though?

Dana White: To be honest with you, we don't have the pay-per-view numbers back yet. You know, we're confident that it's going to be good. I know there are a lot of number flying out there right now, 200, 300. Let me tell you what, we do 200 or 300,000 buys I'll be thrilled. I'll be more than thrilled. I'll be doing back flips.

MMAWeekly: What is the ideal number? Is there an ideal number that you guys would be pleased with or forecasted for this pay-per-view?

Dana White: Um No. Let me explain something to you about the pay-per-view business. First of all, the pay-per-view business sucks. It's the worst business to ever get involved in. Not a fun business. I can tell you that. Second off all every pay-per-view you do is a crapshoot. You know? There's never any projections, or you know we never, you know like before we did this show. We weren't like OK we should do 275,000 buys off this show because this, this, this, this. It's like going to the craps table and playing craps, and knowing you're going to shoot em' up, roll a bunch of numbers and get a bunch of passes. It doesn't work that way. Every one you do is a crapshoot. It's all based on the hype and the energy and everything else. I heard that Tito was on the show chirping about I should be paid this and that because they're doing this kind of numbers. First of all every fight you do is going to bring different numbers. You know? Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture we're hoping are going to do very well because we invested a lot of money into it. You know what I mean? And it ended up a big fight that had a lot of build around it. Do you think that Andrei Arlovski and Justin Eilers is going to do as much as Chuck and Randy did? No. It won't, and we honestly don't know what the number is. Everybody likes to sit back and assume what they think they know is going on, but I think that the pay-per-view numbers are going to be better. It's probably going to be the highest one we've ever had. Is it 200 or 300,000 buys? Who knows? We'll know in a couple of months. I hope so. If it is there's nobody going to happier than me, believe me.

MMAWeekly: Dana what number of pay-per-view buys, in your mind, would make it a victory in your mind?

Dana White: What number would be a victory?

MMAWeekly: Yeah. What number would be, with all the money you spent on promoting these guys like you mention, what number would be a solid number that everybody would be happy?

Dana White: 750,000 buys. [everyone laughs] 750,000. That would be a huge victory.

MMAWeekly: That would be like predicting a six. Didn't somebody predict a six as far as the rating goes? Who did that?

Dana White: [laughs]

MMAWeekly: Who was that guy? Dana what were you thinking? A six? come on man.

Dana White: I tell you what, I don't think small, man. We're a pay-per-view business at the end of the day, and that's what our goal is now, and our focus is. You know all the other little annoying things that we had to deal with before, the first four years of being in business is behind us now. You know, you're freak show. You're not a real sport. You're not sanctioned. You'll never be on TV. You'll never back on pay-per-view. You're never going to get mainstream press and coverage. All of that annoying crap is behind us now. Now for the next five years we can sit down and focus on doing television shows, and building the pay-per-view business, and building this sport.

MMAWeekly: What is the status of The Ultimate Fighter season two?

Dana White: We have picked thirteen or fourteen welterweights, and we've picked twelve or thirteen heavyweights so far. We have another forty-five guys to interview, and we'll finish and wrap this whole thing up and have the complete cast by Friday or Monday.

MMAWeekly: And you've got to get what, eight and eight in each group?

Dana White: We are going nine and nine this year.

MMAWeekly: Cool. nine and nine.

Dana White: We've got so many badass fighters this year. It's awesome.

MMAWeekly: Really?

Dana White: Yeah. The first season we probably had a couple of hundred tapes, 200. In that ballpark. There's so many tapes this season. If I had my entire staff...we couldn't watch them all.

MMAWeekly: Wow. That's great. So do you feel with the heavyweight division the way that it is that you'll be able to get, I don't know if contender's the word, but somebody that can compete right away in the heavyweight division?

Dana White: Who knows? I think we're in a position right now where, you know, everybody that I've been talking to, even interviewing these fighters that are here right now, they're all saying, you know, everybody owns a school, you know, everybody has a Jiu-Jitsu school or an MMA school or something, and they're like my business has increased so much since The Ultimate Fighter it's insane. You know Dan Lambert, one of the few promoters in this country that I really respect, and I think that he's in it for all the right reasons. He actually called me and said since The Ultimate Fighter, we always sold the same amount of tickets for our shows. He said his last show sold out, and he said that I could have sold another three or four hundred tickets. I'm hearing stuff like this from guys throughout the industry. I'm hearing stuff from Sherdog and you guys and all these other guys that are out there that own Internet sites. They had to get new servers, and they had to, you know, the whole thing just came up another level. My point to this big rambling session that I'm on right now is that I think as this thing starts to grow and gets more exposure, I think over the next few years we're going to see a lot more people deciding I'd like to do this for a living, more athletes getting into Mixed Martial Arts and training, which I think is going to create a lot more great fighters.

MMAWeekly: What are you going to do as far as coaches go for this show? We don't have that yet. We're still working on that. We're seriously behind the eight-ball on that.

MMAWeekly: Trigg's ready to go Dana. Trigg is good TV Dana.

Dana White: There's a lot of angles that we could do. I just haven't, I don't know which one I'm going to go with yet.

MMAWeekly: He's going to be hooking up with Mick Jagger's ex-wife. Come on now he's good, Kept on VH1.

Dana White: I saw a commercial for it the other day.

MMAWeekly: When do you anticipate on making a decision with the coaches, a couple of weeks?

Dana White: Yeah. I hope so. Yeah.

MMAWeekly: You have no idea do you?

Dana White: No I don't. I have no idea.

MMAWeekly: Trigg said he'll go in six hours. If you're in a pinch he's there for you. He'd be good TV.

Dana White: I know that anyway. I know that. You don't have to sell me on Trigg. He's in my show. I like him.

MMAWeekly: That's good. I know you do, but he'd be good TV. I'm telling you, he'd be a good coach. Put him and Hughes together and you wouldn't have to worry about a third fight because they'd fight on the show. It would be great.

Dana White: I'd have to hire John McCarthy to be there.

MMAWeekly: You would have to hire Big John. Is it more important to get personalities on this show the second time or best fighters?

Dana White: Here's the thing. We're doing it the same way we did season one. The thing with season one that was hard was that, you know, we got this thing together. There was only a limited amount of guys that applied for this thing because, you know, there just wasn't that much, I think a lot of people A: Didn't want to go out there and be a part of a reality show. It's a huge decision to make. It's a tough decision. You know, to be on public TV for every day, and have them film you. The good, and the bad, and the ugly. It's a big decision to make. Then there were a lot of guys who didn't pass the background tests, a lot of guys who didn't pass the drug tests, a lot of guys who didn't pass the steroid test, and we were scrambling season one. We ended up with the cast that we ended up with, and thank God we did because season one rocked. You know? It was dynamite Now for season two we picked the best fighters that we could possibly get that have good records, watched some of their fights, and then there's probably two or three days of that. Then my partner Craig comes in, and Spike executives come in, and then they finish off the casting. We all sit down in a room and we decide...

MMAWeekly: I just can't believe that guys would turn a tape in for the reality show knowing that they're on illegal substances and fail the steroid test. That just blows my mind.

Dana White: I tell you what, get behind the scenes in this business, and it will blow your mind everyday how stupid people are.

MMAWeekly: Tito Ortiz came on the show and talked about his situation.

Dana White: What's his situation? Explain to me because all I heard about is he was talking about how much money he deserves and how much money he should be paid. What's Tito's situation?

MMAWeekly: Tito says bottom line because of the pay-per-views he's been on, for what he did for the UFC, selling out his last six shows, or whatever it was with the exception of Cote etc... For you guys to turn your back on him, take him off the website, that he should not have been disrespected that way.

Dana White: Tito should not have been disrespected?

MMAWeekly: Obviously you feel differently.

Dana White: Tito is not a UFC fighter anymore. I heard he was upset about coming to the last show, and actually Tito had great seats. Tito was in the seats that I put my family in.

MMAWeekly: Did you guys have anything to do with him not being on camera?

Dana White: Why should Tito be on camera? He's not a UFC fighter. What would we put Tito on camera for? What, are we going to do an interview with Tito Ortiz? Hey you're no longer with us, what are you thinking of doing now?

MMAWeekly: He said that when Ivan Salaverry won, and he was there to celebrate with him that...

Dana White: Here's the other thing. The way that the Nevada commission works, the way that the rules work in Nevada, Tito Ortiz was not a licensed corner man. He wasn't one of Ivan Salaverry's corner men He shouldn't have even been in there. He knows how this business works. The guys that get up and get in the octagon have a credential and on the credential it has a sticker that says they're allowed to get into the ring. Just any clown sitting in the audience just can't run up and get into the ring. You know what I'm saying? There's security and everything else. These are the people that have ring access; me, Joe Silva, Lorenzo Fertitta, Frank Fertitta. Other than that nobody has ring access. You have referees and medical staff, and guys like that ringside, and licensed corner men Tito was not a licensed corner man so no. You don't just jump up in the ring because your friend won. That's not the way it works, and he knows that.

MMAWeekly: OK, but Tito's saying, I don't know if vindictiveness is the word I want to use, but he felt that you guys went out of the way to get him out of there.

Dana White: Out of where?

MMAWeekly: To get him out of the ring.

Dana White: Um yeah. I just said you're not a licensed corner man You're not supposed to be in the ring. Let me ask you a question. Ivan Salaverry will be walking around all night; Tito couldn't congratulate him when he came out of the ring? So what if all of Ivan Salaverry's friends want to run up in the ring and congratulate him?

MMAWeekly: Here's the deal. Matt Hughes won the championship. We saw Pat Miletich, we saw a lot of guys run in there and hug him and mob him after he beat Trigg with the comeback that he did. I'm just saying that's the argument you're going to get.

Dana White: Right. Those are the guys that walked out with him, and were his corner men

MMAWeekly: Did Tito not walk out with Ivan?

Dana White: I have no idea. He must not have because he didn't have a credential. The guys that are credentialed are in the back with him. Here's the other thing. Tito called and asked for tickets. OK? Tito called and asked for tickets to the fight. OK? Tito got tickets to the fight. He was there to watch the fight. He got great tickets to the fight. That fight was sold out. They were scalping tickets for big money for that fight. Tito got probably the best seats in the house.

MMAWeekly: Agreed. Let me as you this, do you guys hate each other at this point?

Dana White: Not at all. I don't hate Tito. I don't hate Tito at all. Do Tito and I have a rocky history? Of course we do, but I don't hate Tito, and Tito knows I don't hate him. Tito likes to cry the martyr. Boo-hoo, it's all about Tito.

MMAWeekly: Will he ever be back in the UFC in your opinion?

Dana White: I don't know. I haven't even talked to his people. I don't know. Am I interested in Tito fighting in the UFC? Sure.

MMAWeekly: You guys show celebrities in the crowd. You know like you guys cut away from Pam Anderson, Cindy Crawford. Tito's kind of an MMA celebrity because he was your champion. He was a champion for quite a long time. He did a lot of things for the sport. What about that scenario Why not show him in that light?

Dana White: Here's the way that this works when we're promoting guys. Do you realize Tito has this, Tito has this fantasy that he's the biggest guy in MMA, that he is the God of all MMA. OK? I can tell you right now that Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin, more people know who they are right now than know who Tito Ortiz is. They were a part of a show that ten million people were watching at one point. They were a part of a fight that blew people's minds. You know? They're also guys that are under contract with me. When you use your airtime, you use your airtime to promote what ever the hell that it is that you need to promote. I'm promoting guys that are with me, that are a part of my organization. Tito Ortiz is not a UFC fighter. What about that do people not understand?

MMAWeekly: OK. This is what people think because I see it. They're on the forums, and they're pounding my website about this. They're thinking that with the history that you and him have they feel like you're not treating him with respect by pulling him off the website and whatever. That's what people are saying. That's what I'm getting from the forums and when people call in the radio show. That's what they're saying.

Dana White: Alright. I can tell you this. To get respect, you've got to give respect.

MMAWeekly: OK. We'll leave it at that. We'll move on. Arlovski/Justin Eilers, a lot of people don't understand the match up. Can you talk a little bit about that? Why Eilers is getting a shot?

Dana White: The fight that we want to do right now is Frank Mir and Andrei Arlovski. Frank Mir is not ready yet. We're thinking he's going to be in October. Justin Eilers is a big dude that bangs. Why don't people get it? Let me ask you as question. Do you think Justin Eilers and Andrei Arlovski is going to be boring?

MMAWeekly: No. I don't think so at all. I think it's going to be a great fight, but the problem...

Dana White: That's why we're doing it. It's going to be exciting.

MMAWeekly: Here's the problem...

Dana White: It's going to be an awesome, exciting fight.

MMAWeekly: Listen to the promoter coming through.

Dana White: When you lay your money down, and you buy a fight you want to see people that you want to see fight, and you want to see them in exciting fights. Do you not think that fight's going to be exciting?

MMAWeekly: Absolutely. Here's a stab for you. Are you ready for this? The public's saying hey Justin Eilers is a good fighter. He's 10-3, but he just got knocked out silly by Paul Buentello and you give him a title shot. That's why people are struggling with the whole concept. You don't see it that way?

Dana White: No. Are you ready? Are you ready? Let's get it on. Those two are going to come to the center of the octagon and bang until one of them falls down.

MMAWeekly: Why not the guy that Eilers lost to? Why not Paul Buentello at this point?

Dana White: I think Paul Buentello is definitely going to get a shot at the title. It's just not right now. He's one of our best heavyweights, Paul Buentello is.

MMAWeekly: UFC 54, where's that going to be?

Dana White: I don't know. I think Mohegan Sun.

MMAWeekly: OK. Back East again. Back to back?

Dana White: Probably.

MMAWeekly: Look at you showing the East Coast love. They'll love that. Frank Mir, what is his situation with his leg? What's going on there?

Dana White: I don't know. I'm hoping he's going to be ready by October.

MMAWeekly: OK. Is he rolling now? He's rolling around working our, or no?

Dana White: From what I hear he is. Yeah. He's been working out. Hopefully he'll be ready by October. That's what I'm hoping.

MMAWeekly: Tim Sylvia's situation, he was rumored to be on the card and now he's fighting in August?

Dana White: Yes.

MMAWeekly: Your whole heavyweight division right now of course it's Arlovski and Mir. If Mir cannot come back, do you give up the title for Mir and just say Arlovski's the champion?

Dana White: Oh it's a fact. Arlovski is the champion if Mir can't return.

MMAWeekly: Pride and the UFC, there was some talk that, you guys have always sent guys over there. What is the situation? Will we see any Pride fighters coming to fight for you in the UFC?

Dana White: Who knows man? Those guys, they drive me crazy. Like I always say about Pride, they talk a mean game, but they never back it up.

MMAWeekly: Randy Couture, his situation now losing to Chuck Liddell. What do you see as far as his future? What are the guys out there because 205 right now, I mean we saw Babalu get a win, but we haven't seen a whole lot else in that division now.

Dana White: You've got Babalu. You got Mike Van Arsdale. Who else do we got? We've got Forrest and Stephan Bonnar in that division too. Shamrock is still around. You know Ken still wants to fight. We'll see what happens.

MMAWeekly: What about a Ken Shamrock Randy Couture fight?

Dana White. Interesting. Interesting.

MMAWeekly: Could that happen?

Dana White: Yeah. Ken still wants to fight.

MMAWeekly: Is he still under contract with you guys still or no?

Dana White: I'm talking to Ken right now.

MMAWeekly: OK, so there could be a possibility that you'll bring him back?

Dana White: Yeah.

MMAWeekly: Alright. Who's Trigg fighting next?

Dana White: Who?

MMAWeekly: Frank Trigg. You might have heard of him. We want to know his situation. Is he going to come back?

Dana White: Yeah. Of course he is. Yeah he's one of my guys. Is Trigg having some self-esteem problems or something?

MMAWeekly: Yeah he is. He needs love. He feels bad. Let me tell you. You've got to cuddle him up every once in a while. He's still pissed about that loss because he gave Hughes all he wanted.

Dana White: I'm going to tell you right now. I'll go out and say it. In my opinion, as far as I'm concerned, that was one of the best fights in UFC history. I've watched that fight sixty million times since I've come home. I love that fight man. That fight is so awesome. I'm telling you man, that was an awesome fight. That fight was awesome. I loved that fight.

MMAWeekly: What about Matt Hughes being a coach?

Dana White: What do you mean?

MMAWeekly: On Ultimate Fighter two.

Dana White: Yeah. I mean I'd be interesting in Matt being a coach, but Matt has stuff to do at home. You know? To ask a guy to leave his house for a couple of months is a lot to ask.

MMAWeekly: How about the lightweight division? Anything new with 155?

Dana White: No. There's still 155 guys fighting. Are you talking about the title?

MMAWeekly: No. I was just wondering about that division. We haven't seen anybody fight in a while. What about that? Is it one of those things now where when you guys get on Spike TV will we see more guys at 155 fight again?

Dana White: I hope so. It depends on how many live fights we get. How many fights we can do a year is going to depend on how much of a role the 155 division plays in the future. I've always said when we get enough fights to where we really start bringing a lot of guys, you know, I'm going to need the 155 pound division to fill slots, but as far as the way it goes right now to have another title right now is just too tough. We'll still have guys fight at 155, but as far as a title, I don't see it in the next year.

MMAWeekly: OK. Fair enough. Dana appreciate it. Thank you so much for the time, and we always appreciate your candidness.

Dana White: My pleasure guys.

MMAWeekly: Good luck on everything.

Dana White: Thanks.

MMAWeekly: Thanks Dana. Take care.


Best een leuk interview.