After UFC 100, now comes the hard part
Dana White will always be the first to say that his press conferences are a little different. But even he…
Dana White will always be the first to say that his press conferences are a little different. But even he had to admit that the one following UFC 100 on Saturday night was especially awkward.
For the final 15 minutes of the news conference after the milestone event, only White and Dan Henderson graced the stage. Empty seats lined up on either side of the two.
Here it is, the press conference after what’s supposed to be the biggest event in UFC history and it’s me and Dan Henderson sitting up here, laughed White. I’m used to the days where it was a row of fighters up here and two reporters asking questions.
Usually, fighters getting up and leaving in the middle of a press conference is enough to receive a verbal lashing from White. But this time when Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre stood up to make an early retreat, they had a good excuse.
SportsCenter was calling.
As much as White hated to see Lesnar behave the way he did after his heavyweight title defense over Frank Mir, seeing his star invited to the premier sports network in the country probably helped him get over it.
UFC 100 was as much a celebration of the UFC as it was an actual event. Everything from the pay-per-view numbers to the fan expo to seeing Lesnar’s smile behind the ESPN booth were testaments to how far this once-struggling organization has come.
And yet, promotions on the event were built on the final catchphrase: And we’re just getting started.
This week, doing all the press and everything, everybody’s trying to get me nostalgic, White said. But I’m one of these guys that don’t look back, I look forward. As big as this thing is, there’s so much more work to do.
The goals that lie ahead of White and his company, which is worth more than $1 billion, are both similar and different than they were when Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta bought the organization for $2 million in 2001.
Continuing to educate the public and ridding itself of the negative perception that was so infamously branded at one point by Sen. John McCain as human cockfighting is still toward the top of the list.
