Dana White: Amateur MMA is just a s—– way to not pay fighters
Question: Dana, do you think MMA is going in the right direction? Dana White: No. It’s going in the absolute wrong direction….
Question: Dana, do you think MMA is going in the right direction?
Dana White: No. It’s going in the absolute wrong direction. (laughter)
Q: No, I’m not saying the UFC. The UFC, for sure, is going in the right direction. But a lot of people get involved in MMA, a lot of people want to do MMA shows — you said something about that before: people want to get involved in MMA, not because people love MMA, but just because people want to make money in MMA.
DFW: Anytime you do something that’s popular and that makes money, that’s going to happen. It’s always going to happen.
There’s going to be so many people that are involved in smaller shows in mixed martial arts. In some cases, it’s going to be bad. In some cases it’ll be good. It depends on the person who’s running the organization.
What I don’t like about a lot of smaller organizations, what’s happening right now, is this amateur s—. There’s no such thing as amateur MMA. If there was an amateur MMA, the Olympic committee would be doing it. I think it’s just a s—– way to not pay fighters is what I think.
Q: That’s my point. You’re doing such as an amazing job, and (others) are maybe doing a poor job, and people think this is MMA.
DFW: That’s why we push so hard for regulation. We want this sport to be regulated. We want these state athletic commissions to come in and regulate and decide who should be a promoter and who shouldn’t.
Just because you own an Octagon or a ring doesn’t mean you should be a promoter.