Dana White defends UFC 121 marketing of Cain Velasquez
UFC president Dana White blasted critics who said Cain Velasquez’s Mexican heritage was exploited in the buildup to this past…
UFC president Dana White blasted critics who said Cain Velasquez’s Mexican heritage was exploited in the buildup to this past weekend’s UFC 121 event.
“What we do is we take a storyline in what a guy’s life is,” White said.
Critics said the portrait of Cain Velasquez on the promotion’s “UFC Primetime” series wrongfully played on nationalistic pride, but White believes the marketing was an accurate reflection of Velasquez’s character.
“There were some idiots out there that said, ‘They have to play the Mexican thing with him because that’s all they’ve got,'” White said. “‘This guy’s got nothing else and whatever.’
“If one of you idiots here said that, you’re a f—— moron, No. 1. But No. 2, the guy’s Mexican. His parents came here from Mexico, came over the border. … Do you think we had him tattoo ‘Brown Pride’ on his chest? What the f—?”
“I don’t know if you guys ever saw the Paulo Thiago piece we did where he’s one of those crazy SWAT officers in the bad sections of (Brazil).”
“Anybody who was at the weigh-ins saw that he had a huge following. Here you saw that he had a huge following. (He became) a huge star overnight, and he went out and looked incredible.”