Dana White fine if UFC gets as real as it gets on FOX 2
When the UFC debuted on FOX, essentially the moment that mixed martial arts was introduced to the mainstream, what the…
When the UFC debuted on FOX, essentially the moment that mixed martial arts was introduced to the mainstream, what the mainstream got was what UFC President Dana White jokingly referred to as jokingly referred to as “60 minutes of blabbing and 60 seconds of fighting,” after Junior Dos Santos took champion Cain Velasquez out with strikes at just over the one minute mark.
The next weekend (the PPV show that JDS vs. Velasquez was pulled from) Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua engaged in a fight of the century nominee. Many fans thought then that the wrong fight was moved to UFC on FOX 1.
White immediately disagreed.
“If that fight that happened tonight went on FOX for the first time ever, let me tell you what – I would not be having a good time these last five or six days,” White said. “We’ve got to ease our way – look, we live in this bubble, gang. We live in this bubble that the rest of the world doesn’t live in and doesn’t understand. We’re still in an education process and educating the masses about what the sport is and what it’s all about.
“Those of us who are in this room and people who have been watching this for a long time just incredibly appreciate what those two did tonight in there, and you can understand what they went through and what’s going on. The rest of the world would go, ‘Oh my God. What was that?'”
Now White is reporting that his initial jitters are gone, and it is going to get as real as it gets on UFC on FOX 2.
“I’m over my FOX jitters,” White said at the UFC 140 post fight press con. “I’m over it. It is what it is. The bottom line is we did our introductory fight on FOX. Dude, this is what they ordered seven years of. This is it. This is what you get.”
Saturday night’s UFC 140 event was broadcast on pay-per-view, but it did provide a scene that even seasoned fans of the sport had trouble watching: Big Nog’s broken arm. White said he’s not afraid of a repeat performance on national TV.
“If you really look at it, in the last almost 11 years, that’s the third (major injury),” White said. “Other than cuts and blood and stuff that’s going to happen, that’s the third time that something that you could get squeamish about has happened in the UFC. Third time. Two by Frank Mir – one when he popped Tim Sylvia’s arm, the Corey Hill kick, still the nastiest by far, and then [Nogueira].”
The boundaries of good taste may be tested again in January, when the UFC returns to primetime with Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis to determine the No. 1 contender to current light heavyweight champion Jon Jones. Evans and Jones have engaged in a very public war of words over the past several months, and White said “Bones” will likely be cageside for the event, and an in-octagon faceoff could potentially follow.
“Probably,” White said. “I’m sure he’d like to ruin one of Rashad’s evening’s, anyway.”
“Every once in a while, you’re going to get a f— you from somebody. It’s life.”