Posts tagged DanaWhite at FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Although I'm not seeing a lot of hype surrounding Saturday night's UFC 86 undercard, the Ricardo Almeida-Patrick Cote fight is going to be an important one to the future of the middleweight division.

UFC President Dana White said yesterday that the Almeida-Cote fight would "see who's next in line for Anderson Silva's 185-pound title." If the winner is guaranteed a title fight, that makes Almeida vs. Cote a much bigger fight than most MMA fans are making it out to be.

Of course, White meant the winner would get a shot at Silva's title after Silva fights James Irvin on July 19, and then fights Yushin Okami in September. But while Silva still has two more fights before he could take on the Almeida-Cote winner, White indicated that Silva is willing to take on the Herculean task of three fights in the next five months.

The Japanese mixed martial arts organization Dream doesn't get any mainstream media attention in the United States, but hard-core American fans have followed the Dream lightweight tournament that has been going on for the last few months.

Shinya Aoki, especially, has drawn attention from American fans, and there are indications that he may soon fight on American soil. The blog Suki MMA, which translates Japanese MMA articles into English, has a blog post Aoki wrote, and this paragraph is particularly interesting:

The top fighters I consider are all in the U.S. now. I want to defeat them and I believe I can do it. I have confidence becoming a No.1 fighter. I will be a top fighter with my techniques and in my way.

Aoki refers to "the top fighters," plural, but there's one particular fight a whole lot of fans would love to see, Aoki vs. UFC lightweight champ B.J. Penn. It sure sounds like Aoki is interested. Let's hope Penn and Dana White are, too.

UFC President Dana White gave an interview to Nicki Jhabvala of SI.com in which he said something that might seem surprising about the man who once called mixed martial arts "human cockfighting":

Jhabvala: Who do you think is the best presidential candidate for MMA?

White: I'd have to say McCain. I consider John McCain the guy who started the UFC. If it wasn't for McCain I wouldn't be here right now. What people don't understand about mixed martial arts and the UFC is, what [McCain] was saying to the old owners is that you cannot put on fights in states that aren't sanctioned. It's illegal. You can't do it. You have to be sanctioned by an athletic commission, which we agreed with him on 100 percent. John McCain wasn't saying this thing shouldn't happen, or it shouldn't be running. He was saying, if 'You're going to do it, it has to be sanctioned by an athletic commission.' We agree.

In 2007, McCain said, "They have cleaned up the sport to the point, at least in my view, where it is not human cockfighting any more." The "they" he was talking about was, mostly, Dana White.

That's why, while White's comments might seem surprising at first, they actually make perfect sense: White was able to position himself as the sport's savior exactly because McCain's opposition to MMA put the sport in danger.

UFC President Dana White appeared on today's edition of ESPN.com's MMA Live:

The interview begins with White's comments about Anderson Silva's upcoming fight on Spike, which White claimed is not an attempt to hurt the Affliction organization but simply part of his commitment to making good fights affordable for the fans.

"I'm always working on a network deal -- we're always talking to networks," White said. "We'll have a network deal as soon as the right deal comes."

White also said that while lightweight champion B.J. Penn may eventually move up to welterweight, White expects the winner of the Kenny Floridan-Roger Huerta fight at UFC 87 to take on Penn for the lightweight title.

UFC President Dana White appears in this ESPN-produced video to talk up his middleweight champion, Anderson Silva, who will be moving up to light heavyweight to fight James Irvin on July 19:

"This guy wants to fight six pounds a year," White said. "He's basically cleaned out the 185-pound division and he's always looking to challenge himself, so he wanted to move up to 205 to test the waters there. I'm not going to tell him no. It's never been a better time to be a mixed martial arts fan right now -- you can turn on Spike TV on July 19 and for free see the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world make his first move up to 205 pounds."

It's interesting that White insists that giving the fans Silva for free is a good thing, but a lot of MMA fans seem to be turned off by the move. Is it really good for fans, or just bad for Affliction?

Mixed martial arts fans who were on edge about the "mind-blowing" announcement UFC President Dana White has promised are going to be extremely disappointed now that the announcement has been revealed.

Kevin Iole of Yahoo is reporting that the announcement is that Lorenzo Fertitta is going to make UFC his full-time job, quitting his post as president of Station Casinos.

Mind-blowing, huh?

Fertitta and his brother, Frank Fertitta III, each own 45% of UFC, with White owning the remaining 10%. All the announcement means is that the Fertitta brothers have decided that Lorenzo should play a bigger part in the day-to-day management of one of their big investments, while Frank should play a bigger part in the other.

From the standpoint of White and UFC's employees a change at the top is a big deal. But the average UFC fan will greet this news with a shrug.

UFC's decision to run a live show on Spike opposite Affliciton's PPV debut on July 19th has nothing to do with Affliction. That's Dana White's spin on things, anyway. He told SI.com that he's simply giving the fans what they want and that Anderson Silva wants to fight more and that it is in no way, shape or form counter-programming.

He's also got a bridge in Brooklyn to sell you. UFC isn't giving away a Silva fight for free because they love their fans so much. The first light heavyweight fight for Silva, one of the biggest names in MMA, would be a draw for a future PPV and the choice to put it on Spike is clearly meant to drive a dagger into the heart of Affliction. Tom Atencio, Affliction's VP, spoke to MMARated and sees it the same way.

"It's just an example of how they want to control everything but at the same time it's flattering as well. I guess they do view us as threat...absolutely."

It's damn hard to see it any other way. UFC ran their own offerings against Elite XC's first CBS show and are now doing the same thing against Affliction. It didn't hurt Elite's ratings but that was free against free. When you're choosing to spend $50 or not, the decision is much different. Flattered as Atencio may be, he can't be thrilled about the hit his company is going to take because UFC feels threatened by them.

The goofiest video of the day comes from TheGarv.com. The Garv tells us that he was supposed to be the cover boy in Men's Fitness, but that UFC President Dana White took his spot on the cover. The video then shows White in the gym, and it turns out that he's no Joel Osteen: White's claim of being able to bench press 315 pounds is absolutely legit:

Most impressive. From a powerlifting perspective, White's arched-back form is textbook perfect, and The Garv is right: For a guy pushing 40, White looks good.

UFC President Dana White still hasn't told us what the "mind blowing" announcement he's planning to make is, but he's already teasing UFC fans with this ad for next week's episode of The Ultimate Fighter:

At the end of this week's Ultimate Fighter, they showed a brief clip of next week's episode. That clip shows White watching a surveillance tape that appears to show someone inside a limo kicking out the limo's window. White then says, "He's out of the finale and out of the UFC."

So, apparently, one of the people we thought would be fighting on the June 21 Ultimate Fighter finale won't actually be on it. But who? White will keep that a closely guarded secret.

When Dana White went on CNBC Tuesday to announce a deal to sell action figures, he dropped hints about a major announcement coming today. It won't be, though, and has been pushed back to Tuesday which has a lot of people thinking that it was related to a vote in the New York State Assembly yesterday.

The committee on Tourism, Arts and Sports Development held a vote to decide whether or not New York should regulate and, therefore, legalize mixed martial arts in the state. It was widely believed that the bill would pass and then make its way to the larger Assembly but ran into trouble. A poster at MMAweekly was in the chamber.


The bill was voted down, said poster reported. MMAjunkie, however, reports that the bill wasn't voted down but simply put aside and will be reconsidered next week. There are reports of members looking to change their votes after the bill failed and other machinations that come as no surprise, speaking as a lifelong New Yorker, given the oily way Albany operates.