Dana on Japan: 'They're all crooked'

LAS VEGAS – UFC president Dana White Thursday told reporters that Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic may in fact honor the UFC deal presented him prior to his Octagon return at UFC 99.

On Tuesday, a report surfaced quoting heavyweight Junior Dos Santos saying he would be fight the Croatian MMA star at UFC 103 on Sept. 19 in Dallas. Dos Santos last week had been removed from his scheduled appearance at UFC 102 claiming injury.

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Typical Dana interview where he tosses around accusations but doesn't provide examples.

He has talked about it in the past. He said Mexico and Japan are very hard for them to get into because of the organized crime. In Japan you have to have ties to many companies to be successful. TV newspaper, magazine, etc and many of them are currupt and you have to sink to their level to have a chance. So many of the MMA promotions are very dirty. The yakuza scandal is what Killed Pride. Yakuza has limks to almost everything. But as soon as it was made public about Prides connection. They lost their TV deal which made them unable to survive.


He said there are 2 familys in Mexico that control everything and its almost impossible to get anything done there.

The ***** is why the UFC couldnt keep Pride alive and run it in Japan and why they havent ran shows in mexico.

I don't think the UFC had any intentions of keeping Pride going in Japan. Zuffa (Dana) wants the UFC label on everything.

Regarding having ties to companies in Japan, that is how they do business. Japan, like East Asia in general, has a very group oriented culture (contrary to North America). That is, you have a much better chance to do business if you are in their circle. Companies have baseball teams and martial arts groups, where employees are expected to participate. In fact some companies hire people based on their extracurricular interests, if they match those of the company. This all forms a cohesiveness amongst the companies.

As far as the Yakuza are concerned, I do not deny the scandal regarding them, but I don' t think they are any different or more present than any puppeteer in North America.

Basically I don't think Dana can criticize how anyone else does business considering some of the questionable business decisions he makes.

Most of Dana's decisions have turned to gold. Not sure what your getting at. I do believe the UFC was going to use Pride in Japan in some form or another. Why wouldnt they want the best return on their investment? The UFC probley was hoping they could get the TV deal back just by showing they previous corruption was gone. Keep in mind the fans and ratings Pride was getting. If Zuffa could draw that using the Pride name then it would have made Pride's 65 million price tag a steal. But due to corruption the UFC couldnt get anywhere and had to dissolve the company. Making their 65 million investment almost a total waste(i believe the sale of Pride and how much Zuffa has to pay is still in litigation)

Some of Dana's questionable decisions (some may be rumours)

His insistance of exclusive contracts
How many times he says one thing about someone or some company, and later turns around and acts opposite to his earlier comments (smoke and mirrors IMO)
the business of banning sponsors
Not honouring contracts that he has signed or preventing fighters from fulfilling out their contracts
threatening to ban fighters from the UFC based on decisions that make that will benefit their own careers
etc.


Honestly, I could totally understand why someone wouldn't want to do business with Dana as the benefits to both parties in the deal seems far from mutual


Regarding Pride. The way I saw it was that before the sale Dana stated he wanted to maintain it as a separate entity in Japan, then shortly after the sale he says he doesn't know what to do with it. Soon after that he brought all the top fighters under contract with Pride over to the UFC. Shortly after strip mining Pride of its top fighters he comments on how he can't do anything with Pride in Japan.

If the migration of the fighters from Pride to the UFC came after he stated that he failed to get things going in Japan, I would have bought it. However, I think he wanted to run Pride like the WEC, keeping the best fighters for the UFC and the B level guys in Japan. Why would anyone want to work with that? How can one expect to secure a TV deal when all the fighters that sold events were gone?

Exclusive contracts is the smartest thing to do. Without them a promotion is worthless. JUst because they prevent you as a fan from a couple fights you want to see dont mean its bad bussiness. ALL sports team have exclusive contracts. Lebron james cant just go play for a different team when ever he feels like it.

There have been a few fighters who have had then and then went and got hurt fighting in another show only to have to cancil their fight in another. You cant run a bussiness like that.

He does lie now and then. That has nothing to do with bussiness.

Banning sponsers has turned out great for the UFC. It forces companys to pay the UFC to get on board. Its how the UFC now owns a piece of Tapout, Cage fighter and many other companies. Just because you dont like it dont mean it isnt good bussiness.

Dana white has honored his contracts. If he didnt he would be in court. The UFC has clauses in their contract that allow then to part ways if curtain standards arent met. Just like every sports team. Most players can be cut, traded, or options for more years not picked up if they dont perform, etc.



About Pride. You are making a lot of assumptions. He stated he wanted to bring some of the top Pride guys over. Isnt that what we all wanted? But he said they would fight in both. No matter where the fighters fought, Zuffa would profit. Why would they care which promotion it was? Im sure they would have kept all the big names from Pride in Pride but 1 fight per year Shogun or Silva might fight in the UFC on a big PPV where the money is.

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Posted by Brain_Smasher

Exclusive contracts is the smartest thing to do. Without them a promotion is worthless. JUst because they prevent you as a fan from a couple fights you want to see dont mean its bad bussiness. ALL sports team have exclusive contracts. Lebron james cant just go play for a different team when ever he feels like it.

There have been a few fighters who have had then and then went and got hurt fighting in another show only to have to cancil their fight in another. You cant run a bussiness like that.

He does lie now and then. That has nothing to do with bussiness.

Banning sponsers has turned out great for the UFC. It forces companys to pay the UFC to get on board. Its how the UFC now owns a piece of Tapout, Cage fighter and many other companies. Just because you dont like it dont mean it isnt good bussiness.

Dana white has honored his contracts. If he didnt he would be in court. The UFC has clauses in their contract that allow then to part ways if curtain standards arent met. Just like every sports team. Most players can be cut, traded, or options for more years not picked up if they dont perform, etc.



About Pride. You are making a lot of assumptions. He stated he wanted to bring some of the top Pride guys over. Isnt that what we all wanted? But he said they would fight in both. No matter where the fighters fought, Zuffa would profit. Why would they care which promotion it was? Im sure they would have kept all the big names from Pride in Pride but 1 fight per year Shogun or Silva might fight in the UFC on a big PPV where the money is.

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I think it is non-supportive of fighters' needs to sign long fight contracts that have exit clauses for the promoter and nothing for the fighter to make ends meet in the event something happens (injury or whatever). The big team sports contracts you speak of are totally different than the ones in the UFC. In hockey if a player gets injured, he still gets his money. If a fighter is injured and forced to withdraw from a fight, he doesn't get his fight purse. If a player is under performing the coach may not play him, but he still gets paid. In the UFC, if you are under performing you may have to sit on your contract for many months before the UFC either gives you a fight or releases you from your contract. (see Shonie Carter). I understand what you are saying that these are all steps Zuffa makes to ensure they maximize their profit, etc. but that doesn't make them right and it doesn't make them any less shady.

Banning sponsors may be good business for the UFC, but it isn't good for the fighters that (according to Dana who says they get lots of sponsorship money) have to use sponsorship money to feed their families because they don't get enough money for the fight. I really feel for these guys that are living paycheque to paycheque and their hands are tied because of decisions made that benefit the company they work for, but not the guys that support the company.

Dana's lies have everything to do about his business. Almost 100% that comes out of his mouth is directly related to his business. When he is not honest about anything how could one assume he is an honest business man. I am not saying he is breaking the law, but I don't think he is an honest business man.

The point I was trying to make about Pride was that Dana (like he usually does) makes situations difficult (business wise) but in the public eye tries to make it look like problems are the result of someone else's doing. I mean, of course Zuffa can do what they want with their assets, but I don't like how they criticize others for their (Pride Japan) particular decisions, when it was their (Zuffa) doing that put them (Pride) in the awkward situation.

In the example I gave, and these are not assumptions, but rather the chronological order of events:

Zuffa states intent to own Pride and run it with UFC and WEC with cross promotions
Zuffa buys Pride
Zuffa then states they don't know what they want to do with Pride
Zuffa pulls all popular fighters under contract away from Pride into the UFC
Zuffa states that they can't get business done in Japan (can't get TV deal) becaues of the Japanese. - It doesn't surprise me that nothing could be materialized because nothing was left in Japan for Pride.


Anyhow, to summarize, I think Dana runs the UFC with an iron fist that I think is bad for the fighters (maybe I'm wrong, but I am not yet convinced otherwise). I think his monopolizing ways are good for the blossoming of the UFC, but not necessarily for MMA. In turn I think we'll reach a point where his ways are hindering the expansion of MMA. I also don't like how he is totally two-faced regarding his business dealings and am totally shocked how people do business with him.

The way the contracts are handled are smart business decisions, be it exclusiveness, or ability to end them early.

I don't see any way that could be a questionable decision. It's a business.

I think Dana is probley a scumbag as a person. Or atleast not someone i would like. But i think his decison are good for the UFC which is the sport at this time. I as a fan think its best that the UFC looks out for itself. One of the things that has killed boxing is the fighters all being for themselves. The main guys get their fight purse and ride off into the sunset. None of it is put into building the future of the sport. Thats why most boxing fans are older guys. Boxers wont give up the big PPV money to fight on free tv and create million of new young fans.

The UFC has an invested interest in the sports future. They make money so they have a reason to make sure the sport survives.

So i think its great the UFC takes power from the fighters. Boxers have shown that with money and control they will only fight 1 time per year or less. They wont fight anyone who may beat them and ruin their big pay days and they will take all the money and give peanuts to their fellow boxer on the undercards.

I do wish Dana would pick his battles sometimes. I believe he was wrong in how he handled the Jon Fitch fiasco. I think he should have tried harder to work out a deal.

But think sport owes a lot to Dana White and the Fertitas.

i agree, good business is good business, and the ufc is still making money when a lot of businesses arent. morals and ideals go out the window when it comes to getting ahead in capitalism, bottom line.

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Posted by cowcatcher

morals and ideals go out the window when it comes to getting ahead in capitalism, bottom line.

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Yeah... just ask the mortgage lending industry.

sad but true man

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Posted by cowcatcher

sad but true man

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Not really. Conducting business unethically almost always leads to problems in the long-term. People who think that capitalism is a pass to act immorally are the ones who get rich and then go to jail and lose it all.

the sad part is that they get to get rich and live it up at all

they probably are,
anything dana says u can just take it too the bank!!