Dana White, speaking with Ariel Helwani during the between fights lull in the UFC 177 prelims took the opportunity to lash out at media members who he feels haven’t done their duties properly.
Discussing the “wild month” that included a production truck catching fire earlier today, White said, “it’s one of these things..the GQ article that just came out about me, that I don’t pay my employees enough. Yet there’s ‘journalists’ out there, so called journalists, that are paid to cover the sport asking people not to buy the pay-per-view.”
He continued, “What about all the work that T.J. Dillashaw’s put into it…how about the amazing fight he had against Renan Barao. People were talking like this when the Renan Barao fight was still in there.
“These fighters all trained, had a camp, had to pay money for their camp and to survive and have been away from their families for eight weeks. Some of ’em longer. To come in here and have an opportunity to fight, to make money and to get a better record. To hear some of the disgusting, despicable things that are said by the ‘so called guys’ who are supposed to be covering the sport it makes me sick.”
White would then zero in on a specific target, “There were 130 refunds. 130 refunds. And even Dave Meltzer wrote a story earlier this week or put it out there ‘oh, the gate’s only gonna be $500,000.’ No, Dave Meltzer, the gate is $700,000 tonight.”
Former BE staffer, Mike Fagan put that number in context:
A $700k gate would be the third-lowest in the U.S. since 2001. Only UFC 34 and UFC 150 worse.
— Mike Fagan (@ItsMikeFagan) August 31, 2014
One of the biggest targets for White’s rant was probably Jonathan Snowden’s article at Bleacher Report “Less Than Super: Why I’m Not Buying UFC 177’s Incredibly Inadequate Card.” The point of that article was that not ordering the card could cause the UFC to hear the message that fans are no longer willing to accept watered down cards as a product of the UFC’s aggressive scheduling.
About the author
