Dana on Seth comment"I'm pretty sure is illegal."

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Fix rumor riles UFC boss


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By Dan Duggan

Thursday, October 9, 2008 - Added 18h ago



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Since taking over as UFC president in 2001, Dana White has made it his mission to establish mixed martial arts as a legitimate professional sport.


With MMA’s popularity at its peak, there is no denying that White has been successful, but a controversy in a rival organization has him fearing that years of work could be going down the drain.


The dirtiest word in the fight game is “fix,” and that’s exactly what is being used by some to describe the circumstances leading up to the Kimbo Slice-Seth Petruzelli fight at the Elite XC show that aired on CBS Saturday night.


Petruzelli, a part-time fighter, beat Slice, the top attraction of the new promotion, on a TKO 14 seconds into the fight. While Petruzelli’s win was an upset, the real shocker didn’t come until Monday when he told a Florida radio station, “The promoters kind of hinted to me, and they gave me the money to stand and trade with him. They didn’t want me to take him down. Let’s just put it that way. It was worth my while to stand up and try to punch him.”


The next day Petruzelli retracted his comments, saying he was referring to a bonus he could receive for knocking out Slice. But that didn’t wash with conspiracy theorists, as there was still the implication that promoters wanted the fight to stay off the mat, where Slice, a former backyard brawler, is less experienced.


In an exclusive interview with the Herald on Wednesday, White discussed how damaging a fix could be for the sport.


“It disgusts me,” White said. “I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues on the main event because they’re trying to compete with us, and he gets knocked out in (14) seconds by a guy who didn’t win ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and couldn’t fight in the UFC. Then the guy turns around the next day and says, ‘The promoters actually paid me to not go to the ground with this guy. They paid me to stand up,’ which I’m pretty sure is illegal.”


Slice was originally scheduled to fight Ken Shamrock, but the MMA veteran withdrew after suffering a cut above his eye during last-minute training. Despite giving up 30 pounds, Petruzelli stepped up from the undercard to fight Slice.


White never minces words when it comes to Slice or the Elite XC, and he isn’t surprised the organization found itself in such a mess.


“(Slice is) a joke,” White said. “It was bound to happen. These guys have lost $60 million trying to get this thing off the ground. They’re building their promotion around a guy who can’t fight. It’s kind of (expletive) stupid, isn’t it? You’re in the fight business and you’re building your business around a guy who can’t fight.”


Elite XC vice president Jared Shaw told mmaweekly.com that any allegations of a fix were untrue, but as far as White is concerned, the damage has been done.


“It put a nail in my coffin, too,” White said. “When dirty people go out and do stuff like that, it hurts. Promoters have a bad rap as it is because of the last 100 years of boxing. We actually started to turn that around and were doing the right things and then you have these guys coming out and doing (expletive) like that. It hurts us.”



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No offense to anyone in particular, but the guys involved in MMA arent the smartest people around. So you are stuck with promoters who come from a pedigree that in a lot of cases uneducated, and shady, and they put together shows becausse they are in the industry and have contacts... not because they aregood at running a business. You dont have smart fuckers with business degrees from Harvard in MMA.

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ttt

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"They're building their promotion around a guy who can't fight. It's kind of (expletive) stupid, isn't it? You're in the fight business and you're building your business around a guy who can't fight"

Dana hit the nail on the head with this comment.

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I wonder if there's going to be any repercussions?

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...“It disgusts me,” White said. “I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues...


dana is right, he shouldn't have to put up with this. mma fans don't need to see drunk retards acting like thugs fighting in people's backyards.... oh wait.

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 The business was never built around Tank Abbot, and Brock Lesnar can fight.

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greentrousers - 
..."It disgusts me," White said. "I've been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people's barbecues...


dana is right, he shouldn't have to put up with this. mma fans don't need to see drunk retards acting like thugs fighting in people's backyards.... oh wait.

lol!!

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buggs mcmulligan - 
MJMarko - "They're building their promotion around a guy who can't fight. It's kind of (expletive) stupid, isn't it? You're in the fight business and you're building your business around a guy who can't fight"

Dana hit the nail on the head with this comment.


Dana did plenty of that shit back in the day.

Bringing Tank Abbot back is just one example.

Giving a title shot to a former pro-wrestler like Brock Lesnar, with a 1-1 record in the UFC, isn't much better.

And then there's using TUF as a platform to expose ultimate fighters as a bunch of drunken, house-destroying, piss-drinking retards isn't that great either.

Dana's in no position to take the high road on this one.

He's always done whatever he thinks he has to to make money and generate ratings.

Regardless of whether it was good for the sport's image or not.


That is not even close the same thing. Tank was brought in because people still knew who he was. Dana brought him in to build an up and coming fighter in Frank Mir. Lesnar has already legitimized himself by beating Herring. Should that get him a title shot? Of course not, but Herring is not a bum so we know Brock has got some skills. EXC tried to act like they had the best fighter in the world, and then got embarrassed when he KO'd in 14 secs by punch that Gina Carano couldve probably absorbed.

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MJMarko - 
buggs mcmulligan - 
MJMarko - "They're building their promotion around a guy who can't fight. It's kind of (expletive) stupid, isn't it? You're in the fight business and you're building your business around a guy who can't fight"

Dana hit the nail on the head with this comment.


Dana did plenty of that shit back in the day.

Bringing Tank Abbot back is just one example.

Giving a title shot to a former pro-wrestler like Brock Lesnar, with a 1-1 record in the UFC, isn't much better.

And then there's using TUF as a platform to expose ultimate fighters as a bunch of drunken, house-destroying, piss-drinking retards isn't that great either.

Dana's in no position to take the high road on this one.

He's always done whatever he thinks he has to to make money and generate ratings.

Regardless of whether it was good for the sport's image or not.


That is not even close the same thing. Tank was brought in because people still knew who he was. Dana brought him in to build an up and coming fighter in Frank Mir. Lesnar has already legitimized himself by beating Herring. Should that get him a title shot? Of course not, but Herring is not a bum so we know Brock has got some skills. EXC tried to act like they had the best fighter in the world, and then got embarrassed when he KO'd in 14 secs by punch that Gina Carano couldve probably absorbed.

it is close. it shows dana is not above bringing in guys who might not be able to compete at a high level just for ratings. the ufc is at the point that it is big enough where dana does not have to whore himself out but the proof is there that he is not above it

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he is blowing things outta proportion. doesnt he give extra money for knockouts on TUF. didnt pride do the same thing. they also gave yellow cards if the fighters were boring (not fighting).

So they wanted an exciting fight that they hoped kimbo would win, so fuckin what.

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 what i dont get is how kimbo makes $500,000



wasnt he fighting for like $1,000 in back yards?



u figure he'd b happy with 10k

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greentrousers - 
...“It disgusts me,” White said. “I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues...


dana is right, he shouldn't have to put up with this. mma fans don't need to see drunk retards acting like thugs fighting in people's backyards.... oh wait.

lol x2

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"it is close. it shows dana is not above bringing in guys who might not be able to compete at a high level just for ratings. the ufc is at the point that it is big enough where dana does not have to whore himself out but the proof is there that he is not above it"

I was referring specifically to Dana saying they were trying to build a fight company around a guy that cant fight. I never said Dana was above whoring himself out, I was saying that he is correct in mocking EXC for making such a big deal out of Kimbo when there are actually talented fighters that they could have spent those resources on.

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 But UFC president Dana White says a large television rating won't matter if it is found that ProElite attempted to influence the Slice-Petruzelli fight. White welcomes the DBPR's decision.

 


He believes any hint that a promoter influenced how a bout was fought will harm the integrity of mixed martial arts. White added that his organization could also feel the sting.

 


"The Mandalay Bay and Venetian [casinos] took bets on that fight," White told ESPN.com. "If you're a fan of mixed martial arts and you sit down and do all the stats and you're like 'man, if this thing goes to the ground, Seth Petruzelli can win this fight, I'm gonna bet on Seth Petruzelli.'

 


"Then you don't know the promoters are paying the guy and saying 'don't go to the ground?' That's criminal. If that was in Las Vegas and the Nevada Athletic Commission had put that fight on, the FBI would be investigating them right now.

 


"This is how it hurts [UFC]; it hurts our mainstream growth. The people who aren't hardcore fans … ask me 'Oh, you have that Kimbo Slice guy.' And I have to say no, 'I don't have Kimbo Slice.' I would never bring Kimbo Slice into my organization."