Dana White To “Test The Waters” With Gina Carano; Hopes To Invade Canada
After expressing his interest in hosting a match between Gina Carano and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos, UFC President Dana White has now gone a step further, stating that he might actually be ready to sign Gina Carano, the “Face of Women’s MMA” to the WEC as sort of a trial run:
“Gina Carano is a star, I think she’s talented. I think she’s got all the tools, so what I’m willing to do is bring Gina into the WEC. We could do fights whenever there’s a challenger for Gina. That’s how I’ll test the waters and see how it goes.”
This is probably one of the smartest moves Dana White has ever made if it is indeed the case. Gina Carano pocketed only $25,000 ($15,000 to show) for her last bout at EliteXC: Heat, and her performance drew in a boatload of viewers from across the country. Carano’s gig as “Crush” on American Gladiators also doesn’t hurt her brand association. So here we have someone who can clearly draw a crowd and requires a relatively minor pay day. In the words of Vince Vaughn: “Lock It Up”.
While we’re on the subject of Dana White chatter, the man also made his Canadian intentions abundantly clear during a Toronto press conference this week while promoting Penn vs. St. Pierre 2. Apparently, the UFC President is just not satisfied until he gets MMA sanctioning for our neighbors to the north:
“There is absolutely no reason for Canada to not accept this sport. There’s an education factor; we need to educate people. I’m going after Canada after (I get approval in) New York and Massachusetts. I’m attacking Canada. I’m going to spend so much time in Canada I’ll have to buy a house. I’m going to live here until it’s done. I’m going to be sitting on the porch every day they come to work…This fight (between St-Pierre and Penn) should have been in Toronto or Hawaii. Canada is a huge market for us. Toronto is the mecca, this is the place to be as far as MMA is concerned.”
Oh Canada, Dana stands on guard for thee.
[Insert "testing Gina Carona's waters" comment here]
Carano even.
Shut up bsbiz. I beat you.
I tried, but hurt myself on the screen.
HEYO!!!!!!
I wonder if the UFC exclusive contract will get in the way of American Gladiators, she could get hurt on there.
Is American Gladiators even on any more?
“I’m attacking Canada.” hell yeah! Someone needs to. Dana’s a national hero.
bsbiz,
Its between seasons right now as far as I know.
Who gives a $hit about “american gladiators”???
I think great to have the chicks fighting. Especially carano cuz she’s cute dude. I STILL want to see guyborg vs carano.
From the article “Carano’s gig as ‘Crush’ on American Gladiators also doesn’t hurt her brand association.”
So…if she’s not on there anymore, it takes away from that. Also, NBC cares about American Gladiators. I’m not meaning to imply that I don’t want her to sign with the WEC, I was just saying that I wonder how the exclusive contract will affect that, based on some of the discussion going on about Fedor I thought it might be pertinent to mention the whole exclusive contract thing.
Coming to Canada is great…..however MMA is sanctioned in alot of areas of Canada……just not Ontario! Bring and event to Edmonton or Calgary and we’ll show the world there is more up here than just hockey!! Alberta is sanctioned for MMA. An event in either city would sell out instantly!! Cmon Dana and quit looking east!! We have homegrown mma fighters from here(Jason MacDonald,Jason Day,George St.Pierre,Patrick Cote,Sam Stout,Mark Bocek,Joe Doerkson,Kalib Starnes,Gary Goodridge,Chris Horedeski,Ivan Salvatary…….ect.) that would love to fight at home in the UFC. I’m not sure if the UFC understand how crazy canadians are for MMA!! We were beating each other up for something to do before the UFC came around!!
Wow that’s a lot…
Another market = more money, duh, why wouldn’t he want Canadia
I’m still torn about females fighting. I guess I should just accept it cause it’s going to happen no matter what.
Look at a map … America is Canada’s bottom.;)
chuck i love the ethusiasm but please when mentioning good canadian fighters please…please dont mention kalib starnes…besides that canada is a great mma market..ot america is not canadas bottom CC,
its just that canada is americas hat!
It sounds like Gina will only be fighting when they can actually find chicks for her to fight, so it’s entirely possible she won’t be signed to an exclusive. WEC is somewhat separate from UFC still.
Unless they can guarantee her at least 4 fights a year, I say AG is likely ok. They can just arrange her fights before seasons tape so that her filming (and getting well above her fighting weight) schedule won’t affect their ability to find her opponents.
I wouldn’t mind seeing Carano go up against Elena Reid for the stand-up potential.
The problem is that they’ll have to be constantly monkeying with the weights because we have all seen that she can’t make any weight given to her.
Gina v Cyborg imo, good that Dana is going to give it a go in the WEC
FR702,
I agree.
Not making weight. thats fine with me just means she must strip down at the weigh in’s. wow shes hot.
Carano has a sure ’stand-up’ potential in my book hehe… wouldnt mind getting ‘beat up’ by her
i just wanna apologize! my last comment was absolutely wrong, sexist and unenlightened. the devil made me do it and i will check myself into a clinic to cure me from my attraction to cute sporty gals with muscular tatas !!!