Dana White Puts Rumors To Rest On CNBC
Posted by Kris Karkoski on Jun 10, 2008 at 3:34 pm ET30 Comments
During today’s appearance on CNBC’s “Power Lunch”, UFC President Dana White put some of the most-rampant rumors about Thursday’s major announcement by the promotion to rest.
Among the rumors White publicly denied today were a partnership with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), the signing of recently-retired star boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr., a UFC television deal on FOX, ABC, ESPN, or any other network, and the UFC going public.
Despite debunking nearly every circulating rumor and announcing one remaining possibility, a major UFC merchandising initiative, the UFC will still reportedly make a major announcement in the coming days, though the details of the announcement remain unknown.
Stay tuned to MMAFrenzy.com for the latest UFC news.
Dana’s new sponsor is the Hairclub for Men. Randy will be returning and fighting in “the Hair Club” extra hairy trunks….
In my mind, this leave Fedor as the biggest maybe. I cant see him making such a big announcement about a fight or fighter though. I dont care who it is.
If it was something to do with a signing of Fedor, he would have waited until after the Tim Silvia fight. Otherwise he’d be adding significance to (and thus hyping) someone else’s PPV, which is bad business. Dana’s a lot of things, but he isn’t stupid about stuff like that.
Bye Bye Fertitas - Shane Mcmahon and Dana !!!!!!
It would be dumb to bring in the McMahons. They will ruin the company. They will want to take over the spot light and what not. Shane and Dana will be at odds and Dana will end up quiting and teaming up with some other promotion with the idea of raising it from the dead to make it the biggest MMA promotion the way he did with UFC….either that, or become a boxing promoter…mananger or sports agent or some crap like that. Screw the WWE idea…that wouldn’t be a good idea in my opinion.
I hope they announce it soon. At this rate it will be Kimbo vs Chuck by the end of the week. The rumors keep getting worse and worse.
Yippee, we can buy Dana and Chuck dolls. Who the F cares?
Vince is a smart business man, he already ruined the XFL with the involvment of WWE superstars and stupidity. I think if Dana and the Mcmahons were to team up, Dana would continue to run it his way, with marketing tips from Vince and funding……
This probably won’t even happen but I don’t see it being a bad idea if it did, Vinces WWE is worldwide and UFC wants to continue to expand world wide but it takes tons of $$$$. Vince could really help in UFCs growth as long as UFC and WWE stay COMPLETELY separate.
Why would they need Vince’s help getting sanctioned in NY. They’ve gotten sanctioned everywhere they wanted to get sanctioned with out any problems. I mean what’s preventing them from getting sanctioned in NY? Boxing is sanctioned there so why not MMA?
Once they get sanctioned, it would be big time to have a live show at MSG (the Mecca). Here’s some of the other places they hope they do live shows at:
Japan - (have alot of the old Pride stars fight again in Japan as well as some of the Japenese fighters fighting in front of their home crowds
Brazil - Have a lot of the Brazilian fighters and fight in front of there home crowds
Hawaii - Have BJ Penn fight in front of his home crowd
Memphis, Tn - Have Rampage fight in front of his home town
Orlando, FL - That’s where I from!! & home of Gracie Barra MMA Training Center :o) Futhermore, if WWE can bring Wrestlemania to the “O”, UFC can bring a live show here as well.
who no’s wats going on i dont and no one else who rites on here doesn’t, i think we ar all going to be dissapointed.
I honestly thought it was coming to a head between CNBC and the announcement and the history of Zuffa’s owners going private and public at the right times. Sorry for the inaccurate post.
if its not that ufc is goin away from ppv, or signing a big fighter, i think this will end up being a HUGE disapointment
Teaming up with the McMahon’s is such a horrible idea
- Dana would never be that stupid. It would lesson the integrity of the sport. Every controversial fight ending would generate accusation of event fixing. Also, the steroids baggage from WWE is not something the UFC needs.
- Being as all the most likely ideas have been rejected, it must be something not so mind blowing. How about the realignments of the divisions between the WEC and UFC? With the WEC eliminating the middleweight and lightheavy divisions, and adding smaller weight classes.
I like that idea, or maybe that the UFC has finally decided to allow their champs to fight other champs to prove they are better.
Ok ok I know that isn’t it, but it would nice if they did.
any specific day in which this announcement is coming? i am getting tired of the speclation. it could be anything but like one of you guys said it doesnt look like anything thats gonna rock the mma world. it may rock a few peoples pocket books but thats about it. I dont believe its gonna hit home with all the fans.
I still think its going to be a tv deal
Kris,
Stop teasing these guys and post the truth. You know as well as I do about the two new divisions for midgets and dwarfs so just post the article. You are truly having fun with this aren’t you?
The suspense is killing me now. White said it is coming out of left field so what the F could it be if none of the above? More events on a regular basis with Spike? Slight change in rules? WTF is going on? I want to be heavily sedated and left in a padded room until the news finally breaks.
THE BIG ANNOUNCEMENT IS THAT THE UFC HAS SOLD THE COMPANY TO MICROSOFT CORPORATION.
In every passed “major” announcment it has been something that I really didn’t care much about, aside form the purchasing of the WEC and Pride. And I don’t see them needing/wanting to purchase any failing MMA organization because the rest are either doing fairly well (Elite XC) or failing misserably (IFL) and they are best left to die on their own.
It’ll probably be some new sponsor like Harley was or Budweiser.
The weird thing to me is why would Dana rent out some place to make the announcement. It has to be bigger than the past announcements like TUF couches and sponsors. I mean, I am excited as hell for midgets and dwarfs but you guys don’t seem as excited. It is coming out of left field and will show where the UFC is going over the next five years.
Maybe the UFC will expand weight classes to allow more exposure for guys like Faber.
Merge WEC into UFC? Bringing in more divs and upping shows? Some Uni bouts Paulo Filho vs Silva wouldn’t be bad..I dunno…Maybe that would make sense with the roster cuts? Bringing in new talent over from WEC and divisions would require that. I dunno. I mean I thought they just wanted that as a sister company but after the show on versus maybe they realized they need a bigger venue and are throwing it on spike perm? I mean they could put a on weekly show on spike. Spike would be like hell yeah. More fights. etc. Maybe I’m crazy. But that would be a way to combat affliction’s upstartness with this much exposure and raw product.
DABruce,
That sounds like a good idea and I wish that would happen. I just don’t think that is it. I am pretty sure midgets and dwarfs are coming to MMA.
i’m pretty sure the big news is that bisping is going to face a real fighter in his next fight. honestly, is there anything that would be more shocking?!?
I don’t think funding is an issue. Let’s face it, the Fertitta’s (sp?) are minted and reportedly billionaires now, so why would funding be an issue. UFC has the most PPV per year than any other franchise… Don’t think this has to do with funding.
This isn’t a fight call, or anything like that.
I don’t know what it is… I’ll wait til it’s said and then get excited or not.
BTW, is anyone else appalled that they sold out by making action figures?
I heard that the Announcement has been put back till TUESDAY !
Can anyone confirm this ?
I’m not so excited about this “big” announcement anymore. He’s shot down all the really good ideas and it doesn’t seem to be anything left that would “blow” my mind at this point. I agree with MMA_K9, at this point, WHO CARES! Just get it over with already!
the annoucement is going to be anderson silva is movin up to light heavyweight n fighting chuck liddell
PLEASE PLEASE let it be that UFC is opening up for super-fight cards. They’ve let so many good fighters go because there weren’t enough fights for these guys to make a decent income. If they open up for non-UFC fighters to compete they could have more events, guys could make more $, and everyone is happy. Fedor could fight a non-title bout in the UFC against a champ. Vegas bookies would LOVE it and so would MMA fans. UFC could make their $ in more venues, and the fights would be better, too.
I hope it’s not about action figures and t-shirts. Ugh.
Maybe they are going to start a womens division.