In their own words: Dana White on why UFC failed to sign Fedor
Published by Zach Arnold on August 4th, 2009 in Current Events

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“And you know I don’t know if, I don’t want to say anything bad about this guy. Listen. I went out there and tried to make this happen. I did everything I could possibly do. They didn’t want to do it, for whatever reason, they did not want to sign a deal with the UFC. So, I don’t want to ask, I don’t want anybody to ask me any Fedor questions, you know, did we offer him an amazing deal? Absolutely we did. I guarantee you he will not be offered a better deal than this in Mixed Martial Arts, I guarantee it. Even if you went back to when a lot of those companies were still alive last year and there were guys throwing big money around, I guarantee you nobody offered him a deal like we did.”

Those were the immortal words of one Dana White last week on a major conference call with a lot of media outlets. Throughout the one-hour conference call, White was asked questions about Fedor repeatedly despite the warning the UFC President gave earlier on the call saying he didn’t want Fedor questions. However, the questions started picking up steam like a snow ball rolling down a hill. The more White was asked about the Fedor, the angrier and panicked he sounded. Given Fedor’s signing with Strikeforce this past Monday, now we know why he was so frustrated.

White stressed that the major dealbreaker between UFC and M-1 is that M-1 wanted 50% of the gate on all the shows Fedor fought on. Jerry Millen confirmed this in an interview for AOL Fanhouse. Let’s just say that Dana White was not happy about the idea of splitting revenue 50/50 with M-1.

Beau Dure of USA Today asked White, “OK, and I know you don’t want to hear the five letter F-word, but if I can ask, what does co-promotion mean? What would you allow some guys under contract with some other management team to do?”

White responded in this fashion: “Not that I mean. Let me ask you a question, let’s be honest here… These guys are going to come in and co-promote? How the hell would they going to co-promote anything? You know what I mean, the UFC has you know we’ve built this business, this entire frigging industry. How are they going to come in and help us co-promote? It’s basically them coming in and saying, hey, we’ve got this guy and some people say he might be the best heavyweight in the world, so for that we want half your business. Yeah, OK. That shit probably works in Russia, heh heh heh, not here.”

As the tensions kept mounting on the conference call, White tried to leave the door open to continue negotiations with Fedor. A reporter asked him, “I know today’s conference call is sort of proof never say never but given what you said in opening this conference call about the Emelianenko negotiations, is this it for you?”

White calmly responded this way.

“No. Listen. I want to make a deal. If they’re ready to make a deal, they can call me right now. I’m ready to make a deal. Believe me. The only one who can explain to you how bad I wanted this thing is Lorenzo. Lorenzo was with me all last week, I wanted this thing so bad and I was so confident that we’re going to get it done. Just made up with Tito, you know, got the Tito deal done, got a bunch of other things done, you know, I was just… I was so confident this was going to happen and went into this thing with the attitude we’re going to make it happen, you know, we’re going to make this happen you know the fans really want to see this fight, I want to see how good this guy really is against the best in the world, let’s do this thing. And didn’t happen. But if they want to make a deal, they can call me right now, we can do it.”

“And if co-promotion was off the table, would you have a deal?”

“Ah, it’d be done. We’d be announcing that fight right now, too.”

Reporters on the call kept nagging White about co-promotion. It was as if none of the media members thought about the absurdity of M-1 asking for 50% of revenues on each show Fedor fought on when UFC is the brand that makes most of the stars in American MMA.

“Hey, Dana, what is the possible compromise if at all to the co-promotion suggestion by M-1? I mean is there, it seems like maybe just more money.”

Interestingly, White played the ‘background check’ card.

“Trust me, trust me when I tell you, we did everything to make this deal happen. Everything. We didn’t, we didn’t hold back on anything. We gave everything. For them, it’s insanity to turn down a deal like this, so to turn down a deal like this, you don’t care about proving you’re the best in the world, you don’t want to fight the best in the world, you don’t care about money, I mean how do you deal with something like that? It’s just, you know, there is no compromise. On the co-promotion, I got to ask you, why the hell would I let anybody come in and co-promote with us? You’re going to come in, this thing that we’ve built, the Fertittas risked all their money, all the things that we’ve done and busted our ass over the 10 years that we’ve been in this business and these guys are going to walk in and say, yeah, we’re going to be in business with you guys. You know? And here’s the other thing. The Fertittas have a gaming license. You know, people from other countries just don’t walk in and jump in business with the Fertittas brothers. There has to be full background checks and all kinds of crazy shit. It doesn’t work that way. It’s impossible, it will never happen.”

The ultimate irony about the UFC President playing the background check card in regards to M-1 having to pass Nevada Gaming Commission checks is that UFC didn’t hesitate to pay Nobuyuki Sakakibara $10 million USD for the PRIDE assets and only had Spectrum Gaming, according to court documents, attempt background checks after the initial transaction in relation to a ‘consulting’ agreement.

Throughout the conference call, White continued to stress that he was still open to talking to Fedor. It sounded more like a man that was panicking but also hoping that the Russian would come to his senses as more time passed by.

“Deal’s not dead, they can call me right now. I want to make… to try to explain to you how bad I want to do this deal and how bad I wanted this, I was with Lorenzo all last week. I was fucking miserable, miserable the entire day because we couldn’t make this deal, I was so confident that we were going to get this done because we were willing to do it. We were willing to make a deal you know at almost any cost to make it happen and believe me when I tell you, it just… these guys don’t want to make a deal. And if they do, they can call me right now and we can do it. I’m willing and able and ready to do it.”

White was adamant that many of the initial sticking points that M-1 had with UFC were resolved. Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports asked White, “Did you have any points of agreement like were they there ten things that you had agreements on seven or eight and was it just the co-promotion, was that the only thing that was sticking?”

“Well, everything that was a sticking point, you know that we had heard was a sticking point in the past and things that were verbally uh you know, people that things that they told us what were bad and things we had heard that we were bad to them we fixed, we fixed everything and the only sticking point is the co-promotion. As far as I know. I mean, they came out with a in their press conference and said, you know, the thing that was the dealbreaker for them was the co-promotion. Otherwise, we gave them everything.”

The biggest carrot that UFC dangled in front of Fedor was an immediate title fight against Brock Lesnar, the UFC Heavyweight champion. Talk about unification matches, the PRIDE Heavyweight champion versus the UFC Heavyweight champion. We’ve already seen Dan Henderson in PRIDE unification bouts in UFC, but Fedor? That would have been, pardon the pun, the ultimate coup.

“He was there, he was there and heard everything so… you know, I don’t know, I don’t know what that means or you know. They want to be co-promoters, thinks about this… do you remember M-1 Global? You remember M-1 Global and they hired Monte Cox and did all this stuff and they were going to come out and starting doing these promotions? They went out of business before they even had one fight. They’re out of business before they ever put one fight on. And they want to co-promote with us? I mean, c’mon, c’mon.

“I wasn’t, I wasn’t a dick at all in these negotiations, I was the nicest Dana ever in these negotiations, believe me. We were, we… Lorenzo and I went out walked into that deal ready to make it happen. There was nothing that was going to stop us from making this deal other than them saying, you know, we’re either your partner or it’s no-go.”

Iole keep asking questions about whether or not the Russians understood what White was saying, what he was offering, and so forth, but Dana made it very clear that all the cards were laid out on the table.

“I mean, I guess if you expressed the point you know all the points that you made that hey, the Fertittas’ gaming license, you’d need to do a background check…”

White immediately chimed back, “Told them that! Told them everything. Everything. Believe me. When I tell you guys to try to tell you, we walked in there to make this deal. We went in there to make this deal. I flew down, I flew down to Tito’s house in Huntington Beach, me and Lorenzo and I walked in Tito’s front door to do a deal with Tito. I was going to leave that house you know with a deal with Tito. Period. We sat down, we talked and we did all the you know there was more emotional shit with me and Tito than there was anything you know financial or any of that stuff and there was a lot of you know emotional and financial and other things. With the Fedor thing when I tell you we gave on everything to make this fight happen. The fans want to see it, the fans wanted it, and I was woke up in the morning telling Lorenzo “We’re fucking, this is going to happen! It’s going to happen today! We’re going to make this thing happen!” We both felt that way, we wanted it, and it didn’t happen. And it didn’t not happen because of me and Lorenzo, I can tell you that right now.”

Iole: “I just want to get, when you made those points to Vadim (Finkelstein), how does he respond to it? In other words when you tell him hey you need to do a background check you know you haven’t had success with M-1, why would we co-promote, how does he respond to you?”

White: “They don’t care, they don’t care. They don’t care about it. They could care less about any of it, they don’t care what you say about it, it’s like Brett Favre going in and negotiating with one of the football teams and saying, yeah, I’m going to be your 50% partner though. You know what I mean? It’s like, what?”

After Iole’s line of questioning, White started getting exasperated when Mike Chiappetta of AOL Fanhouse (and formerly NBC Sports) started asking more Fedor questions.

“I can sit there and you guys can try to tell me that Fedor’s pound-for-pound the best in the world and he’s the best heavyweight and everything else, I don’t fucking see it, you know what I mean? The best in the world, to me, are the guys who compete three times a year against the very best in the world! And keep proving themselves over and over and over again, three times a year, the Anderson Silvas, the Georges St. Pierres, the Brock Lesnars, you know, the BJ Penns, etc. etc. These guys challenge themselves three times a year against the best fighters in the world. How anybody can deny these guys the pound-for-pound and the best in the world and not talk about these guys.”

Chiappetta asked if White had taken his offer to Fedor off the table.

“No, we haven’t pulled anything back. We have an offer out to Fedor, we sat and talked to these guys all day the other day and like I said, I just said five minutes ago they can call me right now. They can call me tomorrow. They can call me next month. I’m ready to roll, I’m ready to make this deal. Listen, the fans want to see this fight, it’s my job, it’s my job to make this fight happen. That’s what I do for a living. So, I’m trying.”

So what was the reasoning for Fedor not being interested in fighting in the UFC?

“Yeah, I don’t know what the reasoning is and I’ve heard lots of different reasons on why he doesn’t, you know, that he doesn’t like fighting with elbows, he doesn’t like this, he doesn’t like that, I don’t know what the answer is. The bottom line is you know I think for the fans or for any of the media to seriously call this guy the best in the world, let alone pound-for-pound is fucking insanity. When he doesn’t want to, he won’t give you the fights the fans want to see. I have tried to do everything in my power to make this fight happen. You know, all the things that they said before and I didn’t wake up feeling you know feeling good like we can, I fucking knew, I knew we were going to make that deal. I knew it! I knew we were going to make it, we just knocked all these things down, sat down in a room, listen, I’m telling you, when I tell you how bad things were with me and Tito, it was bad. Really bad, that wasn’t for TV, it wasn’t for show, it wasn’t for the business, me and Tito hated each other. We sat down in a room like men and worked this thing out. We’ve done deals with the best fighters in the world over the last ten years. There’s absolutely no reason why Fedor shouldn’t be fighting in the UFC right now.”

By this point, you could just feel White’s anger bubbling up. Chiappetta started his next question on a legitimate premise, which was the sticking point being M-1 wanting co-promotion. When Mike used the words ‘sticking point’, White lost his temper.

“There is no sticking point! I’m over it! I’m over the deal. I’m over the deal. To be honest with you, I don’t even want to talk about him any more. I don’t want to talk about him. I, I, I literally did everything, do you really give a shit that much about him that this guy won’t even step up and give you what you want to see? And he got offered a fucking assload of money. A ton of money, everything that he wanted, he could go fight in Sambo every fucking Thursday night if he wants to, he could do everything he wanted to do, you know, and we showed them nothing but respect and tried to bring them in because the fans want to see this fight and the media keeps talking like this guy’s the fucking best, you know what I mean? I’ve put my money where my mouth was, laid out everything and tried to make this happen and they’re coming up with unrealistic shit. This guy doesn’t want to fight the best in the world, I don’t even want to talk about him. I want to talk about the guys who do want to fight the best in the world, Period!”

Three days later, Fedor signed a deal with Strikeforce. White responded to Steve Cofield with this message:

“I feel sorry for the real fans! I wanted to make the deal but it takes two and it is VERY obvious Fedor doesn’t want to fight the best and doesn’t give a [expletive] about the fans.”

The media fallout to Fedor’s signing with Strikeforce has resulted in an incredulous tone. ESPN SportsCenter anchor Josh Elliott said he had no idea who ran Strikeforce and said that Fedor vs. Lesnar was the fight he wanted to see. This same sentiment was expressed by Colin Cowherd and Jim Rome. This attitude by ESPN makes sense, given that ESPN is a leader in its industry leader similar to how UFC is the leader in the MMA business. Dana White may not have been able to sign Fedor, but he has won the public relations battle on this front… so far.