Dana White finds a way to hype up UFC 103 by bashing boxing
Published by Zach Arnold on September 10th, 2009 in Current Events

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Rich Franklin vs. Vitor Belfort is a fight that hardcore MMA fans will appreciate watching on September 19th on PPV from Dallas, Texas. It’s not a fight that will strike the fancy of many casual MMA fans, let alone boxing fans who will be watching Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Juan Manuel Marquez. Despite all the negative talk against Marquez going into the fight, he is a good opponent for Mayweather’s boxing comeback. Floyd will be, at minimum, a -400 favorite going into the fight. That doesn’t take away from the fact that Marquez has a following, albeit a small-sized one in terms of PPV buys. The boxing match will be a true test of Mayweather’s drawing power.

There are many in the media who are trying to frame this with the lazy storyline of UFC vs. boxing. UFC President Dana White is taking advantage of this. White, in a video put on YouTube with a chroma key screen hyping up Franklin/Belfort, trashed Mayweather and disrespected Marquez as a no-name jobber.

“Floyd is always trying to talk and pump himself up, you know, he talks about Mixed Martial Arts because he feels threatened by Mixed Martial Arts and you know what made Floyd Mayweather a PPV star was Oscar De La Hoya, you know, I don’t know, I know Floyd can’t sell tickets without Oscar but what’s happening here is boxing is doing it to you again. They’re giving you the fight that you don’t want. Nobody asks for this fight with uh with Mayweather and uh, what’s his name? What’s his name? Nobody even knows! Nobody in this room even knows who Floyd’s fighting! I should know, I’m a big boxing guy, and I respect the guy that he’s fighting, I know his name but I can’t think of it right now. But that’s my point! Nobody gives a shit!

Boxing is trying to sell you the fight that nobody cares about. People want to see Mayweather/Pacquiao, but they’re not giving you that fight. And the other thing in Floyd’s commentary, Floyd goes out there and says, you know, ‘Oh, no Mixed Martial Artist has ever done $250 million dollars in revenue, you want to see big money checks, I’ll show you big money checks’ because the fans, the fans keep doing it, boxing keeps doing it to them, you show up to see Floyd Mayweather not fight. This guy will run around in circles, OK, everybody wants to know why the UFC is becoming so popular is because they’re sick of boxers not fighting! You’re going to pay whatever it is, $55, $60 bucks to see Floyd basically you get to see Dancing with the Stars again with Floyd Mayweather except you have to pay for it this time, OK? You got to pay $60 bucks to watch Floyd Mayweater in Dancing with the Stars again.

On that same night, on that UFC card, you guys can all tune in and you can watch you know not one fight, you guys can watch five great fights that night for $10 less than what Floyd wants you to pay to see him run around in circles and lay on the ropes and move around and not fight.”

HBO has been doing a Mayweather/Marquez 24/7 special to try to hype the fight. Dan Rafael, ESPN’s boxing writer, made the hype series sound like Junie Browning was producing the show.

“But easily the most memorable moment through the series’ first two episodes came from the other camp. It was watching Marquez’s, um, interesting choice of beverage in the second episode. Even more disgusting than watching Marquez eat some of his purchase of 25 raw quail eggs (which he referred to as “turkey boogers”) from a cup with a spoon was watching him drink his own urine.”

Urine drinking, of course, is nothing new – we know Luke Cummo and Lyoto Machida and a few other MMA fighters are into this practice. Does it sell PPV buyrates? Not especially. Does it make you like those fighters more or less? I think it creeps people out.

As for White’s comments about Mayweather not doing huge PPV buyrate numbers without Oscar De La Hoya… De La Hoya drew some eyeballs when he had an exhibition fight on ABC last week against Shaquille O’Neal, who has renamed himself as Manny Shaqiuao.

HBO has claimed publicly that they are spending up to $20 million dollars to promote the Mayweather bout. If you’re wondering where White got Mayweather’s quote about drawing $250 million dollars on PPV, here’s Golden Boy’s Richard Schaefer quoted by Jeff Haney in today’s Las Vegas Sun newspaper:

“Mayweather’s pay-per-view fights have generated 4.5 million “buys,” Schaefer said, an average of 900,000 buys per fight for a total of about $250 million in pay-per-view revenue alone.”

As was the case with De La Hoya’s last fight, Tecate will be offering rebates for people who purchase the PPV. Golden Boy and HBO are pulling out all the stops to draw big buyrates on PPV.

Dana White, with a smaller budget and a savvier approach to promoting, may draw half the buyrate as the Mayweather PPV but spend significantly less to generate the revenue and produce a better show overall. White understand that with a weaker PPV card for the Dallas event that he can afford to egg on people in boxing in order to generate interest for UFC 103. He has nothing to lose, unlike Mayweather who needs to draw a strong buyrate on September 19th to assure his supporters that he can draw on his own and be his own man without a mega babyface foil.