The stress and pressure is starting to affect Dana White
Published by Zach Arnold on January 4th, 2010 in Current Events

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The history of those in power in the sports business yelling at writers has been a very long one. General managers, players, agents, and even Team Owners and Presidents have long chewed out local newspaper columnists and beat-reporters. Every major sports town in America has seen this dynamic at play, especially in Chicago during the 1990s when Jerry Krause (then-GM of the Chicago Bulls) feuded with Michael Jeffrey Jordan’s favorite columnist, Jay Mariotti, feuded with each other. Mariotti also had long-standing feuds with the likes of Jerry Reinsdorf, who owns the Chicago White Sox. In other words, media folk getting yelled at by those in power is nothing new.

However, you don’t ever see sports Commissioners go on the attack against a sports writer. One, it’s beneath them to do so. Two, you can hire a PR flack to do your bidding for you.

Which makes Dana White’s long-standing behavior against the media all the more puzzling and his current behavior against outlets like Sherdog detrimental for UFC’s own business interests. Mark Twain once said that you should “Never pick a fight with people who buy ink by the barrel.” In this case, don’t pick fights with those who can type 100 words a minute on their keyboard.

If there is one thing that I know about better than scandal, it’s the media. How they behave. How they act. How they cover for each other. It’s easy to bully the media when you have the upper hand, but those same individuals you kicked on the way up will kick you on the way down and do so without much remorse. The truth is that no matter how sycophantic most members of the MMA media are, they will ultimately defend each other when someone is getting kicked down. That’s the nature of a sports writer — even when there are politics involved and agendas to be had, ultimately if you attack one writer you end up creating five more enemies.

Dana White’s history with Sherdog has been detailed ad nauseam year after year. That’s nothing new. What is new is just how public White’s feuds with the media have gotten and how he seems to think that it will benefit him. It’s easy to rip on the media — I do it a lot, but I don’t rip media members because I want them unemployed or not to work. I can be critical of various media writers when I think they aren’t pulling their weight and telling the whole truth of what is going behind the scenes.

Debating the ethics of a sports writer are far different than debating whether or not that person should be employed or have a right to do what they do. In Dana White’s case, he views the writers that cover Mixed Martial Arts as nothing more than people that should promote his product 24/7 and do so because UFC is the sport, the whole sport, and nothing but the sport.

To set the scene for White’s public declaration of feelings about the way the MMA media should operate, he called up someone, presumably from Sherdog or ESPN.com, and ranted and raved about a column Jake Rossen wrote challenging the future of MMA over the next decade. That’s right — on the week of UFC 108, Dana White was busy whining like a “Bitch in a Beauty Salon” (a phrase he coined during the Randy Couture labor dispute a few years ago) about how Sherdog wasn’t covering UFC 108 enough to his liking. The fact that White and UFC management thought that this was a good thing to put onto Youtube and for everyone to watch should tell you just where this organization’s priorities lie.

“Arguing with me about how big MMA will be for the next 10 years. Like I give a fuck what Jake Rossen thinks. What the fuck has this guy ever done to move the sport of MMA forward, OK? First of all, first of all, we’ve made this thing grow despite all the dicks that write on Sherdog, OK? Number one. And then like his fucking input about business and he also says the UAE is fucking has big financial trouble. They’re worth a fucking Trillion dollars. This guy is a fucking assbag, OK? So instead of promoting the fight this weekend, instead of promoting the fight this weekend, this guy’s fucking arguing with me about how big MMA’s going to be in the next 10 years and why it won’t be as big as I say it is. Are these motherfuckers into Mixed Martial Arts?

That’s what he does? Then what the fuck do you employ this guy for? He argues about how big the sport will be? That’s what he does? What a fucking douchebag!

You know there’s a fight this Saturday, right? There’s not one stitch of fucking anything covering the fight. Uh, who will be the next big fighters in the next 10 years? Uh, they got some dude with a big fucking afro, uh, wrestling, you know.

So basically what he just tells me is, Jake Rossen is what he likes to do is he likes to write bullshit stories, smashing MMA and MMA writers so that you, the fans, will go on there and talk about him for a long time. Typical fucking you know douchebag reporter. Jake Rossen. Go fuck yourself.”

But wait, there’s more.

White doubled-down on his criticism of the media when he got into a debate with ESPN 1100 Las Vegas radio host Steve Cofield about how the media should cover “the sport.” The sport is a euphemism for UFC. White made his feelings clear about credentialing members of the media.

“Here’s the reality. You want to know the reality? We’ll cut right to the chase here. I don’t have to give anybody credentials to this thing. Credentials are a privilege, I don’t have to give somebody credentials.

I read some shit after that where you guys were going, oh, he’s going to tell the media what they are, like, they’re supposed to be a promotional vehicle for his thing. Well, if you’re an MMA web site and there’s a big New Year’s Eve fight that weekend, you know, and you want credentials and you want to come to a fight? I tell you what, don’t cover the fucking NFL, don’t cover the NFL and then try to go get some credentials to the fucking NFL games.”

The issue with White wanting to control the media speaks volumes about the pressure he has put himself under. At a time when the company is running too many shows and too many markets and too many PPVs, White is lashing out Vince McMahon-style to anyone who doesn’t kiss his ass. Dana White is the ultimate micro-manager and that kind of management style is going to cost him big time.

In fact, it already has.

In previous years, White’s attacks on the media would have resulted in the media shutting up and doing what he told them to do. Fear is a big motivator, especially when there isn’t a lot of money to be made in the media end of the game. However, the reaction from media types towards White has indicated that the worm has turned. He’s getting lectured at, mocked, and even laughed at.

Our good friend Saul Alinsky in Rules for Radicals warned that once you start ridiculing your enemy and belittling them, then you start to gain the upper hand.

“Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon. It’s hard to counterattack ridicule, and it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage.”

There is nothing more important for a promoter, especially one who is a front man, than to have credibility. When your credibility starts eroding with the general public, then you need the media on your side. In White’s case, the same media that he belittles and besmirches is not going to be as sympathetic to his cause when things start to get rough for him. It may be a Zuffa-ruled MMA world, but the competition is growing. Strikeforce will have about 20 shows in 2010. Bellator will have a new season airing on Fox Sports Net. There will be countless MMA events happening around the world — including DREAM shows that will feature Strikeforce fighters. Yes, UFC is “the brand” in much the same way that the NFL likes to say that “The Shield” is king in their sport. However, unless UFC starts making writers financially-dependent on what the company does, then writers have options. They don’t need to sit and take the abuse from Dana White behind the scenes or on goofy video blogs… and they won’t.

Give credit where credit is due. Last year, Dana White tried to intimidate Loretta Hunt in the most vile manner possible. As a credit to her, she didn’t quit her job. Whtie pulled he Youtube clip from the UFC channel, but his words will forever live on.

Words like this.

“I just heard that there was another absolutely fucking retarded story written by Loretta Hunt. Loretta, you fucking moron, it is always been the policy at the UFC that the fighters get so many credentials and they can credential whoever the fuck they want, it can be their manager, whoever they want to have in the back with them, they can credential. And you are such a fucking genius, I actually, totally off track here, I heard your interview that you did too about where you said Rich Franklin was our poster boy and we were trying not to get him beat by Matt Lindland and all that fucking shit, too. Yeah, that’s why he fought Anderson Silva fucking twice because we were trying to fucking protect Rich Franklin to save him. Rich Franklin’s fought the best fighters in the world and the only reason I’m talking about this is just to show how fucking dumb you are, number one, OK? And it’s always been our policy, always, since fucking day one and you also put in the article apparently that you know I used to manage Tito and Chuck. Yeah? You want to know what happened when I managed Tito and Chuck? When I went to their UFC fights, I bought my own tickets. I paid for my tickets to go to the UFC and never was I allowed in the back, to go back there, what the fuck do I need to be in the back for if I’m his manager? What am I holding the mitts for them while they’re warming up? Am I back there talking strategy? No, I’ve done all the fucking business deals before they go there and my work is done, I go there and I watch the fucking fight. I don’t need to be in the fucking back and if I needed to be in the back that bad, then one of those guys would have credentialed me to get in the back, they would have used me as one of their credentials that they get, OK? 90% of the time, these fighters don’t want their fucking managers in the back. You don’t even know what the fuck you’re talking about and to write a story that says, “Oh, and here’s a quote from a guy who wanted to remain anonymous because of fear of repercussions from the,” SHUT THE FUCK UP. Any fucking guy that won’t put his name on it, first of all, whoever gave you that quote is a pussy and a fucking f—-t and a fucking liar and everything else whoever gave you that quote. Or maybe it’s you, Loretta, maybe you’re the liar writing bullshit fucking stories. Everything that comes out of your mouth is fucking stupid, OK? What else… Why would I give a shit who represents who? Yeah, there’s no doubt, there’s some guys out there that have managers that are absolute sleazy, dirty fucking scumbags, absolutely. There’s a lot of them, but there’s a lot of guys out that have a lot of good guys who manage them too, who I have no problem with. Who you fucking ask to manage you doesn’t bother me one bit. Ask fucking Rampage Jackson, OK? Ask Rampage Jackson if I ever said anything about any of his fucking managers or anybody who represented him. Hey Loretta, if you’re going to write a story, you fucking moron, at least make sure it’s fucking true and you have some facts and if you’re going to put some fucking quotes in there, get some quotes from people who at least have the fucking balls to put their fucking name on it. I mean, how do you write a story from a guy who fucking it’s like, hey it’s like in an interview where they fucking like put a black thing over the guy’s face and change his voice and shit, you fucking dumb bitch. Fuck you, Loretta Hunt!”

The way White has treated the media shows you everything you need to know about how much pressure he is putting on himself and on the company. Too much, too fast, and too soon will lead to heavy burnout. It will also lead to White burning many bridges — some of which he will regret doing in the long-run.

However, when you are out-of-control at times like the UFC President is, what makes you successful can also be your Achilles’ heel in the end.

Please note: The ideas and opinions expressed in this article are views by the author and not MMAMemories.com