Dana White is the reason why UFC is a multi-billion dollar business. The 55-year-old has given almost twenty years of his life to his company and knows the business in and out. During that time, he saw a variety of UFC fighters and finally cracked the code for the best-selling ones.
While UFC is the pinnacle of MMA, where top fighters come to fight, it is primarily a business. At the end of the day, Dana White cares how many tickets were sold and who are the fighters that pull the biggest numbers. While discussing it in an interview on The Shop, White revealed his suggestion to fighters wanting to become superstars.
If you are the type of fighter that comes and the crowd goes crazy and goes nuts, awesome. If you are type of fighter that walks in and everybody boos you, incredible, what you dont wanna be is the person that nobody gives a sh** one way or other.
Dana White via The Shop YouTube channel
UFC has become a show business where fans want to see drama and interesting fighters challenging each other. As a result, many fighters like Sean O’Malley, Khamzat Chimaev, Paddy Pimblett, etc, get boosts from the promotion. White liked fighters like Conor McGregor and Alex Pereira, who are loved by fight fans and sell huge pay-per-views.
This prompts some fighters to rely on other things to get the attention of fans. They incline towards becoming the bad guy and appreciate the boos from fight fans. Some of the big names in the category are Colby Covington, Paddy Pimblett, etc. The business aspect of UFC has forced fighters to go beyond their natural personality to become profitable fighters.
Dana White famously said after UFC 300 that he sells ‘Holy Sh**’ moments for a living. As expected, White doesn’t like it when fighters don’t take risks which results in a boring fight. In the past, the UFC CEO has publicly called out many fighters for boring performances. This also includes big names such as Anderson Silva at UFC 112.
Dana White reacts to promoter canceling a fight because of getting bored (via Imago/X)Last year, Mairbek Khasiev the promoter of Absolute Championship Akhmat (ACA) stopped the co-main event of ACA 141 mid-fight. Khasiev said it was a boring fight and couldn’t continue going forward. Upon learning about the instance, Dana White couldn’t contain his laughter and mentioned it was a gutsy move.
That is f***** awesome. Props to that guy. Highly, incredibly unprofessional but f***** awesome at the same time.
Dana White via Contender Series event presser
“Highly incredibly unprofessional but f*cking awesome at the same time.”
Dana White reacts to the promoter of ACA disqualifying two fighters for a boring fight. 😂 pic.twitter.com/Ve3QVNfOc7
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) July 28, 2022
The ACA founder Mairbek Khasiev just disqualified Ali Bagov and Rashid Magomedov for being too boring. 😵
MMA continues to be wild.
pic.twitter.com/5NvW5tDV8I— MMA Mania (@mmamania) July 22, 2022
Dana White appreciates his fighters putting on a show for the fans who paid to watch them. He prefers finishes over decision fights, which was quite evident after what happened at UFC 304. The Manchester event saw a whopping 9/14 fights ending via decision. White was furious and mentioned that he would never agree to increase the fight bonus of fighters in the future.
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