(Editorial) Does Dana White Really Know What’s Best For the UFC?
Dana White Questions Curtis Blaydes
Following his dominant victory over Alexander Volkov, Curtis Blaydes established himself as a clear-cut top contender in the heavyweight division. Blaydes currently sits with a 14-2 record in his pro career with wins over Volkov, Junior Dos Santos, Alistair Overeem, Mark Hunt, and Alexey Oleynik. As a matter of fact, the only fighter Blaydes has lost to is Francis Ngannou, who himself is the consensus top contender for a heavyweight title shot. Yet, it’s still not enough for Dana White.
Of course, that’s after Stipe Miocic and Daniel Cormier complete their trilogy in August at UFC 252. Blaydes has reached such great heights by utilizing his superb wrestling. Going into their fight on June 20th, Volkov had the highest takedown defense percentage in division history. Blaydes set the record for most takedowns in a fight in division history at fourteen. Against somebody with the defense of Volkov’s caliber, this is unquestionably unheard of.
It only makes sense that Blaydes would be lined up for a title shot soon. But, according to UFC President Dana White, that title shot may not be coming any time soon. In a post-fight press conference, White lambasted Blaydes’ wrestling-heavy performance, specifically in response to Blaydes saying he would “ragdoll” his opponent and what White called the wrong attitude.
Questioning Dana’s Star Detector
While I am certainly no expert on the sport of mixed martial arts, I would certainly agree that Blaydes did in fact ragdoll Volkov. I couldn’t possibly make an argument in good faith that he did not. But this speaks to a much larger phenomenon in the UFC. Dana White remains dead set on his idea of what a blockbuster star is and will find any reason he can to not give someone a title shot if he’s not convinced they could be a star. I have one concern, however, does Dana White truly understand what makes a fighter a star?
The way Dana spoke of Blaydes following the fight reminded me a lot of his disdain for former welterweight contender Jon Fitch. Fitch was in the upper tier of Welterweights during the championship reign of George St. Pierre. He held a 12-1 record from October 2005 when he made his UFC debut up through the end of 2011, suffering his lone loss in a title match against GSP and beating the likes of Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves (twice), Akihiro Gono, and Ben Saunders among others. White did everything in his power to not give Fitch the push he deserved, mostly chalking it up to his wrestling-heavy style that was perceived as boring by many. It was confirmed that Fitch’s August 2010 rematch with Thiago Alves would be for the number one contenders for the Welterweight title following GSP’s bout with Josh Koscheck.
After Fitch won the fight, White criticized the manner of Fitch’s wins and his habit of going to decisions. And, that the UFC would elect to give Jake Shields the title shot over Fitch. Fitch would go on to have four more fights in the UFC. This included a twelve-second knockout loss at the hands of Johny Hendricks and a decision loss to Demian Maia. After the loss to Maia, Fitch would be cut from the UFC despite being the ninth-ranked contender at welterweight. Which, had been almost unheard of in the UFC up to that point. White justified the company’s actions by suggesting that Fitch was on a downward trajectory for his career, but Fitch would amass an impressive 7-2-1 record in Bellator and the WSOF following his release.
Childish Behavior of Dana White
This childish behavior on Dana’s part could maybe be justified if he was particularly good at building stars for the sport, but many of the promotion’s biggest box office draws are not fighters pushed by Dana himself. Many of his personal top prospects like Sage Northcutt and Paige Van Zant lost momentum quickly. By far the most successful of these prospects was Darren Till, who himself lost significant hype with consecutive losses to Tyron Woodley and Jorge Masvidal before moving up to Middleweight.
One could argue that Dana’s experience as a businessman has led to the UFC’s mainstream success. Personally, I would argue that this mainstream success is more of a credit to the careers of box office stars like Anderson Silva, George St. Pierre, Ronda Rousey, and Conor McGregor — little of which has to do with Dana White. In reality, many of the UFC’s top stars have come about organically and sometimes even succeed despite the UFC itself.
Wrong on Nate Diaz
Dana once told reporters that Nate Diaz wasn’t “a needle mover”. Nate would then go on to headline three different pay-per-view events and is still one of the biggest draws on the roster today despite not fighting for three years following his fights with Conor Mcgregor. If anything, the UFC’s biggest stars’ rise to prominence is fairly random. Jorge Masvidal was a mid-tier name on the UFC roster for years before his win against Ben Askren. Now, Masvidal is one of the biggest and most recognizable names in the sport.
Future UFC Leadership
There is one positive that I can think of to come out of this. As fans of this sport never have to listen to what Dana White has to say ever again. We all know what this sport means to us personally. We do not need to let ourselves be convinced otherwise. Dana will do whatever he wants regardless of fan opinion, and while I will admit the UFC has done incredibly well under his tenure, I’m not sure how much of this I could credit him with.
This leads me to my main question at the heart of this topic — what would make an ideal candidate for president of the UFC and ambassador of MMA to the mainstream? For me, the perfect candidate would be someone who thinks proactively with the product in mind. At the same time, it will be important to have someone who prioritizes the wellbeings of the fighters on the roster and the sport itself. We don’t need to run the sport like it’s part of a private equity firm. I believe the mainstream success of the sport is here to stay, and we don’t need to sacrifice the long-term product for the sake of short-term success.
Future Replacements
Daniel Cormier has openly discussed the idea of being the next president of the UFC. As a former Olympic wrestler, two-division champion, and media personality, he would be a fantastic successor to Dana White. Plus, I would certainly trust him to run the UFC better than Dana White. There were rumors at one point that Chael Sonnen could have potentially replaced White. I think he would run the UFC better than Dana White.
My father only knows who Nate Diaz is because he saw him in a documentary about veganism. I would probably trust him to run the UFC better than Dana White. My roommate doesn’t follow professional sports in any capacity except for when he would watch UFC cards with me. He would pick which fighter would win their fights based on which one looked cooler.
He correctly guessed five out of the six fights we watched together. I would probably trust him to run the UFC better than Dana White. A good friend of mine recently started following MMA but will only talk to me about Yoel Romero. I would definitely trust him to run the UFC better than Dana White.
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