Dana White Talks Failed HBO Deal with Playboy
The good people at famed gentleman's magazine Playboy have an interview with UFC prez Dana White in their September issue (which drops Friday, August 15) and one of the more interesting nuggets to come out of it are White's remarks on what torpedoed the HBO deal:
“I pulled the plug at the 23rd hour. HBO was pi**ed off… I would have had to sell out, literally. They would have owned the UFC… I took meetings with HBO’s boxing guys. I’ll tell you, if I had to hear one more time about how many fu**ing Emmys they had won, I was going to dive out the window. I said ‘You won a bunch of Emmys, but I’m kicking your a** on pay-per-view."
Awesome. Do I believe Dana White actually said that to HBO executives? Not really, but it's still a good story. As much as people criticized him for not making the HBO deal happen, you have to respect his desire to maintain his autonomy, even if it means not blowing up big time with HBO's Emmy factory.
Of course, it wouldn't be a Dana White interview if he didn't bash Tito Ortiz:
“That big-mouthed bit*h, that clown. Back when he had the title, he refused to fight Chuck Liddell. He sat on the sidelines for a year and a half, crying, ‘Aww, I don’t have any money!’ So I brought him back and made him a coach on The Ultimate Fighter. That year he made more than $6 million, yet he bit*hes about me. Well, I put up with Tito’s sh*t when he was a decent fighter, but now he’s not and I don’t have to… Did you see what a wall flower he was on [The Celebrity Apprentice]? The guy has no presence. He was the idiot hiding in the back. If he actually did something, people would know how stupid he is.”
There we go. Now I feel better. White also discusses Mark Cuban, Donald Trump, and a bunch of other stuff. That, plus the promise of naked women, makes it seem worthwhile to pick up a copy. Too bad it's not the German version, which features naked women who are also Olympic athletes.
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Dex Says:
I HATE HATE HATE seeing Dana interviewed my main stream media outlets anymore. All they know is the fude between him and Tito and it always gets brought up. If I never hear Dana's feeling on Tito or vice versa it'll be too soon. Jeez....
Lyquid Says:
Stop bitchin about Dana. Nice that you have to emphasize hate in bold and type it three times to get your point across. Besides that you spelled " FEUD" wrong. No one forced you to read the interview. Its great that Dana hold's his UFC as his own entity and won't give up any of their production or commentators to a third party. War Dana
shitwhistle Says:
I hate Dana.... no wait, I love him. I hate to love him and love to hate him, or something. Either way, you gotta give him credit - we wouldn't be here leaving lame ass comments on an MMA site if it weren't for his forsight and, dare I say, business acumen.
On a side note, Remember that deal where he was going to box Tito, but Tito was a no-show? Yeah, that sucked. Would've been pretty interesting.
shitwhistle Says:
Oh, and "Lyquid" - he spelled feud wrong, but you said "hold's" and it should be "holds" with no apostrophe. Just sayin'.... those who live in glass houses....
NECROPHYTE Says:
Gayna, I mean Dana fucked this one up good and proper. Hbo would've propelled the UFC into a whole new level and pimped Showtimes "elite XC" in the process!!!
kablamo Says:
lol @ shitwistles grammar skillz
Necrophyte = EPIC FAIL Says:
You obviously know how to run the UFC, maybe you should start your own promotion and copy the path that the UFC laid?? oh oops thats already being done.
anyway NECRO, give DW credit for at least giving you something to comment about.
tallsforeverybody Says:
Until another promotion comes along that has any staying power everyone should just hold their opinions to themselves because the don't mean Shite.
Also, you think HBO would have 'blown up' MMA but Dana White screwed it up? TUF has blown up MMA, and not knowing any of the circumstances of the HBO mess I find it interesting that you can deduce that Dana screwed it up and blew an opportunity.
CBS hasn't exactly done anything to endear themselves to old or new fans.
UFC-FORUMS.COM Says:
Dana needs to negotiate a network television deal.
faggots Says:
hey nerds stfu nobdy givs a flyng asshle how shit is spellded as long as yuo can undrestnd it.
chizler Says:
Dana white cant get out of his own way. He got lucky that the billionaire bros. came on board or the UFC would of sunk and been out of business without the Fertittas. He likes to be the story, and interjects himself way too much..
Dildo_slice Says:
haha at all the Dana haters, you fags wouldn't even be talking about mma if it wasn't for him. He knows exacly hot to run the business and if it wasn't for him the sport would not have risen up like it did and would have failed. Dana built this sport and is the leader of the best mma organization in the world.
MMAFan Says:
Too f##king bad they didn't f##king mention one more f##king time how many f##king Emmys they won. I would have f##king loved to f##king be there, when Dana took the f##king leap out the f##king window!
Rad Says:
I agree with Dildo_slice (funny name). Moving forward, Dana can be a dick or rude or whatever people want to say but he is running the UFC very well. He does have help from other people but that's what you call "business partners". Some people do things better than others, some handle day to day operations and some just put up their money and enjoy profits. Either way everyone involved with the UFC is rich! Good for him for not selling out to HBO. That's his decision and only time will tell if it is the right one. Tito and Dana will feud until they get tired of it. Tito is washed up and past his prime, so good bye to him. The END :)
Dex Says:
Dear grammer/spelling police:
1st off, I never said I hated Dana. I'm a big Dana fan. What I said I hate hate hated was people who interview him ALWAYS bringing up Tito. I'm tired of hearing about those 2.
You guys need to back off on the grammar and polish up on your reading comperhension.
shitwhistle Says:
@ faggots - ur a dumfuk. I wus poytn out that hes poytn out gramr errs wen he made 1 hisslf.
So, keep bastardizing the language and dumbing it down so our kids get further mired in "text speak" and can't write a proper fucking sentence. You typed "spellded" and "yuo" for shits sake.
You must be so busy trading stocks and diversifying your portfolio that you don't have time to concern yourself with trivial issues like spelling. Let me guess, you think Dana's a faggot but EliteXC is bullshit and Fedor can't fight.
Wow, the view from this soapbox is awesome.
shitwhistle Says:
BTW, "faggots", I agree, as you said "nobdy givs a flyng asshle how shit is spellded as long as yuo can undrestnd it."
Just don't try to be the grammar police if you can't get it right yourself.
I'll punch your eyeball, I swear to God.
Markdog Says:
Dana White and Tito Ortiz are secret lovers!
Mermer Says:
I love Dana White
Playboy Magazine Says:
At least it has naked women.
Anonymous Says:
Dana white sell out?! Never! :-P
norremo Says:
I love that picture of Dana, he looks sooo buff!
I just made it my wall paper, "Tile" style bitches
belveyd Says:
could you imagine those 2 idiots jim lampley and larry merchant doing the commentary for the ufc??
BungaBunga Says:
funny thread...half the commenters are correcting each other and the other half ain't saying too much cuz they got a mouthful of danas dick...dana overhypes his importance in mma...without knowing all the details of the hbo i cant really comment on it other then saying that he should have done all he could to get the deal done...btw a little off topic but who in the fuck names their son dana?
ovrbomb. Says:
dana's a turd.
Anonymous Says:
Dana is a huge meathead but I actually agree with most of the shit he shoots off about.
Xamot Says:
@Dildo_Slice
Sorry douche pouch, but most of us knew about MMA before an outsider like Dana White bought the UFC from the Gracies. In truth, MMA is growing faster than Dana's little pocket book can keep up with and he somehow still thinks he can contain it within his little brand.
not going to happen and the guy is bad for MMA and only good for UFC