Dana White on EliteXC: “That’s Fucking Illegal”; Lappen Changes His Story Again
Dana White calls for EliteXC investigation - Watch more free videos
Dana White is downright pissed off. He’s so mad at EliteXC in this video, one camera angle is insufficient for capturing his rage. He lays into EliteXC for the Seth Petruzelli “knockout bonus” scandal and suggests that Jeremy Lappen and the Shaws should look into the kickboxing business if they want to keep fights off the ground so badly. I couldn’t agree more.
For his part, EliteXC Head of Operations Jeremy Lappen changes his story yet again in a talk with AOL Fanhouse. First, Lappen told Si.com that Petruzelli was offered a knockout bonus, but the company doesn’t offer submission bonuses. Then he told ESPN.com that Petruzelli was offered a KO bonus, a submission bonus, and a fight of the night bonus. Now he says both stories misquoted him:
“They’re both wrong,” Lappen said. “We have given submission bonuses in the past but they’re not as common as knockout bonuses. If the question is, ‘Have we ever given submission bonuses?’ The answer is yes. But we give knockout bonuses more often. We gave Seth a knockout bonus before the fight started. That was part of the deal.”
Hold up, you gave him a knockout bonus before the fight started? As in, before he had knocked anyone out? Goddammit Lappen, I sure as hell hope you were “misquoted” yet again. At the very least I hope it’s just poor phrasing on your part and what you meant to say was you told of him of a potential knockout bonus before the fight. But either way, it’s still bullshit. You offered him an incentive to win a fight in a very specific manner, not an incentive to simply finish the fight.
Not to mention, this is the third time you’ve changed your story. Nobody gets misquoted this often. Not unless they keep changing their story so often that they can’t keep all the versions straight in their own mind.
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October 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
i never thought this would happen but i agree with dana 100%. i wish gina carano would go to another organization so i could stop watching elitexc completely
October 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Well…. Dana’s right, even if this is just a freebie, we can’t pretend like most of these fight circuits other than the UFC are bullshit in terms of putting fighters on a level playing field. The UFC doesn’t do it perfectly either, but it’s night and day.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
I love the wrath of Dana. I love Dana. And he is right, Kimbo is a hobo.
October 11th, 2008 at 11:59 am
lol the only thing missing from that video was ashton kutcher punking the shaws
October 11th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I love Dana Whites tell it like it is attitude and I have to admit he is correct
October 11th, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Someone needs to make a small loop of Dana saying “Thats fucking Illegal”. That way we can play it at the end of the next Elite XC controversy clip. Fuck EliteXC. Any fighter with half a braincell is going to be jumping ship in the next few months anyway.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
White is 100% right about this. The FBI should be investigating this illegal fight fixing scheme. Could Lappen and Shaw really be so retarded that they didn’t think they were doing anything wrong? What’s more likely is that they were so panicked about the possibility of losing their cash cow Kimbo that they didn’t even think about it.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
I’ve always respected Dana White… only now, I no longer feel guilty over it.
Alas, if only John McCain would go after Barak HUSSEIN Obama with the same sadistic passion…
McCain/Palin… America’s Only Hope!
P.S. This is PotatoHead, and I approve of this message.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:20 pm
If anything, DW is fuckin’ passionate as fuckin’ hell about MMA! Best. Video. Ever. Fuck.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
hahaha…i love it too. This just goes to show you…..there were too many people seeing dollar signs….. and looking for a quick buck, BUT there was no substance behind their ‘marquee’ fighter. Most true MMA fans saw this coming from the very beginning of Kimbo being promoted as an “mma fighter.” haha…what a joke.
I can’t wait for EliteXC to just go away. Good choice CBS.
The few real fighters they have should just go to real organizations.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Wrong forum for this, but:
“Alas, if only John McCain would go after Barak HUSSEIN Obama with the same sadistic passion…
I wish JMC would get his ethics back from his GOP handlers–he tried yesterday and got booed by the idiots in the crowd. Seemed just like the morons who boo when a fight goes to the ground. I love sadistic passion in the cage, but it turns my stomach at a town hall meeting.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Wrong forum for this, but:
“Alas, if only John McCain would go after Barak HUSSEIN Obama with the same sadistic passion…
I wish JMC would get his ethics back from his GOP handlers–he tried yesterday and got booed by the idiots in the crowd. Seems just like the morons who boo when a fight goes to the ground. I love sadistic passion in the cage, but it turns my stomach at a town hall meeting.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
I agree with him 100% I just wish he’d cut the swearing down. It doesn’t bother me personally, but the people who would be doing the investigating are mostly uptight jerk offs (I have worked with some of them) & as soon as they hear Dana expressing himself like that, they just blow it off thinking he’s just ranting.
To us Dana is a guy who worked to build MMA up to what it is today(credible & devoted to the sport). To them he’s just another promoter trying to get rid of the competition (whether he’s right or wrong).
to sum it up; Dana, we know you’re the man. Clean it up if you want to Feds to listen to you. Talk to gentlemen like a gentleman.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Does anyone know what will happen to EXC if they are found guilty?
October 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Unless Obama triangled McCain at some debate, keep your bullshit political discussions out of here. I come here for MMA info and dick jokes.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
Dana could not of said this any better he absoloutly riped elite ex a new asshole and i loved every second of it. “Rapper Shaw or whatever the fuck his names is” hahahaha that guy is a big fag and dana is right they dont love the sport they love the money it attracts those fucken greedy bastards
October 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Wait a minute, doesn’t the UFC offer submission and knockout bonuses? Isn’t that a financial incentive to make exciting fights which can be different from trying to win in some cases? For example, if I bet on Machida, I’d prefer it if he went for a decision because I think that’s his best chance to win, and there’s no extra cash reward for that.
October 11th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
FUCK YEAH!
Yes, Dana can be a douche bag sometimes but he’s so on point here and the passion he shows here doesn’t seem to come from that of a money hungry promoter who wants EliteXC to fail but from someone who genuinely loves the sport.
And BTW, that’s only one camera angle flipped over to seem like more than one. Look at the tree.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:01 pm
WilliamP Says:
October 11th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
“Wait a minute, doesn’t the UFC offer submission and knockout bonuses? Isn’t that a financial incentive to make exciting fights which can be different from trying to win in some cases? For example, if I bet on Machida, I’d prefer it if he went for a decision because I think that’s his best chance to win, and there’s no extra cash reward for that.”
There’s a big difference between telling every fighter, in an open forum, about a Fight of the Night, Submission of the Night & KO of the Night bonus (at every event); which is decided after the fight is over and giving a fighter a “KO bonus” before the fight even started & then claiming to not have, then have a Sub Bonus that again was not offered to any of the fighters because the ground game is “boring). (none of the other fighters were even aware that a “OK/Sub bonus” was available)
October 11th, 2008 at 1:02 pm
Dana says it like it is and it’s great that someone as high up as he is in this sport and with his pull/connections is able to say fuck it and let it ride. He plays for keeps.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
oh yeah, LOL at :13 seconds as the KO time instead of :14. Dana is hilarious.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
@ WilliamP, there’s a Fight of the Night bonus as well. Which could very well be awarded to a fighters who’s match ended in decision, and has very well happened on several occasions. Also, since there are both a Submission and Knockout of the night bonus, there is no bias as to which method is used.
October 11th, 2008 at 1:18 pm
dana white is god<3
October 11th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
all you mccain idiots, don’t vote for him he doesn’t even believe in net-neutrality. Obama is for net-neutrality that’s all I need. Every politicial will lie and do what they want in the end anyways, might as well keep my precious internet
October 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
After you made so much sense about elite xc and you got like 95% of the people on your side admit now that Fedor is the best fighter in the world and you would have 100% of the mma world on your side. Just a thought
Thanks
October 11th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
WilliamP
Because a decision sucks ass. I actually prefer a good submission to a knock out but I hate fucking decisions. I think if it goes to a decision it should always be a fucking draw. Machida can kiss my ass ,Well on second thought he’d proally break it off and hand it to me, but anyway. I hate fighters who try to win a decision, go out there and win the damn fight or else put somebody who finishes in there.
I wish somebody fucking else would buy EliteXC and turn it around. Competition between organizations is always good for the fighters. It leads to much better contracts. At this point EliteXC is as much of a fucking joke as an MMA organization as Kimbo Slice is an MMA fighter,
October 11th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
@ hey dana — I am sorry but I don’t see Fedor as being #1 pound for pound. Maybe in his weight class but I have seen plenty of Fedor fights and he doesn’t seem to finish people of as easily or with several different methods as does Anderson Silva.
Now before I get shit on I would like to say that I think Fedor is a bad ass. He is a good fighter but I don’t think he has faced the caliber of fighters Silva has. Am I wrong?
October 11th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
@ Anthony. yes you are wrong. Fedor hasn’t fought a good opponent since 2004. Anderson also fights much more often than Fedor. not trying to step on your toes, but yea you are wrong
October 11th, 2008 at 2:50 pm
like him or not, he tells it how it is, and he built this sport to what it is today. it pisses him off when promoters back track on all the progress he and zuffa have made.
WAR DANA
October 11th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
Thanks Dana,
ill be jerking off with razor blades tonight
October 11th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I wonder what version of their story Shaw and Lappen will tell the Federal Grand Jury? Dee-dee-dee! Duh!
October 11th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Kimbo is a bum, the only thing he has going for him is…….well……Bas is training him, that is about it. Elite sucks, the only reason to watch it is for the women’s fights. I think the ref stops the fight way to fast to get the whole card within the time limit. Just think how many times you have watched a fight and watched a guy defending every punch just to have the ref jump in and stop it. Elite made a good run by getting MMA on CBS, too bad they are ruining the sport by paying fighters to come out of their element and walk away from their strongest game for the ratings.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:06 pm
ok… can UFC become the NFL of MMA now? I think they have proved themselves over, over, and over again.
Dana White is a great business man and he’s the key to taking this sport into the mainstream. NOT an idiot like Bimbo Spice or $kala.
Please get behind UFC and support them.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:31 pm
People are still on this shit? This is fucking old already.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
@ CP: Quote from SI article “We don’t give submission bonuses,” Lappen said. But Petruzelli “knew a knockout bonus was possible before the fight.”
So that is clearly what he meant to say, what Lappen has said and what Petruzelli has said has been misconstrued, and it is partly because of your outrageous attitude towards Elite XC right now. Everyone knows they are a making a mockery of the sport, but your opinions are becoming rather biased and are starting to become ignorant. People wanna see knockouts, so they are gonna offer knockout bonuses, it is not that far fetched.
October 11th, 2008 at 4:49 pm
@ James
“So that is clearly what he meant to say, what Lappen has said and what Petruzelli has said has been misconstrued, and it is partly because of your outrageous attitude towards Elite XC right now. Everyone knows they are a making a mockery of the sport, but your opinions are becoming rather biased and are starting to become ignorant. People wanna see knockouts, so they are gonna offer knockout bonuses, it is not that far fetched.”
You don’t understand much about how the fight game works, it isn’t just you and your buddies with a pizza and beer. Sports betting is a huge industry and is taken quite seriously. Were the bookies aware that Petruzelli had a knockout bonus, and noone else did? How do you know EliteXC wasn’t trying to benefit by fixing the fight to be a stand up so they could cash in, directly or indirectly? It’s not ethical, and it is a good way to ruin the sport in a hurry.
A “win bonus” is different from a “stand up bonus for just one fighter for our freakshow headline fight”. They may both have the word “bonus” in them, but they are completely different.
October 11th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
GET THE FUCK OFF THE UFC NUTS SACK THIS IS ALL SETUP TO MAKE ELITEXC LOOK BAD WAKE THE FUCK UP YOU STUPID MOTHER FUCKERS IM SICK OF PPL PUTTING DOWN OTHER MMA ORG. GET THE FUCK OFF DANA DUMBASS WHITES NUTS TOO!
October 11th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
SO KIMBO SLICER, WE ARE ON THE UFC’S NUTS BECAUSE WE DONT AGREE WITH BRIBING FIGHTERS OR FIXING FIGHTS? THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH UFC. DO YOU EVEN WATCH MMA? IF YOU AGREE WITH FIXING FIGHTS THEN MAYBE WWE IS THE SPORT FOR YOU.
October 11th, 2008 at 6:34 pm
Dana White fuckin rules
October 11th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
dana is right, for once. it was bound to happen since we can’t go anywhere without hearing shit from this guy. he’s a pain the ass. annoys the hell out of me.
October 11th, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Like him or not, hes got a point
October 11th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I think the prob is CBS broadcasting this event free cause we all must admit the money CBS has could buy the UFC if they really wanted to, just to much money and they do not need to be involed in mma. I agree with Dana 100 percent, they have no clue what there doing and maybee should have worked out a deal with Dana to put the Ultimate fighter on there channel.Bottemline is now they have just screwed themselves and may as well not broadcast it anymore.DONT GET INVOLVED IF YOU DONT KNOW WHT YOU ARE DOING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! As for Kimbo Slice i dont care for him and i would like o see him try Brock Lesner? but you must admit he got 500 000 and got KO in 14 secs hat would make me happy and people who never heard of him have now. Please let me know wha you think just my view
October 11th, 2008 at 8:51 pm
yep BIMBO made a half a mil.
I promise that’s not enough he has to feed his kids, and I’m sure my-nigga gotz 2 blue billion chillins fo sho!
Another words, a couple of “blings”
and some more hookers,
BIMBO will be back for more money.
October 11th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
Dana’s on it. EXC brass is a bunch of knuckleheaded goofs.
Maybe Affliction can put on an event or two (maybe, the last one sucked) that would be of interest, but in terms of building a sport they should just get out of the way.
UFC is the only credible promotion like it or not.
WEC is a distant second…and its owned by UFC!
Let t-shirt guy and the other yahoos go waste money somewhere else.
PS-dipshit rapper guy! LOL
Ot
October 11th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
Dana White is my hero.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Come on Dana that was awesome but to ever say anything about the fucking browns vs the patriots is idiotic, the fucking browns are terrible… stick to your MMA references not the NFL.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:37 am
Dana White is the shit! I think we all know Kimbo is a shit fighter and Elite XC is a shit promotion though.
October 12th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Wow I used to hate Dana White but after this video HE IS THE MAN! Kimbo is a joke fighter, and anyone who likes him doesn’t know shit about MMA. EliteXC better be fucked.
October 12th, 2008 at 4:04 am
That moment when he appears to be interviewed by himself, he pauses, turns to the camera is wonderfully absurd.
Dana White should be doing PSA’s. Just like here, he can interview himself for 30 seconds describing, say, joining Al Quaeda, insider stock trading, jaywalking, serial murder, etc. Pause. Turn to the camera and deliver his new catchphrase: “THAT’S FUCKING ILLEGAL!”.
I, for one, would no longer consider committing any crimes once Dana White had loudly and forcefully advised on their illegality.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:12 am
“I, for one, would no longer consider committing any crimes once Dana White had loudly and forcefully advised on their illegality.”
nisezoom: LOL
I’m going to use “That’s FUCKING illegal!” as my new catchphrase, too. Can’t wait to use it at work tomorrow.
October 12th, 2008 at 7:31 am
how can you call kimbo a bum already after 4 fights? you know who else lost 1 of his first 4 fights?
dan severn
anderson silva
matt hughes
kazushi sakuraba
ken shamrock
alexsander emelianenko
oleg tarkatov
yves edwards
jeremy fucking horn
should i go on?
stfu idiots — the guy has more potential than most. the fact that he’s being hyped so much is not his fault — it’s exc’s fault.
love dana’s rant, btw. he’s 100% right.
and so is krazy goat. political crap out — let’s keep this a special, magical place for discussion of of armbars and knockouts, not a cesspool of promotion for liars and thieves
October 12th, 2008 at 8:13 am
“Kimbo Slice sucks…he can’t fukin fight…”- Dana White
i agree…he is 100% right….completely and flawlessly without a fuking doubt correct.
October 12th, 2008 at 8:34 am
@the glza
Ken Shamrock opened his pro career going 5-1, not 3-1, and his first loss was to Royce Gracie. Are you suggesting Seth Petruzelli is the Royce Gracie of light heavyweights?
Dan Severn’s first loss was to Royce as well, and he was 5-1 in his pro debut. Furthermore, Severn’s second loss was to Shamrock. Starting to see a pattern? Legitimate fighters (at the time) fighting legitimate competition (… at the time) leads to results that real fans actually care about.
Oh, and Anderson Silva lost his first fight to a split decision, and then won his next 9. Why are you using any of these people as examples?
Kimbo fought a bunch of scrubs then got knocked out by an average LHW in 14 seconds. I wish him better luck in his next fight, but unless it’s on free TV I’ll just watch it on the internet later.
October 12th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Dana White for President 2008!
October 12th, 2008 at 9:12 am
Right on Dana, right on!
October 12th, 2008 at 9:16 am
I’m gonna to throw a party when EliteXC goes under.
October 12th, 2008 at 11:55 am
i fucking love dana white!
October 12th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
ya deadpanda, i agree with you on the swearing part. although dana is completely right in everything he’s saying, what he’s saying really loses professionalism and maturity when you swear like that, considering you’re the man who runs the ufc. i mean i really don’t care when he swears, but other people (maybe people on the athletic commision) may not like it
October 12th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
as much as i hate him, he’s 100 percent right on that one
October 12th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
My dog as a 4 inch clit
October 12th, 2008 at 5:05 pm
@mmmiles
all the fighters i chose were 3-1 in their first four fights.
petruzelli is hardly a royce — all i’m saying is that you can’t call a fighter worthless or bad just because he’s lost one of his first four fights.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:13 pm
“that wanna be rapper shaw jr” Ha! Dana lays the smackdown on SKALA. Yeah Jr is a retard.
October 12th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
i don’t care if Kimbo Slice…which btw is a very appropriate name given the fukin circus he works for…is 500-0 w-l…he still can’t fukin fight.
October 13th, 2008 at 2:18 am
Hmmmm…..”boxing scum bags trying to fix fights…” Uh oh, the Matt Hamill and Michael Bisping fight was fixed too, we paid the judges to swing the scores. The fans even saw right through that mess. We had to do that to win British fans. We had to win British fans so we could expand our enterprise to Europe and make more money in the long run. Oh well, I’ll just make it look like the UFC frowns on fixing/fixed fights (especially when it’s in pursuit of it’s an agenda) so we’ll look better than our competition/competitors. That way we’ll beat out all the other MMA enterprises and we’ll have a monopoly on the fighters and their salary. We’ll pay them the lowest salaries we can legally get away with, and they’ll have no place else to go. We’ll keep getting richer and richer, and our fighters will…well screw ‘em. I’ll just pretend like I care about them. I’m so smart, I’m Dana White, and I shave my head and my ass…which reminds me….what’s Liddell doing this weekend?
October 13th, 2008 at 11:40 am
you are not only high but foolish to compare the Bisping/Hammil fight to the circus that is elitexc. I actually think Bisping won fair and square but it was a close fight and could have gone either way.
also all of you that go on and on about there needing to be other MMA promotions competing with the UFC for us the fans to get the best product and for the fighters to be treated fairly are not very smart. look at the joke boxing is with its umteen million different federations. and look at how well boxers have fared? I mean even top guys have been fucked over.
if you need proof that all you need is one top teir promotion and then the consumers and the athletes all get the best of both worlds simply look at the NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, PGA, WTA. I mean christ the evidence is on the tv 24/7 more promtions just dilutes everything and waters it down and you end with joke promotions with joke fights. which will hurt MMA because the average joe won’t be converted into fans and the sport will stop growing and it will just be us hardcore fans and less fighters and fights like the earlier UFC days. MMA will be an oddity and a sideshow and not a serious sport like it is slowly working towards.
October 13th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
@ Akthor - ok so you’ve seen the fallout of an organization just offering incentive bonus’s..you really thing white and the UFC would risk bribing judges?
are you that stupid?..I had this same moronic debate after the griffin / jackson fight..who would risk their rapidly expanding business by bribing judges? you can’t get away with anything nowadays because we have our own media now..the internet..White nows this one thing he’s not is stupid
October 13th, 2008 at 12:29 pm
ummm where did I say I thought the UFC bribed judges? I believe my post was refuting that accusation by dana whites conscience.
BTW I thought forrest beat rampage also some fights are just close and a lot of times the 10 point must system they use which may work for boxing is imperfect for MMA and obviously can cause some weird decisions. I mean look at the fight on tuff between the ju jitsu guy and the armenian?????? one guy completey one sidedly dominates the whole fight and the judges give it to the other guy. I mean the bisping and forrest fights were a whole hell of a lot closer so I don’t understand where people get shocked by some of the fights when its left in the hands of judges, typically boxing judges.