Dear Mr. Ryan,
I used to be a big Dana White fan.
No one can argue against the fact that he has done a lot to help the sport of mixed martial arts. He has brought MMA into the world spotlight, and not just in the US where he obviously did a lot to get it sanctioned, when many State Athletic Commissions wanted nothing to do with MMA.
But I don’t know what it is lately…perhaps a shift in his focus or something that maybe we didn’t notice until it started picking up momentum…
As any good businessman and CEO would do, Dana is now trying to make sure that his promotion—and his promotion only—is the only profitable major organization in the MMA game.
It isn’t the Real Fighting Championships or the million other smaller fight promotions that are out there that he seems to care about, because let’s face it, the fighters have to fight somewhere before they can make it to the UFC level. But it’s the Affliction’s, the Elite XC’s, and the Strikeforce’s that he wants to put a hurt on. Why?
Dana can say that those organizations are inferior products all that he wants, but they are still taking money that could be his. Otherwise, why would he even bother suing companies for using their “intellectual property” in their contracts?
Why would he be pressuring and extorting TapouT clothing out of a deal with Fedor Emelianenko by threatening their relationship with the UFC?
My question… is this the new face of MMA, or better yet—what’s the new motivation behind it?
Regards,
Chris
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Dear Chris,
Thank you for your great questions, although you certainly didn’t make it easy on me.
Motivation is heavily based on goal-orientated behaviour and can be rooted in the basic need to minimize pain and maximize pleasure.
In the case of the UFC, their motivation has always been pretty simple: to make as much money as possible.
With money comes power, with power comes control, and with control comes freedom. The freedom to do and say whatever they want without any potential risk or damage to their business model.
If a fan doesn’t like what the UFC is doing, then Dana White would be all to happy to tell them to F$&*% off! He knows that in this unusual stage of rapid growth, he will gain 10 new fans for every one fan that he loses.
“Guess what john if you don’t like the card DON’T WATCH IT U CRYBABY BITCH!!!”—actual Tweet by Dana White to a “loyal” fan who had concerns about spending his hard-earned money on a pay-per-view.
Dana White’s business philosophy is what is referred to as the “Revolving Door of Business,” where after a business takes a customers money, they kick them in the ass on the way out the door because invariably they know that a brand new customer will immediately be on his way in at the exact same time.
Obviously this concept can not be sustained eternally from a business standpoint, but what does Dana White care?
By the time interest fades or the fans get totally fed-up with being mistreated and taken for granted, the UFC will have become a multi-billion dollar company.
Goal achieved.
Dana White will be the first to tell you that we live in a capitalist society where the entire point of doing business is to be as successful as possible, while destroying the immediate competition in the process.
As you stated Chris, Dana White isn’t overly concerned about the smaller organizations because they really don’t cut into his profit margins. Plus, they provide an amateur farming system for up and coming fighters—at no additional cost to the UFC.
How convenient.
Unless the fans are collectively willing to stand up against Dana White and the UFC by boycotting their pay-per-views (sadly, this would affect the hundreds of smaller MMA businesses more than it would the UFC), nothing will naturally get any better on its own.
Obviously this will never happen (don’t worry, Dana knows this as well) and as such, Dana White will continue his tyrannical rule as he works his way towards world domination (am I the only one picturing Dana White sitting in a high-back swivel chair—stroking a fluffy, white cat?)
Just try to remember Dana White’s advice (but please don’t take it personal)—if you don’t like it—F$&@% Off!
Thanks Chris.
JR
This is my Q&A. If you don’t like it…ask me something else. Send an email to james@mrjamesryan.com
Ask me anything…I dare you!
In terms of who fights who and things like that, the UFC is actually very, very fan oriented, so I don’t get all the QQ’ing about how Dana White abuses his company’s fans. Since long before Dana White was involved in the UFC, the company had built it’s business model on Pay Per View events. Since Dana, there’s actually been A LOT MORE material available on free TV because he knows that this brings exposure to his product: UFC Unleashed, Ultimate Fight Night, The Ultimate Fighter, UFC on Versus, etc. So for those that want some free UFC, they’re getting it. It’s a lot more freebie material than you get with Boxing for example. And if you can’t afford the PPV for the live event, it’ll be broadcast on Spike TV in a few months anyways.
Where Dana White is consistently extremely unpleasant to deal with is as viable competitor with the UFC. When it comes to that, his levels of aggression and tact are right on the level of the Diaz brothers at their worst. Dana White wants to be a monopoly over the top tier of the sport and he’s succeeding at it. Look at another monopoly for example: Microsoft. They didn’t get where they are today by being nice to their competition. The fact of the matter is that Microsoft often took actions of questionable legality in order to crush their competition. We shouldn’t be too surprised to see the UFC doing much the same.
The major complaints I have about Dana are:
1.) He’s the President of a major world-wide business, but he just can’t stop cursing like a sailor. This puts a lot of prospective fans off of the sport. No surprise there, it offends some people.
2.) Sudden attacks of obsessively pursuing idiotic courses of action. None are more obvious than his attitude and behavior toward Fedor Emelianenko. He also lets personal grudges override common sense. Pat Miletich, Frank Shamrock and Jens Pulver should be in the UFC Hall of Fame. They never will be because there’s a personal grudge-match with Dana. Going forward, one man’s personal quarrels needs to have far less impact on things like the Hall of Fame, or the Hall is utterly meaningless. Imagine for a moment if the NFL President could veto any Hall of Fame nominee just because he doesn’t like the person.
Awesome James!!!!!!!!!