Dana White - Myth built off of one strike of major LUCK!

[Termsway]

What's the official story? I already know he was a one time boxing/fitness trainer. Other than that:

Did he have business experience before hooking up with the UFC? Was he life long friends with Lorenzo Fertitta, and just get lucky?

He had to have some experience in promoting, or some type of business degree right? The Fertitta brothers purchase UFC, and stick Dana White as the promoter/PR dude and president of the company?

Hearing some of what he says; he always belittles other people trying to start a competing org, babbling on about "they don't know this business. They don't know the fight business". Didn't he start off with no experience. Definitely an interesting story considering he (from what I know) was just a regular dude who happened to have millionaire friends.

How far back does his relationship go with the Fertitta brothers?

[TopNotchJits**]

Why is it so fucking hard to start a thread around here?

Many people seem to be under the conclusion that Dana White was the brains behind, what can easily be labeled as MMA's springboard, TUF. They're wrong. It was the Fertitta Brothers who came up with the idea (which Dana was originally against). So please, stop giving Dana credit for their idea.

Source: The Fertitta brothers gamble with Ultimate Fighting - Nov. 8, 2006

[method115]

Originally Posted by johnsq316

What is your point with this thread?

Your opinion is that Dana is not a great businessman. I get that. He runs the only (ONLY) MMA company that has EVER been successful, but he's a moron who happened to stumble into it based on one lucky occurrence. From that point, a blind chimp throwing darts could have made the rest of the decisions.

Is that really what you believe?

Agree I don't understand what the point is. He runs the UFC the most successul MMA organization ever what else does he need to do to prove that hes a good buisness man.

Also just because a buisness deal fails does not mean it was a bad move by the UFC. For instance some of the network wanted to buy the UFC in order for them to be on network TV. Are you telling me this would have been a smart move by the UFC?

[lefthook449]

Originally Posted by TopNotchJits

Why is it so fucking hard to start a thread around here?

Many people seem to be under the conclusion that Dana White was the brains behind, what can easily be labeled as MMA's springboard, TUF. They're wrong. It was the Fertitta Brothers who came up with the idea (which Dana was originally against). So please, stop giving Dana credit for their idea.

Source: The Fertitta brothers gamble with Ultimate Fighting - Nov. 8, 2006

You have to make up your mind, you can't pick and choose what Dana gets teh credit for and what he gets the blame for.

The fact of the matter is, the 3 of them probably make all of the decisions together. It doesn't matter who was for this idea or who was against this idea. The three-headed monster of Zuffa are apparently the only people who know how to operate a functioning MMA organization, that has to count for something. If Dana was as big of an idiot as everyone would like to believe, either the UFC would be dead, or the Fertitas would have bought him out or fired him as president and made him a silent owner, or bought him out.

Is isn't the angel that created MMA, but he isn't the devil everyone else makes him out to be either, the truth is somewhere in the middle, but it has to be more towards the "good businessman" side because of the results.

[SShaw]

Originally Posted by johnsq316

What is your point with this thread?

Your opinion is that Dana is not a great businessman. I get that. He runs the only (ONLY) MMA company that has EVER been successful, but he's a moron who happened to stumble into it based on one lucky occurrence. From that point, a blind chimp throwing darts could have made the rest of the decisions.

Is that really what you believe?

I think that he just hates Dana like alot of people do.

Yes Dana had rich friends who gave him the money to buy the UFC but when Dana got it the UFC sucked, Pride was stealing the show at that time and the UFC was the bush leagues then and now with the chance his rich friends took look at where the UFC is now. but you know why don't some of these people try to start their own mma promotion all they have to do is start small and do alot of amateur fights(you don't have to pay them) and have pro fighters headline it. then if things go well your promotion can grow like Cage Rage did. So rather than complaining about dana alot of these people should do something to make MMA better.

[NinjaMikeMoore]

Originally Posted by johnsq316

And if you took away Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen and Shaq and Kobe, Phil Jackson would never have won all those championships.

If you took away Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, Joe Torre is a horrible manager.

If you take away anyone's signature accomplishments you can say they haven't accomplished anything.

That's a very valid point.

[DeathByBeer]

Of the failures you listed, only the Fedor one is actually a failure, and this was due in part to Fedor's mangement, so blame is not all on his shoulders.

The network deals you mention should be considerd triumphs.

Dana held his principles and did not sell out MMA and its fans just to get on network TV..

Another org did....how did that work out for them?

[tarheelfan83]

TS is a total Dana hater lol. You think you know so much man. Saying he failed with ESPN/Fox/HBO is retarded. Tell me how Elite had primetime spots on CBS and STILL was 55 million dollars in debt? It's because they were so desperate for a tv deal they signed one that didn't pay them what they deserved, and thats why Dana was turning people down left and right. He doesn't need the stations to succeed, but Elite XC did.

[tarheelfan83]

Originally Posted by DeathByBeer

Of the failures you listed, only the Fedor one is actually a failure, and this was due in part to Fedor's mangement, so blame is not all on his shoulders.

The network deals you mention should be considerd triumphs.

Dana held his principles and did not sell out MMA and its fans just to get on network TV..

Another org did....how did that work out for them?

See what I'm sayin? True that mang. I wish we knew exactly what Fedor's management was asking from the UFC. It's not like they didn't want him.

[chadbrochill17]

What if U.S. never annexed Hawaii in 1893 and Japan took over the islands instead, therefore in WWII the Japanese had a naval base only 2000 off the U.S. mainland. Think about it