Why Does the World Hate Dana White?

Let me state first, clearly, I am a HUGE MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fan. Anyone who claims to be a fan knows well who Dana White is. He is the president of the leading MMA organization: Ultimate Fighting Championship. Mixed martial arts has long been a victim of bad press and misinformation and no one knows this better than a man who has been in the forefront like Dana White. MMA was highly criticized in the early days by the likes of John McCain who led the charge to have UFC banned in all fifty states, he was fairly successful and by 1997 36 states had applied the ban. In the beginning MMA was touted as a "no holds barred," and "there are no rules!" type spectacle. Many fights were brutal and bloody mixing up various styles of combat from wrestling to boxing to Jiu-Jitsu. Following the machinations of John McCain UFC lost its television contracts and almost folded. Enter Dana White and the Fertitta brothers.

UFC was about to go under, they couldn't get their events televised even on Pay Per View and their popularity and fans were steadily disappearing. The time line is debated but around the time the Fertittas took over the New Jersey Athletics Commission was establishing rules for mixed martial arts fighting that it could live with. Once rules were established those who were nervous about showing MMA matches on their airwaves or allowing the UFC in their arenas began to relax. UFC's popularity began to grow and the new rules did nothing to hamper the excitement and athleticism of the bouts themselves. And out in front was always Dana White.

I'm not quite sure what people expect from Dana White. He is a former boxing promoter and carries with him the natural energy and cockiness that comes with that title. I don't know why any fan of MMA would want Dana White to be mealy mouthed and timid when many of the sports successes can be traced back to his aggression and sportsmanship. That in combination with the visionary idea of Fertittas to create the Ultimate Fighter reality show blew up the UFC beyond anyone's wildest expectations. It would seem that the resentment stems from the sport becoming popular. That's the only thing I can guess anyway.

Many fans balk at the comments Dana White makes regarding various fighters and up and coming organizations. In response to an article by Mark Kriegel one commenter offered: "Get off Dana White's lap kids" implying that somehow listening to Dana White's opinion is the equivalent of listening to fairy tales in your Grandad's lap. Just what do these "fans" of MMA expect Dana White to do? Promote a rival enterprise? Is he to take every venture by every company into the world of MMA seriously? After what we've seen over the last couple of years? Does anyone remember the horrible International Fight League fiasco? Started by some real estate developer there were "teams" that fought each other with ridiculous names. Razorbacks versus Pitbulls and Frank Shamrock mugging it up in the background. Whatever. What about the most recent embarrassment on Network t.v. no less by Kimbo Slice? Dana White is all of a sudden evil or stupid because he calls these bizarre attempts at competition what they are: retarded?

Okay, so Tito Ortiz is pissed off. Randy Couture is fed up. Everybody's got beef. My stand is that these issues stand separate from the work that Dana White has already done. Without Dana White and the Fertitta brothers there would be nothing for these crybabies to complain about. Should they have let MMA fade, as a sport, into obscurity to satisfy these "purists" and critics? Just what do these pitiful, yet vocal (and one would suspect virginal) yahoos want?

They evidently don't want a man who says what he thinks. They don't want a man who knows how to promote and garner media attention. They don't want an increase in MMA's popularity. In a phone interview with Y101 of Richmond, Virginia Dana states CLEARLY that it's not that doesn't want any competition for the UFC, Dana being a good businessman understand the necessity for competition, he just refuses to take ALL of these new organizations seriously. They come out of the chute screaming for UFC blood and then they just...fade away. The quality of their productions is downright cheese wheel in some cases. It's no wonder they fade as quickly as they pop up. Dana White is not the only person not tuning in or showing up for their events. The fans must be displeased with the other organizations as well otherwise they'd last and provide real competition for the UFC.

Perhaps his critics take issue with the fact that he doesn't seem to really give a damn what they say. They resent the fact that they blog day and night and comment negatively on every article written about him and call in anywhere they can to disparage him to anyone they can and he doesn't lose any sleep. They're mad that he doesn't get his feelings hurt. Utterly retarded.

UFC's popularity and Dana White's cockiness do not negate the fact that the man knows his stuff. Joe Rogan is often complained about when it's so obvious to anyone with minimal hearing ability that HE knows what he's talking about. Yet both men still have their detractors. Dana White has set up, arranged, worked his ass off for many of the spectacular bouts we see in the octagon on a regular basis and the more mainstream the UFC becomes the more the vocal minority crybabies whine. The popularity of the UFC is GOOD for the sport. You cannot be a fan of MMA and not want it to succeed and to a large extent that success lies in the continuing growth of the UFC.

I'm sorry but I'm with Dana. I refuse to acknowledge any organization that touts Kimbo Slice as the main event. It's utterly ridiculous. Dana White understands hype but he also understands B.S. and nonsense when he sees it. I'm reserving judgment on the t-shirt guy and his organization. I'm going to wait and see how they parlay Fedor Emilianenko's recent victory. I'm not impressed they can get Jenna Jameson to attend. Or Don Johnson.


"The Howard Stern Effect"
I'm starting to believe that the crybabies might actually be helping Dana and by extension the UFC. It is well known that at the height of the madness Howard Stern was listened to longer and more often by the people that HATED him than by his actual fans. All of these whiners are simply feeding the publicity monster that surrounds any organization that depends on viewership to succeed. So keep crying, suckers, you only make Dana White more recognizable and the UFC more popular.

Oniontown Stoning Controversy

I went to high school in Upstate New York very close to Oniontown, a small section of Dover Plains. It was not known as a desirable place to live or visit but some of the kids we went to school with were from there and they were far from the dangerous malcontents being raged about in cyberspace.

The situation that occurred was that three moronic youths traveled from some privileged suburb into the "country" to see infamous Oniontown. The chuckleheads carried with them in their SUV an axe used by fireman and one of them sported a fireman's coat. They videotaped their journey and chuckled the entire way over how clever they were and what they intended to do should they encounter "inbreds and rednecks."

The video of said imbecilic journey was posted on youtube as "Oniontown Adventure Part 1" and has since been removed. It's approximately eight to nine minutes of spoiled brats going out of their way to look down their noses at others. These teens must live VERY sheltered lives as expressed by their amazement at seeing a live chicken. Clearly, they've only ever seen chicken in nugget form. To say the teens are smarmy and smug and possibly possess a single digit I.Q. between the three of them is to really say too little about their significantly lacking upbringing.

What kind of parents raise children such as these? As has been repeated in commentary on youtube there is no denying that these three had a "right" to travel to Oniontown, videotape their mockery and post said cleverness on youtube.com. It is our right to mock who we will. But railing that these teens had a right to do as they did is to ignore the morality of the issue. It is no more proper or morally virtuous to videotape what they perceived as the hilarity of the condition of the poverty stricken area as it would be to eat a four course meal in front of a starving homeless person and laugh or attend the Special Olympics and point and giggle. Certainly the Constitution affords you the RIGHT to do so but, that does not mean you are hard bound to EXERCISE that right.

Quite frankly I'm shocked that OTHERS are shocked at the negative reactions these boys received. What has society become that morally reprehensible behavior such as laughing at squalor, videotaping your condescending finger pointing and uploading it to be viewed worldwide is not universally admonished and condemned? Defenders of the teens have offered such sage and honorable responses as "it's just teens having fun," "it's no big deal, boys will be boys," "why is everyone so anal and uptight," "everyone is too sensitive and needs to toughen up," "everyone circums (their spelling NOT my own) to teen pressure," etc etc. This blanket acception of abject piggishness, to me, is astounding. Laughing it off as teen hijinks only lowers us all. That those parents taught their children no compassion for those less fortunate, that their defenders possess no empathy for those who withstood the ridicule and that they THEN use the Constitution as a shield for such morally bankrupt behavior is indicative of far worse things in our society than I care to address here and now.

Following the upload of this video to youtube.com carloads of teens traveled to Oniontown to point and laugh and take pictures and video for their own online attempts at infamy. Residents of Oniontown, as could be predicted by sensible people, quickly tired of the intrusions and mockery and a stone throwing incident occurred. There are two schools of thought regarding this incident. One is: mess with the bull and get the horns. If you go looking for trouble you will always find it without fail. Another is: mockery does not justify assault. My question is: just how much stupidity were the residents of Oniontown required to suffer? How much trespass, how much online indignity, how much daily intrusion by cars full of rich brats were they supposed to live through before some action was taken?

Another question is: where are these peoples' parents? If I did not want my child to wind up with a stone embedded in their forehead perhaps I would be wise enough to teach them not to beg for it. These children of privilege had such a strong sense of entitlement, instilled by their parents no doubt, that they thought nothing of riding hours out of their way to view the "little people" as they would animals in the zoo.

The state police have advised all who are NOT Oniontown residents to refrain from going there. Wise advice I believe. Perhaps these lovely children can find someone closer to home to vent their scorn upon. Homeless people perhaps? Orphans? The elderly? Someone you know? Someone I know? Of course they're entitled to do so according the the First Amendment and no one would want to deny these upstanding citizens the right to express themselves by denying poor residents the right to live in peace.