Dana White, Master of Promotion
Most MMA fans who have done a bit of reading on Dana White know that he has a very love/hate relationship with the media. He loves the exposure, but he hates not being able to control the message that is sent over that exposure – which is why he is so in love with twitter.
Twitter allows him direct access to 1.2 million people – and most of them are the hardest of the hardcore fans and technologically savvy to boot. Almost everyone in the western world is on the internet nowadays but it takes a real fan to seek out and join somebody like Dana White’s twitter feed.
So with the UFC riding the wave of technology and communication as well as being at the forefront of using social media, you would expect the UFC to actively embrace MMA news websites. The UFC would like to see online media as almost an extension of it’s PR arm and used solely for the promotion of MMA – or the UFC more specifically. Rather than courting the online media however he actively goes to war against them online. He has denied press credentials to Sherdog.com for many years, reinstating them and recently revoking them again. He sees online media as redundant since he has direct access to his twitter followers – the same tech-savvy online users that read online media news sites such as MMASpark. This was highlighted again recently through a twitter exchange after the conclusion of UFC Versus 2. between Dana and fan Simon Cason (Twitter user “mbungle”)
mbungle wrote:
“According to Bloodlyelbow.com, your gambling habits make you a liability to MMA and you are now know as a “degenerate gambler”… Will you please slap these fucking Bloodyelbow/Sherdog retards down please. They know better, but they want the traffic so they.. write up a headline that sounds scary or provacative to get the traffic, knowing what they’re doing is bullshit and does nothing for the sport of MMA or for your company. I personally think that it is the job of mainstream mma to make mma look good… they don’t have 2 lie or leave shit out, but don’t write shit that’s misleading. How does that help the sport theyre writin about.”
Dana Replied:
“shitdog is the shittiest UFC hating site on earth, fuck em. The other site you mentioned doesn’t even matter and I am a degenerate so they finally reported something right”
Simon:
“thanks for the reply, You’re right Shitdog hasn’t mattered for years, but Bloodyelbow has a following, not saying they matter… but they have quikly become a “great news source” tho they just repost news from other sites.Shitdog has been a long running joke but the fans have to get their news from somewhere and sadly its sites like i mentioned. I don’t agree w/any of the opinion… pieces of most of those sites, but for every fan like me, there’s 4 or 5 “sheep” that’ll believe anything, negative or not,… about MMA/UFC. And by the way, once BE see’s this(they check UR twitter) I’ll probably be banned. Not that that bothers me… I only comment when I see some idiot poster/mod/blogger say stupid shit. That’s when I call bullshit. Oh well, I’ll move on… It just burns a little when the sport you grew up wanting to succeed, gets hated on by it’s own “writers”… For the Record, I don’t consider “Bloggers” to be real writers/Journo’s. When I meet new fans who ask about the sport, I tell them to check out mmajunkie/mmaweekly/fightopinion/mixedmartialarts/and UFC”
Dana:
who cares the net “news” fanboy sites have been writing dumb shit for years. They can write whatever they want about me. Idgaf! 
Simon:
“I got into an arguement w/ ShaneCarwin(were cool now) about his agent and he’s pissed at bloodyelbow too for taking shit out… of context about his agent with out coming to Shane and asking him about it first. I realized my mistake and apologized 20 times it wasn’t my business to say anything about Shane’s business, and it’s none of these “news” sites business either, is what I got the blogger that called you a degenerate gambler has a regular post every mma event called “the gambling spotlight” yet he has… a problem with your gambling habits. Again, non of his business, but they make it their’s to drum up traffic. I wrote up this long post about how no one seems to give a shit about the kind things you do with your money. Or any of the… other million things I see you doing for the fans or just for random people. I know a good person when I see one. yet no one wants to report on any of that shit. Wonder why that is? They all have an agenda & it’s holding back some of the… good things you’ve accomplished with MMA. Where would this sport be without you at the helm? There’d be no “mma blogs” for them.. to bash you on, but then again, there’d be no one for you to rail against either so I guess we all need each other. Fuck em still”
While there seems to be a bit of hero worship going on, yes we agree that there would be no news without Dana, he was a key person in founding the sport and making it what it is today. And although Dana believes that he an essentially do away with online news sources and cut out the middle man, we believe there needs to be impartial, complete and fair reporting in the sport we all know and love.
Dana knows he needs the media. There is no question the UFC courts the large, traditional media organizations as it helps get the name of the UFC out to the ‘unwashed masses’ – the people who would have never even heard of UFC. The problem with giving press credentials to news outlets that are not MMA ‘experts’ is that they won’t know or won’t care to ask the types of questions that sometimes need asking. It’s a claytons news report that promises sunshine and lollipops for the UFC.
Dana White the UFC president is extremely press savvy and has done great things to promote the sport of MMA. Though his video blogs, you get the sense Dana White the man seems to be a fun loving, generous man who likes to have a good time with friends and fans alike. Remember though that Dana will allow us to see what we want to see, like a seemingly offhand generous gesture like paying for a fans $300 speeding ticket. Dana knows that he will buy more than $300 in goodwill by doing this while the cameras are running. Would he do it if the cameras weren’t running?
Well, I’d actually like to think he would.
© 2010, MMA Spark!. All rights reserved.
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