The gloves are off: Dana White goes after 'Strikefarce'
By Steve Cofield
Here we go again. Each time a domestic competitor has stepped up to the plate in the past the bluster has begun from Dana White. First it was Elite XC then Affliction. Each time, White would say they'll never survive, they'll go out of business. Whte also meant that it was his goal to drive them out of business. Strikeforce has been the exception. He's has always gone out of his way to be complimentary and polite about Scott Coker and his promotion. Not anymore.
Just after the press conference for UFC 101 broke up on Thursday White said, now it's on:
"They should've stayed the way they were. They want to fight me, we're gonna fight. You know how that goes and you know how that ends."
White also elaborated on what went wrong with the Fedor Emelianenko negotiations:
"If I was sitting on Fedor's lap that deal wouldn't have gotten done. We went in there to do a deal, they didn't. If you were on this [conference] call [to hear what it sounded like], it wouldn't have mattered if we flew to Russia and sat in is living room, we weren't getting a deal done that day."
White continued to smash Strikeforce, at one point calling it "Strikefarce," and saying Fedor has no one to fight.
"They're a small-time show that's trying to act big. It's a joke. It's a tiny little regional show with nobody in it. Does it make sense? It makes no sense."
This is all came together quickly. Affliction folded/merged with UFC on July 24. UFC negotiated with Fedor and M-1 Global the following week. Nothing concrete came from the negotiations and by August 3, Fedor was signed with Strikeforce.
By Steve Cofield
Here we go again. Each time a domestic competitor has stepped up to the plate in the past the bluster has begun from Dana White. First it was Elite XC then Affliction. Each time, White would say they'll never survive, they'll go out of business. Whte also meant that it was his goal to drive them out of business. Strikeforce has been the exception. He's has always gone out of his way to be complimentary and polite about Scott Coker and his promotion. Not anymore.
Just after the press conference for UFC 101 broke up on Thursday White said, now it's on:
"They should've stayed the way they were. They want to fight me, we're gonna fight. You know how that goes and you know how that ends."
White also elaborated on what went wrong with the Fedor Emelianenko negotiations:
"If I was sitting on Fedor's lap that deal wouldn't have gotten done. We went in there to do a deal, they didn't. If you were on this [conference] call [to hear what it sounded like], it wouldn't have mattered if we flew to Russia and sat in is living room, we weren't getting a deal done that day."
White continued to smash Strikeforce, at one point calling it "Strikefarce," and saying Fedor has no one to fight.
"They're a small-time show that's trying to act big. It's a joke. It's a tiny little regional show with nobody in it. Does it make sense? It makes no sense."
This is all came together quickly. Affliction folded/merged with UFC on July 24. UFC negotiated with Fedor and M-1 Global the following week. Nothing concrete came from the negotiations and by August 3, Fedor was signed with Strikeforce.
