DANA WHITE ADDRESSES STATE OF THE UFC

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Author:Ken Pishna

In his post-fight comments following UFC 79 on Dec. 29, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White not only discussed the evening’s festivities, but spent a healthy portion of his time talking about the most aggressive year in the history of the promotion, as well as his plans for the future.

He stated that UFC 79 brought in a live gate of $4.9 million, which makes it the highest grossing mixed martial arts event of 2007 and the second highest grossing in the history of the sport, indicating that it was a strong finish to a very active year.

“We had a kick ass 2007. It was an aggressive year for us; buying Pride, the WEC, cover of Sports Illustrated, moving into Europe, and next year’s going to be even bigger,” said White.

“Every year we’ve taken this thing to another level, wait until you see what we do with 2008.”

One of the most broached subjects is always the expansion of the territories that the UFC operates in. White has already confirmed the promotion’s Canadian debut, which is slated to take place in Montreal in April. On Saturday night, he also stated that Germany is a target for 2008.

Looking even deeper into his crystal ball, he said, “The two places we're focusing on right now are New York and Mexico, so I'm hoping to be in both by 2009.” Though he said that a return to Brazil isn’t currently on the radar.

White has made no secret of the fact that he wants Georges St-Pierre to headline the first Canadian event. With the new interim welterweight champion coming out of his fight with Matt Hughes relatively unscathed, the only question now is regarding his opposition.

He couldn’t confirm it, but is seemingly hopeful that he’ll be able to pit St-Pierre in a unification bout against current champion Matt Serra, who is suffering from a recent back injury.

“Matt Serra is very confident that he will heal quickly. I think he feels he’ll be ready for April. That wouldn’t suck,” commented White with a grin on his face.

Addressing the numerous other entities that are making a run at promoting MMA events, he addressed one newcomer in particular, but remained supremely confident in his promotion’s position as the industry’s leader.

“This sport is like the ‘Wild, Wild West’ right now. The biggest guy (coming into the sport) right now is Mark Cuban. He’s got a lot of money and everyone is talking about what he’s going to do,” White expounded. “Floyd Mayweather is walking around with $70 million in his pocket and we all know how Floyd loves to spend money, so I’m sure Cuban is trying to get him to invest in it.

“I like it. The more money that comes into the sport the better it is to help grow the sport. More athletes get fights, make money, start their careers, and they’ll all end up in the UFC at the end of the day.”

But he doesn’t seem overly considered with the opposition. In contrast, he seems to fall into the old dictum of “the best defense is a strong offense” and focused his strategies on what his organization is doing to keep the juggernaut growing.

“There’s still a lot more work to do,” he said matter-of-factly. But aiming square on at rumors of a television deal with CBS, White stated, “Could be. We're always out to get more exposure … Not necessarily broadcast television, but we need to get more exposure.

“In the next few weeks we’re going to be making some announcements that are going to shake up the entire industry again.”

In the end though, he is confident in the direction the UFC is headed and doesn’t seem overly concerned with major corporate sponsors being slow to climb aboard (Harley-Davidson, however, was center mat for UFC 79) or the recent derailment of a TV deal with HBO.

“It's taken longer than I'd hoped after the whole Spike thing started going well, but the bottom line is, we're not going to cut a deal that doesn't make sense,” declared the defiant UFC president. “I don't care who the deal is with. We did this whole thing on our own. Nobody helped us. Nobody was running up trying to finance us ... so it's going to be done on our terms.”