MMA - Dana White interview with ESPN

[JMoney2681]

Originally Posted by ESPN

ESPN.com: Fedor Emialenenko -- when will he be in the UFC?
DW: We'll have him soon. We'll have him before the end of the year.

ESPN.com: What's the process? Do you talk to his agent? To Bodog?
DW: We don't talk to Bodog. We talk to his managers twice a day.

ESPN.com: Twice a day?
DW: It's not easy to get these contracts done. It takes time and a lot of work. There are a million sticking points. Every guy has his own set of issues, what is important to him. Plus, we have our set of standards. It takes time and a lot of negotiating. There are a lot of trust issues in this business. We want people to trust us. We're having fun. We love this business. You won't find people who love this sport who promote it as much as us. We really, truly love this thing. We bought this and were investing in this when we were losing millions of dollars and nobody cared about it. It never looked like we were going to make it on pay-per-view, let alone free TV. At the end of the day, we don't want guys who are unhappy fighting with us.

ESPN.com: The original plan was to have mega PRIDE vs. UFC events. Is that still the plan?
DW: I don't know what we're going to do yet because that thing is so messed up. We're still trying to figure it out. It's a complete disaster. They went out of business for a reason.
ESPN.com: Did you watch Showtime EliteXC's Phil Baroni vs. Frank Shamrock recently?
DW: I had dinner at the Palms, and I had them put it on in the room because I wanted to see Baroni knock his head off. It didn't work out that way. ESPN.com: What did you think of their skill levels?
DW: They both looked bad. Phil's a good friend of me, so it's unfortunate. Frank Shamrock is not going to fight anybody near the top-10 level.

ESPN.com: You wouldn't be tempted to bring back Frank for a big event?
DW: Who knows? But Frank is such a moron. He's so hard to deal with. He really is a jackass. If I could get it done, maybe I would. Look at me and Tito. We don't get along at all. You won't ever find two people who work together talk more [expletive] about each other. Tito's an idiot. He's a complete, absolute moron. But we can do business.

ESPN.com: So why not kill two birds with one stone. How about Tito vs. Frank Shamrock?
DW: Frank Shamrock would never fight Tito Ortiz. Tito would crush him. Frank's not going to fight anybody serious. He's going to very carefully handpick his opponents, and continue to play the smoke and mirrors game.

ESPN.com: When did you know that all the work was paying off and that the UFC was about to hit it big?
DW: When we got the Spike deal. We knew when we first bought this, we knew we needed to get sanctioned. Once we did that, we knew that would help us get back on PPV. Once we got back on PPV, we knew it was going to be very hard to get on free TV. But once we got on TV, we knew we could do it.

I sure as hell hope Dana is right about this. I'd love to see Fedor come to the UFC, and I am glad he is pursuing this talented fighter.

For those that do not know who Fedor Emelianenko, well, his fight record speaks for it self. He is 26-1 and his "loss" was due to getting cut from an illegal elbow strike that cut him badly. In current MMA rules, it would be ruled a NC, but that loss was so many years ago. Fedor has gone undefeated in PRIDE FC, fighting top competition all the way throughout his career. He is the best MMA fighter in the world. No doubt.

[El Torofuerte]

Im sure Fedor will come over and really make a big scene out of the HW class. I read soo many rumors never know what will happen but sooner or later they will unify this weight class. Now my thing is when did Shamrock and DW have this falling out?

[JMoney2681]

Originally Posted by El Torofuerte

Im sure Fedor will come over and really make a big scene out of the HW class. I read soo many rumors never know what will happen but sooner or later they will unify this weight class. Now my thing is when did Shamrock and DW have this falling out?

I hope Fedor comes over and gets to fight all of the people he needs to.

AA, Tim Sylvia, Couture, Cro Cop again.

I would love to see it. :)

And, as for Frank and DW, I was under the impression that they haven't liked each other for a LONG while now, ever since Frank left the UFC many many years ago. I could be wrong, but that was what I thought, IIRC.

[El Torofuerte]

Well F.Shamrock just seem too talented for that MMA league. I mean why not earn more money for UFC? DW staed that he cant stand Tito but they do business

[JMoney2681]

Originally Posted by El Torofuerte

Well F.Shamrock just seem too talented for that MMA league. I mean why not earn more money for UFC? DW staed that he cant stand Tito but they do business

Shamrock and DW are kind of like Tito and DW, they don't agree, they don't see eye to eye, and above all, they HATE each other. Sucks for Shamrock.

[plagued_db7]

All the shamrocks can suck a fat one. They are all meat head bitches. Dana hit the nail on the head saying Frank is careful who he fights.

Dana talks alot of shit though....I dont believe him for a sec.

[JMoney2681]

Originally Posted by plagued_db7

All the shamrocks can suck a fat one. They are all meat head bitches. Dana hit the nail on the head saying Frank is careful who he fights.

Dana talks alot of shit though....I dont believe him for a sec.

They are way overrated. For their MMA "era" they were very good, but in comparison to the mutli faceted MMA stars we now have, they are just so-so.

Ken Shamrock was getting destroyed by pretty much everyone he fought, while Frank fights in lesser orgs, and very rarely at that.