Looks like UFC President Dana White isn’t particularly excited that women’s MMA pioneer Gina Carano has opted to make more movies instead of stepping inside the Octagon.
White went off on “Conviction” for her latest decision to film two new major motion pictures before the end of this year, per David Meltzer of MMA Fighting, telling Damon Martin of Fox Sports:
We’ve dealt with (Brock) Lesnar, Tito (Ortiz), Chuck (Liddell) was f—–g king of the world, Ronda Rousey, we’ve pretty much done deals with everyone on Earth and she is the hardest f—–g athlete we have ever dealt with.
The problem is she allows herself to be handled by these Hollywood f—–g idiots. It’s absolutely crazy. … Any time you deal with anyone in f—–g Hollywood it’s a joke. It’s literally a joke, it’s comical. You feel like you’re in a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit.
White said that negotiations with Carano had turned him off to the point where he told UFC CEO/co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta to deal with her manager—and according to White, it wasn’t long before Fertitta said he couldn’t take it anymore.
Carano, 32, hasn’t competed in over five years, but White and UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey were both OK with Carano vying for championship gold in her return fight, per Dave Doyle of MMA Fighting.
Just over a month ago, White stated that the company was “close” to a deal with “Crush,” per John Morgan of MMA Junkie, though obviously, a contract never materialized.
After suffering the only knockout of her career back in August 2009, a lopsided loss against Cristiane “Cyborg” Justino under the Strikeforce banner, Carano took a long hiatus from the sport to focus on a budding acting career.
In the past three years or so, Carano has starred in the action flicks Haywire, Fast & Furious 6 and In the Blood.
While the general public will likely never know the finer points of the contract negotiations between Carano and the UFC, did she make a mistake by passing up on a UFC deal in favor of filming more movies?
John Heinis is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. He is also the MMA editor for eDraft.com.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com