UFC president Dana White has been the driving force behind his premier mixed martial arts organization going big time on network television. His 10 years of work will be put to the test for the first UFC show on FOX this Saturday.
The one-fight televised card will feature a heavyweight matchup between current UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez and No. 1 contender Junior dos Santos.
White appeared on a recent episode of Jim Rome to discuss all things related to the UFC going mainstream and how Velasquez and Dos Santos match up together.
“As far as the brand goes, there are millions of people out there who have never seen the UFC that will see it for the first time Saturday night, and I think that the timing is perfect,” White said. “All the things that we’ve achieved over the last ten years, it’s time for us to take this next step.”
“Ten years ago, you couldn’t buy this on pay-per-view, and our goal was to get it onto free TV,” White continued, “People thought we were crazy, but we’ve always believed in this sport. We believed in the athletes, and we believed in this brand. We believed that we could get to where it is today. Not only that. We are in 155 countries, in 22 different languages, and half a billion homes worldwide.”
White and the UFC will be depending on only two fighters this weekend in Velasquez and dos Santos. Both come into the bout undefeated in the UFC.
Velasquez won the title last October when he stopped Brock Lesnar in the first round. Dos Santos has gone 7-0 in the UFC with wins over Fabricio Werdum, Mirko Crop, Roy Nelson and Shane Carwin.
“In putting not only the heavyweight championship out, but picking these two fighters to fight for the first time on free TV—both are great guys with great back-stories, and stylistically, this is an awesome fight,” White said.
“You’ve never seen either one of these guys in a boring fight. Dos Santos has knockout power in both hands, great takedown defense, yet Cain Velasquez is a two-time All American from ASU and also has powerful hand so this could go either way. “
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