UFC president Dana White‘s refreshingly honest words on the UFC 151 cancellation were the only good thing concerning the whole debacle.
No, they weren’t hot-headed, they were refreshingly honest and open.
“This is probably one of my all-time lows as being President of the UFC over the last 11 years,” White began.
He then summarized Dan Henderson’s injury and addressed the reason why the card had to be canceled—Jon Jones refusing to defend his title:
One of the things that you guys have heard me brag about a million times, how UFC doesn’t have to cancel events, we can always find a replacement.
For somebody to fight Jon Jones on eight days’ notice is tough to do, but to be totally honest with you guys, one guy did. Not only when we called him did he say, ‘I’ll take the fight,’ he said, ‘I’ll fly to Las Vegas tonight and fight him,” and that was Chael Sonnen. Chael Sonnen accepted the fight with Jon Jones, wanted the fight bad. As of 8-9 o’clock last night, we had a fight. We here at the UFC started working, creating different commercials, PR started to crank up.
I was gonna do this call and obviously it was gonna be a different call this morning but the one thing that I never thought in a million years would happen, happened. Jon Jones said, ‘I’m not fighting Chael Sonnen with eight days notice.” Again, something that’s never happened in UFC history. A guy who’s a world champion and considered one of the pound-for-pound best turns down a fight. That has never happened either.
Jaded pundits and fans seek to bash White here for allegedly throwing Jones under the bus, especially when White said that he was “disgusted” and made accusatory remarks about how Jones essentially robbed the undercard fighters of their pay.
But in that situation, how can you maintain a level of candidness while anything else but that?
Jones is the UFC’s light heavyweight champion. As such, he’s obligated (or so one might think) to face all challengers that the UFC deems worthy.
When your champion reneges on this basic understanding of what it means to hold a title, how can you be anything but honest about it while not coming across as patronizing to the fans?
Yes, a Roger Goodell-like reaction that would’ve put even the most conservative PR intern to sleep would’ve been more “professional” but the UFC’s slogan isn’t “As real as it gets” for nothing.
Dana White’s reaction was from the heart. It was real, and it was visceral. Such behavior from White might put some people off, but it makes the UFC product that much more real and that much more alive.
If White’s off-the-cuff remarks were so bad, why did the UFC perpetually grow from Zuffa’s purchase of the company in 2001 and why did FOX decide to support the UFC?
Besides, the age of the cold, corporate, lifeless, monotone CEO is over. People respond better to free-speaking, casually dressed businessmen like Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg.
White’s sincerity gives the company an edge that no other in the sports world has. If he has to “bury” his own fighters or say things that overly sensitive Internet fans deem unpopular, so be it.
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