Dana White Still Dreams of a Socialist Utopia for the MMA Media

("’People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppres…


("’People think they have taken quite an extraordinarily bold step forward when they have rid themselves of belief in hereditary monarchy and swear by the democratic republic. In reality, however, the state is nothing but a machine for the oppression of one class by another, and indeed in the democratic republic no less than in the monarchy.’ That’s Friedrich Engels, bitch. Deal with it." PicProps: Business Week.com.)

Remember that report from earlier this month where Dana White alleged that some MMA journalists were either being so influenced by ad revenue that they were cooking the books on fighter rankings or, even worse, out-and-out selling their votes to the highest bidder? Well, despite the fact that story is obviously totally fucking ridiculous, Big DW is sticking to it. In fact, he’s taking it a step further, implying this week in an interview with MMAJunkie – yes, that one – that MMA websites shouldn’t be considered “news sites” if they (gasp!) try to make money off their work.

“My biggest beef with a lot of these MMA websites is that these guys are for-profit websites,” White told the Junkie during one of his trademark, seemingly only partly thought-out rants. “They’re not [expletive] news sites. They’re for-profit websites."

These comments come on the heels of White’s earlier suggestion that the MMA media is somehow “in it for the money” and the sentiment itself isn’t particularly surprising, given that the UFC brass has historically had a tough time grappling with the idea that the media doesn’t work for them and isn’t responsible for advancing their agenda. However, the above statement is a bit more troubling than all that, because it seems to show that despite his own vast fortune, White also may not understand the basic workings of free-market capitalism.

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Fedor Not a Fan of UFC’s ‘Negativity’

(Fedor doesn’t ask for relentless positivity, he demands it.)
After showing up fashionably late for yesterday’s Strikeforce media conference call with upcoming foe Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko did his usual song and dance about respec…


(Fedor doesn’t ask for relentless positivity, he demands it.)

After showing up fashionably late for yesterday’s Strikeforce media conference call with upcoming foe Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko did his usual song and dance about respect for his opponent, trust in God and love of country. You may have read about all of that in the recap provided through the Friday link dump. But aside from expounding on his own core beliefs, the world’s consensus No. 1-ranked heavyweight also slipped in a dig at the competition during an exchange not featured in the Dump’s version of events.   

According to a report from MMAFighting.com’s Mike Chiappetta, Fedor commented that he doesn’t totally approve of how our friends in Las Vegas are running their organization:

"I’m not a UFC fan," Fedor said through an interpreter.

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Was Pat Barry Having a Little Too Much Fun in the Octagon Last Night?

(This moment brought to you by FreeHugsCampaign.org. This pic brought to you by UFC.com.)
In MMA, we’re constantly being reminded that one of the many things that makes our sport great is the mutual respect and admiration between the athletes. As…


(This moment brought to you by FreeHugsCampaign.org. This pic brought to you by UFC.com.)

In MMA, we’re constantly being reminded that one of the many things that makes our sport great is the mutual respect and admiration between the athletes. As fans, there’s something inspiring about seeing two guys pound each other for 15 minutes and then smile and shake hands afterward. It’s also fun to see guys fight when it seems like they’re really enjoying themselves. The sportsmanship, the camaraderie, the brotherhood; that stuff is great. But last night at UFC 115, all the smoking-and-joking and gripping-and-grinning might well have cost Pat Barry a win.

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UFC 115 Aftermath: Everybody in the World Wants Chuck to Retire; Will he Listen?

(VidProps: MMA Fighting)
Regardless of how you think of Chuck Liddell on a personal level, it was hard not to feel bad for the guy last night. Liddell seemed just seconds away from heading back to his corner up 1-0 during his UFC 115 main event fight …

(VidProps: MMA Fighting)

Regardless of how you think of Chuck Liddell on a personal level, it was hard not to feel bad for the guy last night. Liddell seemed just seconds away from heading back to his corner up 1-0 during his UFC 115 main event fight against Rich Franklin, after showing off a surprisingly diverse striking attack and even a takedown during the opening stanza. Then Franklin clipped him with a short right square on the jaw and as soon as Liddell’s rigid body hit the canvas, you could almost hear the entire MMA world sigh and say: Well, that’s the end of that.

And it was. Hopefully for good this time. In the above video with Ariel Helwani, UFC President Dana White guaran-damn-tees that we’ve really, absolutely seen the end of “The Iceman” in the Octagon. Liddell was taken to the hospital immediately following the fight, so he and White had not yet spoken at the time of filming, but there’s no arguing with the decision. At this point in his career – after three consecutive ugly KO losses – it’s starting to look like a solid gust of wind has to potential to knock Liddell stiff. It’s time to pull the plug on this thing while he still has most of his faculties.

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We’re Not Really Supposed to Believe James Toney is Working on His Ground Game, Are We?

(“Go ahead and strap that black belt on right here, Deano.”)
Amid concerns this week that James Toney may not yet have signed his formal bout agreement to face Randy Couture at UFC 118, reports surfaced that the former boxing champion had t…


(“Go ahead and strap that black belt on right here, Deano.”)

Amid concerns this week that James Toney may not yet have signed his formal bout agreement to face Randy Couture at UFC 118, reports surfaced that the former boxing champion had tabbed one-time Xtreme Couture affiliate Dean Lister and Strikeforce light heavyweight champion Muhammed Lawal to help shore up his ground game. To this, I say: Bullshit. Toney might be rolling with Lister and Lawal a bit just to keep up appearances, but there’s no way he’s making an honest effort to learn to grapple.

Look, in his day James Toney was nothing short of an unmitigated badass. He was a guy who took on all-comers in numerous weight classes and more often than not came out on top. Even at his advanced age he can still hit very, very hard. But Toney has never, especially in recent years, been overly committed to training. The idea that he would suddenly attempt to augment his skill-set three months before his MMA debut is far-fetched. The notion that – even if he did – he could close the grappling gap on Couture in that short amount of time is, well, ludicrous.

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Incredible: Despite Video Admission, Sonnen Still Denying he has a Twitter Account

(See, this only looks like a picture of Chael Sonnen getting arm-barred by Jeremy Horn at UFC 60. It’s actually just a clever Chael Sonnen impersonator. PicProps: Susumu)
So in a nutshell, here’s what Chael Sonnen would currently have us believ…


(See, this only looks like a picture of Chael Sonnen getting arm-barred by Jeremy Horn at UFC 60. It’s actually just a clever Chael Sonnen impersonator. PicProps: Susumu)

So in a nutshell, here’s what Chael Sonnen would currently have us believe about his “fake” Twitter feed: Back in February, some enterprising imposter started an account in Sonnen’s name for the purpose of … well, we’re not sure exactly why … but over the next four months only used the account to post a grand total of 10 tweets (two of which link to Sonnen’s website) and did such a good job parroting the middleweight’s distinctively crazy voice that not only did no one notice the charade, but the UFC’s official twitter feed and Sonnen’s own “official campaign” Twitter account both became followers of the "fake" Chael Sonnen.

At least that’s the story Sonnen seemed to be sticking to as recently as Friday, when he appeared on stage for a Q&A session with luminaries from the UFC Fight Club in Vancouver and again reportedly claimed that he does not have a Twitter account. This despite the small matter of a video from a couple months back where he not only admits it to Ariel Helwani (at about the 45:40 mark) but spells out the “fake” account’s address so we can all find it.

Apparently, if someone is impersonating Chael Sonnen on Twitter, they’re doing such a great job that even he thought it was his real account for a while there.

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