Dana White is a brilliant man. He never went to an Ivy League school and he doesn’t have an MBA in business, but the man could probably tear most of those who do apart in the business world.
He is a shark and one that doesn’t play around.
This doesn’t mean I hate White or that I’m trying to insult him. Far from it. A shark is a creature that only lives by it’s nature, and that is to be a predator.
And just like when a shark sees blood in the water and goes after it’s prey, so does White.
Earlier in the year, the UFC bought Strikeforce. White tried to placate fans by saying things wouldn’t change, but over the course of the year has implemented more than a few. I even wrote about that in my first MMA article on Bleacher Report.
The article was made right after Alistair Overeem, a team member of the Golden Glory Gym, was released along with his fellow fighters because Golden Glory wanted the Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC, to pay them instead of their fighters directly. White disagreed with this and immediately terminated every one of Golden Glory’s contracts.
In it I mentioned that releasing Overeem was shocking, but not as shocking as getting Nick Diaz, the Strikeforce champion, out of his contract. I continued that it would only become the most shocking thing that White has done if he re-signed Overeem to a UFC contract.
Now it looks like that might happen.
In doing this, White has pulled off a brilliant move that even Machiavelli would be proud of. He has weakened Strikeforce’s heavyweight tournament, the only thing they really had going for it, and obtained a great heavyweight for the UFC, while still being able to get the winner of the tournament later on too.
Make no mistake though, the most important part of this is that they weakened Strikeforce’s event. This effectively does two things.
1) It makes it so that the ratings for the events will go down on Showtime making it less likely that Showtime will be less likely to renew a contract with them.
2) It makes it so there is one less televised show that builds a brand other than the UFC.
I know that Zuffa technically owns both Strikeforce and the UFC, but their money is on their child, not the stepson.
The same thing happened with the WEC. They promoted it but they realized that it would never be the PPV darling their original was. So they got rid of it.
And just like with the WEC, all it takes is patience. White slowly started taking apart the weight classes in the WEC to the point where fans shrugged along and thought that it made sense.
Now he is doing the same thing, but trying to make himself look justified.
Why?
Because if he didn’t people would be know what he was doing and some would obviously get upset.
Now? All he has to do is point the finger at Golden Glory and say that he was trying to do right by the fighters. It’s brilliant and, more importantly, if he signs Overeem, it worked.
In the end, it seems that the UFC is beginning to cannibalize it’s own acquisition to make itself stronger, and the injuries are starting to mount up.
It’s just a matter of time before, just like those before it, Strikeforce ends up another bloodstain on the Octagon of the UFC.
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