Tag: antitrust

Leaked messages reveals UFC boss Dana White’s trashing of Scott Coker: ‘I turned Ronda Rousey into a star’

Dana White trashes Scott Coker in antitrust lawsuit deposition I turned Ronda Rousey into a star UFCAmid the ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought against the UFC, the promotion’s CEO, Dana White openly criticized Bellator MMA boss,…

Dana White trashes Scott Coker in antitrust lawsuit deposition I turned Ronda Rousey into a star UFC

Amid the ongoing antitrust lawsuit brought against the UFC, the promotion’s CEO, Dana White openly criticized Bellator MMA boss, Scott Coker – claiming the veteran promoter was a bad one at that, as well as taking credit for the stardom amassed by former UFC bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey.

Dana White claims he turned Ronda Rousey into a star

In leaked text messages obtained by Bloody Elbow and esteemed reporter, John S. Nash, former UFC CEO, Lorenzo Fertitta  claimed that Bellator took “castoffs” from the UFC – in the form of former light heavyweight champions, Quinton Jackson, and Tito Ortiz – in response to a booking of a fight between the duo, as well as labelling Coker a “very bad promoter”.

Question: Okay, what did you understand Mr. Fertitta to be saying there?

Dana White: That Bellator had come out and said, ‘We don’t take UFC castoffs.’

Question: All right. And – but nevertheless, UFC viewed Mr. Ortiz and Mr. Jackson as essentially castoffs?

White: That’s – that’s Scott Coker’s MO. Scott Coker doesn’t build anyone, right? He doesn’yt turn anybody into stars. He just takes old names and recycles them. He’s a – he – he’s a very, very bad promoter.

Question: Okay.

Dana White: Very bad at what he does.

Question: All right. And that’s a – that’s – you’re saying that – I just want to understand you. Because Mr. Coker’s been in several different promotions, right?

White: Right.

Question: Okay.

White: All failures. 

And during the deposition, White claimed that while inaugural UFC bantamweight champion< Rousey was signed from the Coked-led Strikeforce banner, where she also held championship spoils, it was he, not Coker who made the Riverside native a “star” – before claiming Coker should “open a restaurant”, if he couldn’t, in his opinion, turn her into a star.

Question: Right. Is it your – not withstanding the fact that the UFC got some – I think as you testified earlier, some really great fighters from Mr. Coker’s Strikeforc promotion, right?

Dana White: That we turned into stars. When you have Ronda Rousey and you can’t turn her into a star, you should probably go open a restaurant or something.

Question: And so – and so is it your testimony that at Bellator, Mr. Coker is continuing to ressntially recycle has-been fighters? Is that –

White: Well, no. He – he recycles big names.

Question: Right.

White: “That’s what he does. Rampage Jackson is a huge name. Tito Ortiz is a huge name. And – and basically, he re– you know, takes guys with big names and puts on fights with them instead of turning guys into stars, even when he has a roster packed with stars, and one of them include Ronda Rousey.

Question: Well, Ronda Rousey wasn’t a star at the time that she was fighting under contract with Strikeforce, right?

White: ‘Till I turned her into a star.

White: Just for the record, I turned her into a star immediately when she got to the UFC – 

Question: Okay.

White – her first fight.

Union in Labor Dispute With Fertitta-Owned Station Casinos Launches Formal Antitrust Complaint With FTC About Zuffa


(Apparently, you don’t f*ck with a union spurned.)

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — the group that is battling Station Casinos to unionize its hotel and casino workers — launched a new salvo against the casino’s owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who also own a majority stake in the UFC and Strikeforce yesterday by firing off a letter of complaint to Federal Trade Commission Director Richard Feinstein in which they request that the FTC launch an investigation against Zuffa for what they deem as “a violation of anti-trust laws.”

According to the complaint, sent to CagePotato.com today by the union, Zuffa’s practices of buying out the competition like they did with PRIDE, the WEC, WFA and Strikeforce, their institution of champion’s clauses, automatic contract renewal clauses and guaranteed first negotiation periods in fighters’ contracts, their control of fighter image and likeness rights in perpetuity and their refusal to co-promote all put artificial restraints on athlete movement, depress pay and stifle competition.


(Apparently, you don’t f*ck with a union spurned.)

Culinary Workers Union Local 226 — the group that is battling Station Casinos to unionize its hotel and casino workers — launched a new salvo against the casino’s owners Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who also own a majority stake in the UFC and Strikeforce yesterday by firing off a letter of complaint to Federal Trade Commission Director Richard Feinstein in which they request that the FTC launch an investigation against Zuffa for what they deem as “a violation of anti-trust laws.”

According to the complaint, sent to CagePotato.com today by the union, Zuffa’s practices of buying out the competition like they did with PRIDE, the WEC, WFA and Strikeforce, their institution of champion’s clauses, automatic contract renewal clauses and guaranteed first negotiation periods in fighters’ contracts, their control of fighter image and likeness rights in perpetuity and their refusal to co-promote all put artificial restraints on athlete movement, depress pay and stifle competition.

It’s worth noting that this is the same union that financially supported Bob Reilly’s re-election campaign in New York and who has been feeding the oblivious State Assemblyman lines about the Fertittas and Zuffa being sinister entities. There’s a pretty good chance they are angling at getting the FTC to force the sport to adopt a fighters union as well, but time will tell.

The CWU, who are a branch of the Unite Here group of unions that represent hotel, gaming, food service, manufacturing, textile, distribution, laundry, and airport workers in the U.S. and Canada, are asking that the FTC begin a thorough investigation into Zuffa’s contravention of the FTC Act which “prohibits unfair methods of competition in or affecting commerce.”

The funny thing is, the FTC has already been investigating the UFC and Strikeforce parent company, and not surprisingly, the claim of a monopoly and of anti-trust violation has been vehemently denied by UFC president Dana White.

We’ll have to wait and see if the results of the FTC probe are made public and if they find any wrongdoing on the part of Zuffa.

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