Tag: Stephen Espinoza

Stephen Espinoza Won’t Entertain Dana White With ‘Fake Numbers’

Stephen Espinoza isn’t shying away from Dana White or Conor McGregor. Much has been made over the Aug. 2017 showdown between Floyd Mayweather and McGregor. Mayweather won the “money fight” via 10th round TKO. Leading up to the fight, …

Stephen Espinoza isn’t shying away from Dana White or Conor McGregor. Much has been made over the Aug. 2017 showdown between Floyd Mayweather and McGregor. Mayweather won the “money fight” via 10th round TKO. Leading up to the fight, many people suspected that Showtime set up McGregor to look unfavorable during the world tour. There […]

Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers

Although they worked together to generate one of the biggest combat sporting events of all time just five months ago, it seems that there’s some bad blood between the UFC and Showtime Sports. UFC President Dana White worked with Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza to put on a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match that took […]

The post Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Although they worked together to generate one of the biggest combat sporting events of all time just five months ago, it seems that there’s some bad blood between the UFC and Showtime Sports.

UFC President Dana White worked with Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza to put on a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match that took the combat sports world by storm. Now that the dust has settled on the event after Mayweather’s 10th round TKO win on August 26th, White has recently expressed his frustration with Espinoza and Showtime Sports. In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports White said that he “despises” Showtime.

Espinoza responded to this on Twitter by claiming he believes White’s frustrations stem from Mayweather vs. McGregor generating only the second-biggest pay-per-view (PPV) numbers of all time, at 4.3 million buys, trailing Mayweather vs. Pacquiao back in 2015. McGregor got in on the action via Twitter and called Espinoza a ‘weasel’ and said Mayweather vs. McGregor was the No. 1 PPV worldwide. Espinoza responded by stating McGregor vs. Mayweather wasn’t No. 1 in either North America or globally either.

He recently joined Sirius XM radio to discuss the matter further, and took a shot at the UFC by saying he can’t make up fake numbers and release them to the public just to satisfy White (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“Dana has got a certain style and it’s very successful for him,” Espinoza said. “The one thing I’ll point out — I don’t want to get too much into a back and forth — but we’re a public company and there are regulations, there are legal requirements. We can’t put out press releases giving fake numbers. We have shareholders. We have millions of shareholders.

“When we put something on it, when we say, ‘Here’s a Showtime Sports press release from Mayweather-Pacquiao or Mayweather-Mayweather,’ that has gone through lawyers and everyone has looked at it. It’s factual.”

As for how Espinoza feels about being under fire from the UFC lightweight champion and being called a ‘weasel,’ the Showtime Executive seems to just brush the harsh words off:

“That’s Conor,” Espinoza said. “You go through his feed and he goes at opponents like that, he goes at business people like that. He goes at referees like that sometimes. That’s him.”

Recently White told Yahoo that he believes he can do a better job at promoting boxing events than those currently involved in the industry, and that includes Showtime as well:

“When we did the Mayweather fight, I watched and took it all in, I just think all these guys, the guys who are promoting boxing today are bad at it,” White said. “I don’t think they do a good job, and I think I could do better. It sounds arrogant, but it’s the truth. I think I could do a better job than these guys do.”

Espinoza was asked how he would feel about White getting into the boxing game of promoting, and oddly enough it seems like he doesn’t have an issue with it – in fact, Espinoza said he welcomes the move:

“As a boxing fan — this is gonna sound strange — I welcome it,” Espinoza said. “Anyone who has ideas, who feels like they can come into the sport and contribute in a positive way, regardless of what those ideas are, sure. I welcome it. Which of us has not sat on the couch and said, ‘I can call a fight better than that, I can call football?’ So from that aspect, if he wants to get involved and maybe he does have ideas that will improve it — maybe his matchmaking, his promoting, his marketing, he can contribute. So from that aspect, I’m happy for him to contribute.”

In the past Espinoza has worked with Zuffa before Mayweather vs. McGregor, as Zuffa once owned Strikeforce when it had a broadcast deal with Showtime. Espinoza said he’d be willing to work with White again despite the personal animosity between the pair:

“I think it would be incredibly arrogant for me to put personal animosity ahead of something that fight fans want,” Espinoza said. “If fight fans say they want to see another [UFC vs. boxing matchup], who am I to say, ‘Nope, I don’t like the guy across the table, so you’re not gonna see it.’ That’s one of the things that’s been wrong with combat sports and boxing in particular in the past.

“I don’t have to be best friends with everybody I do business with. That’s not how business works. Can you come together as gentlemen, as smart people and get a deal done? That’s the real question.”

The post Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers

Although they worked together to generate one of the biggest combat sporting events of all time just five months ago, it seems that there’s some bad blood between the UFC and Showtime Sports. UFC President Dana White worked with Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza to put on a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match that took […]

The post Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Although they worked together to generate one of the biggest combat sporting events of all time just five months ago, it seems that there’s some bad blood between the UFC and Showtime Sports.

UFC President Dana White worked with Showtime’s Stephen Espinoza to put on a Conor McGregor vs. Floyd Mayweather boxing match that took the combat sports world by storm. Now that the dust has settled on the event after Mayweather’s 10th round TKO win on August 26th, White has recently expressed his frustration with Espinoza and Showtime Sports. In a recent interview with Yahoo Sports White said that he “despises” Showtime.

Espinoza responded to this on Twitter by claiming he believes White’s frustrations stem from Mayweather vs. McGregor generating only the second-biggest pay-per-view (PPV) numbers of all time, at 4.3 million buys, trailing Mayweather vs. Pacquiao back in 2015. McGregor got in on the action via Twitter and called Espinoza a ‘weasel’ and said Mayweather vs. McGregor was the No. 1 PPV worldwide. Espinoza responded by stating McGregor vs. Mayweather wasn’t No. 1 in either North America or globally either.

He recently joined Sirius XM radio to discuss the matter further, and took a shot at the UFC by saying he can’t make up fake numbers and release them to the public just to satisfy White (quotes via MMA Fighting):

“Dana has got a certain style and it’s very successful for him,” Espinoza said. “The one thing I’ll point out — I don’t want to get too much into a back and forth — but we’re a public company and there are regulations, there are legal requirements. We can’t put out press releases giving fake numbers. We have shareholders. We have millions of shareholders.

“When we put something on it, when we say, ‘Here’s a Showtime Sports press release from Mayweather-Pacquiao or Mayweather-Mayweather,’ that has gone through lawyers and everyone has looked at it. It’s factual.”

As for how Espinoza feels about being under fire from the UFC lightweight champion and being called a ‘weasel,’ the Showtime Executive seems to just brush the harsh words off:

“That’s Conor,” Espinoza said. “You go through his feed and he goes at opponents like that, he goes at business people like that. He goes at referees like that sometimes. That’s him.”

Recently White told Yahoo that he believes he can do a better job at promoting boxing events than those currently involved in the industry, and that includes Showtime as well:

“When we did the Mayweather fight, I watched and took it all in, I just think all these guys, the guys who are promoting boxing today are bad at it,” White said. “I don’t think they do a good job, and I think I could do better. It sounds arrogant, but it’s the truth. I think I could do a better job than these guys do.”

Espinoza was asked how he would feel about White getting into the boxing game of promoting, and oddly enough it seems like he doesn’t have an issue with it – in fact, Espinoza said he welcomes the move:

“As a boxing fan — this is gonna sound strange — I welcome it,” Espinoza said. “Anyone who has ideas, who feels like they can come into the sport and contribute in a positive way, regardless of what those ideas are, sure. I welcome it. Which of us has not sat on the couch and said, ‘I can call a fight better than that, I can call football?’ So from that aspect, if he wants to get involved and maybe he does have ideas that will improve it — maybe his matchmaking, his promoting, his marketing, he can contribute. So from that aspect, I’m happy for him to contribute.”

In the past Espinoza has worked with Zuffa before Mayweather vs. McGregor, as Zuffa once owned Strikeforce when it had a broadcast deal with Showtime. Espinoza said he’d be willing to work with White again despite the personal animosity between the pair:

“I think it would be incredibly arrogant for me to put personal animosity ahead of something that fight fans want,” Espinoza said. “If fight fans say they want to see another [UFC vs. boxing matchup], who am I to say, ‘Nope, I don’t like the guy across the table, so you’re not gonna see it.’ That’s one of the things that’s been wrong with combat sports and boxing in particular in the past.

“I don’t have to be best friends with everybody I do business with. That’s not how business works. Can you come together as gentlemen, as smart people and get a deal done? That’s the real question.”

The post Showtime Exec Says He Won’t Lie To Inflate Dana White’s Numbers appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

Conor McGregor Joins Dana White In Blasting ‘Weasel’ Showtime Exec

Conor McGregor has joined in on the drama between Dana White and Showtime Sports. White called out Showtime this week for supposedly releasing the numbers incorrectly for McGregor’s August boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, apparently wanting them to release the worldwide figures of approximately 6.7 million buys rather than the 4.3 million North American buys […]

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Conor McGregor has joined in on the drama between Dana White and Showtime Sports.

White called out Showtime this week for supposedly releasing the numbers incorrectly for McGregor’s August boxing match with Floyd Mayweather, apparently wanting them to release the worldwide figures of approximately 6.7 million buys rather than the 4.3 million North American buys released by Showtime.

The UFC frontman revealed he no longer trusted the network, and would never work with them again.

Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza insisted earlier today on social media that Showtime only revealed the facts, and White despised them for telling the truth:

However, one major part of the equation is not surprisingly siding with White and rapidly fired back at Espinoza.

McGregor, who’s currently mulling an anticipated UFC return and had a previous beef with Espinoza when Showtime was rumored to have cut his microphone off on the first leg of the Mayweather vs. McGregor world tour, called him a ‘weasel’ again and said the fight’s released numbers should have had a more global focus:

White and McGregor obviously want the biggest number possible to flaunt the bout as the biggest combat sports event of all-time, yet all numbers point to Mayweather vs. Pacquiao holding that actual title.

It appears a sore subject for both of the UFC’s most famous faces, but Mayweather vs. McGregor is long over with, and perhaps they’d be best served to shifting their focus to rebounding from a brutally down year for MMA in 2017.

Something tells me they may not, however.

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Dana White Goes Off On Showtime Sports In Unhinged Rant

In an otherwise down year for mixed martial arts, UFC president Dana White has gone on record saying that 2017 was the UFC’s “best year ever,” presumably based on the massive financial haul generated by last August’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match. The fight was buoyed by a circus-type buildup and gained 4.3 […]

The post Dana White Goes Off On Showtime Sports In Unhinged Rant appeared first on LowKickMMA.com.

In an otherwise down year for mixed martial arts, UFC president Dana White has gone on record saying that 2017 was the UFC’s “best year ever,” presumably based on the massive financial haul generated by last August’s Floyd Mayweather vs. Conor McGregor boxing match.

The fight was buoyed by a circus-type buildup and gained 4.3 million pay-per-view buys in North America, numbers that have been largely verified and were reported by the UFC’s co-promoter, Showtime Sports, in a previous press release. The figures had the fight as the second-biggest draw in the history of North American PPV, with May 2015’s Mayweather vs. Pacquiao match outselling after gaining 4.6 million buys.

But apparently White is far from pleased with how the TV giant dealt with the numbers apparently, telling Yahoo’s Kevin Iole in a recent in-depth interview that no matter what Showtime releases, Mayweather vs. McGregor was the biggest fight ever:

“Think about this and I don’t give a shit about Showtime’s fucking full of shit press release they put out — it’s the biggest fight ever. Ever in combat sports history.”

He continued on to cite his own figures, insisting that Mayweather vs. McGregor did 6.7 million buys worldwide, and would have done up to 7 million if the streaming service had not crashed right before the fight started. With Showtime reporting lower numbers that only focused on North America, White was so mad he said he would never trust Showtime and vowed to never do business with them again:

“The thing did over 6.7 million buys and if the service didn’t drop, we would have gotten closer to 7 million,” White continued. “The way that they handled that press release and what they did — I didn’t trust them before and now I despise those fucking guys. The Showtime guys, I’ll never work with them again. Ever.”

White may have his numbers a bit mixed up, however, as he seems to be comparing the worldwide buys with Showtime’s North American figures and focusing on the discrepancy between the two numbers, which would obviously create a massive gap as one encompasses the whole world.

Showtime Sports executive Stephen Espinoza seemed to realize that, releasing a tweet earlier today clarifying that the company had released accurate North American figures that had been vetted by involved parties before being released:

When examined in that light, it seems like White was looking for some inflated numbers to tout publicly as UFC owners Endeavor look to pay back the loans outstanding on their July 2016 purchase of the MMA leader, which is currently floundering without any true stars outside of McGregor, whom they let compete in a boxing ring for his only fight of 2017.

Reports dictate Showtime is to be believed on the numbers, and White vowing to never do business with them again may seem like sour grapes from a man looking for overblown figures that just weren’t quite there.

And let’s be honest, if McGregor wanted to rematch Mayweather in boxing or ‘Money’ ever wanted to fight in the Octagon for some reason, White would probably find a reason to open talks back up with Showtime despite this perceived – and perhaps superficial – slight.

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Conor McGregor’s Top 10 Most Controversial Moments

UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life personality has played a major role in helping him rise to fame and fortune on a scale never seen before in MMA, but it’s also led to a series of highly contentious flashpoints during his five-year stint in the UFC. In this article, we’ll count down McGregor’s top 10 […]

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UFC lightweight champion Conor McGregor’s larger-than-life personality has played a major role in helping him rise to fame and fortune on a scale never seen before in MMA, but it’s also led to a series of highly contentious flashpoints during his five-year stint in the UFC.

In this article, we’ll count down McGregor’s top 10 most controversial moments, and in the process demonstrate how he has the perfect nickname for a fighter, given that he seems to be becoming more “Notorious” with each passing day.

No. 10: Homophobic Slur in Poland

McGregor showed up to cheer on his teammate Artem Lobov at UFC Fight Night 118 in Gdansk, Poland back in October, and was soon making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

The lightweight champion cut an animated figure during Lobov’s fight with Andre Fili, pacing around the Octagon and yelling instructions to his team-mate, causing such a commotion in the process that referee John Goddard took the unprecedented step of momentarily stopping the fight to order the Irishman back to his seat.

McGregor obliged, but backstage after the fight, the cameras were rolling as he was overheard repeatedly calling Fili a “f**g*t” while consoling the defeated Lobov – a slur that would soon go viral amid accusations of homophobia.

Whether a coincidence or not, McGregor’s media appearances to promote his new ‘Notorious’ documentary were drastically scaled back after this incident, though he did issue a public apology during an interview on The Late, Late Show just a few days later.

“I’m human, I slip up, I say stupid things every damn day. All I can (do) is hold my hand up and apologise if anyone was offended,” McGregor said on the Irish chat show.

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