Pat Miletich & Dana White Trade Verbal Shots
 

www.mmaweekly.com


The UFC currently has a lawsuit pending against the IFL, and Pat Miletich previously provided a scathing deposition against the UFC in that lawsuit, as he claimed under oath that UFC president Dana White threatened him "and implicity the livlihood of the fighters I train."

Now Miletich has questioned the timing of the UFC's September PPV event, with Matt Hughes and Jens Pulver both scheduled to fight in the UFC on the same night that will see Miletich return to MMA competition on an IFL show in Illinois. Zuffa president Dana White did not take kindly to Miletich's assertions, as you'll see in the following article from the Quad City Times.


Miletich upset over UFC president’s scheduling
by Sean Moeller, Quad City Times

It was less than a month after the International Fight League announced that Bettendorf mixed martial arts legend Pat Miletich would return to the ring against Renzo Gracie at The Mark of the Quad Cities on Sept. 23 that the Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White created a Team Miletich conflict.

White announced July 17 that Miletich’s most powerful welterweight disciple, Matt Hughes, would meet the No. 1 contender for his belt, Georges St. Pierre, the same night, halfway across the country in Anaheim, Calif., in UFC 63. He’s getting ready to announce that another of Miletich’s fighters — 155-pound former UFC champion Jens Pulver — will make his long-awaited return to America’s largest mixed martial arts organization to fight an as-yet-unnamed opponent.

White insists that he has no ulterior motives for choosing the date he did and establishing a tough pay-per-view rival to the IFL’s own pay-per-view show.

“Yeah, like I structure my whole year’s schedule around what the IFL’s doing,” White said with a strong sense of sarcasm and a laugh Thursday. “The IFL’s another one of the small shows in the country that’s helping build the grassroots of this sport. Unless someone tells me the IFL’s doing something, I don’t even know they exist.”

Miletich sees it differently.

“That’s Dana White’s business strategy,” he said Thursday morning. “He’ll keep making enemies and we’ll keep making friends. Eventually, the worm will completely turn. I’m sure he offered Matt a large financial incentive to fight that night. When Matt wins, Jens wins, our team (the IFL entry Silverbacks) wins and I win, everybody’s going to be good.”

White is aware that Miletich interprets the move as a dirty one.

“I’m sure he does think that. Pat’s a paranoid lunatic, and he thinks that the UFC’s always trying to (mess) with him,” White said. “The IFL sells 1,000 tickets. It wasn’t a dig on Pat, but he’ll think it was.”

With Hughes and Pulver expected to be in California for fights, the cheering section for Miletich will be lighter. It’s a situation that Pulver admits is unfortunate and Miletich said Hughes is bummed about.

“It sucks that it’s got to be like that,” said Pulver, who never has lost in seven career UFC fights. “None of us want to miss that. He’s our guy. That’s our coach, but things happen. I’ll be on the phone before and after my fight, ‘How’d it go? What’d he do?’ ”

Lil’ Evil didn’t see getting another call from the UFC. He’s spent the past five years primarily fighting in Japan and last fought in March, his only fight of the year.

“It wasn’t so much a desire to fight in the UFC again. I just figured it wasn’t going to ever happen,” he said. “They moved on and I moved on.

“I’m just getting ready to beat somebody senseless.”

White, like Pulver, isn’t sure how everything straightened out.

“I don’t know what happened. I never had any intention of bringing Jens back,” he said. “I like Jens. I never had a problem with Jens. I always talked to Jens. I’m excited about this. Nobody’s really heard from Jens since he left the UFC.”

During the afternoon Thursday, Miletich and members of the Silverbacks were guests of the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. They met with the players and were announced during the game.

“I guess the Cubs were psyched because they’re huge fans,” Miletich said.

Of course dana did it on purpose. How else will he explain it when matt loses and he can justify his rematch because he will be able to say Pat wasn't in his corner. Besides what better way to drown competition than to have an event the same night. Both are pulling from the same fan base and 99% of the fans will watch UFC especially if it is a PPV. Dana is marketing the brand UFC vs. the brand IFL. Great business strategy.

Dana is like Snidley Whiplash! A scumbag at heart, but he knows how to do business. Count how many business men did business honestly or without any merit...you can't even count it on two hands. If Matt loses and says he lost because Pat wasn't in his corner, what does that say about him? That he isn't the champion material everyone thought he was. This has the makings for a St. Pierre victory! Think about it, St. Pierre barely grazes by Penn, then he is on TUF 4 as a coach, and now Hughes isn't gonna have his golden coach in his corner. I wouldn't be surprised if September 23rd turns out to be the worst night in the Millitech Camp's history. Dana wants Hughes to lose, no matter how much he likes him. St Pierre is the future and Dana knows it. It's exactly why he planned it this way. Jens may even end up losing now...New Welterweight Champion = Georges St. Pierre.

it all sounds logical in a wwe sort of way, but i hope your right. i would love to see gsp win.(i hope he's been working on his back flip)
my bud thinks the opposite, he thinks gsp will lose, to forever get him out of title contention with 2 losses, and will be made the fool, on tuf4 ala shamrock.

i think it would be pretty haard to match up with shamrock on being made a fool of. as much as i like em he was a crap coach

I think you are all crazy. Hughes is not going to lose because his coach is not in his corner. Do you think the level of dominance Hughes has had in the UFC was because of a coach in his corner?

The reason for Hughes and Jens fighting on that night is becasue Dana is trying to make this the highest yielding UFC ever (they are expeting over 1 million PPV's to be ordered), ontop of that, Wandy is expected to fight and if he owns Chuck and that is the main event, it is going to look really bad for the UFC so Dana is putting together the best fighters UFC has to offer as this card has Wandy on it so it is going to attract the japanese fans as well and Dana wants to put on spectacular PPV in an attempt to try and gain some Japanese fans. That is his marketing ploy.

He certainly booked the venue on the same night as the IFL because they have been getting a fair amount of publicity and what beter way to trump them than to book an event the same night as them, it's a dick move and Dana White is a shmuck for doing that. I can't stand the man, he puts together shitty fight cards (if Joe Silva is putting them together with a given budget, regardless, Dana still sees the card and gives it the final OK) and pays fighters in buiscuts and cookies instead of what they deserve. Then the first great card we will see this year is a plot for Dana to draft some Japanese fans, I just don't respect that, don't get me wrong it is good marketing but it is a slap in the face for me as I have been a fan of the UFC forever and have been screaming for better cards and do not get them and it takes a marketing plot in order to get a better card, that pisses me off.

I just hope it comes back to bite Dana in the ass, don't think for a second Sakakibara is not aware of what's going on and by him sending Wandy he is attempting to do the same thing so I really hope to see Wandy dissmantle Chuck and hopefully a ton of American fans will go "fuck, the PRIDE guys are much better than UFC fighters, let's order this instead", then Sakakibara will book an event on the same night as UFC and watch UFC flop. It is the takeover, biether organization will admit it but they are both attempting it right now and with the PRIDE OWGP, UFC 63 if Wandy dominates and the new years event, PRIDE may be well on their way to forcing tgheir way into the US and taking many fans form the UFC.

I personally (after UFC 61 sucked so badly) am only ordering the good UFC cards now so I will ofcourse NOT be orderign UFC 62. I don't get how Dana can charge $5.00 more per payperview, have inferior fighters adn pay them nothing compared to PRIDE and yet peopel eat this shit up adn think it's great, those celebs and all of those fight paryies may be switching to PRIDE by the end of the year.

Also, Dana certainly does think GSP is the future and he no doubt is the future but that does not mean it is the near future, it may very well be the distant future at Hughes in his prime, he gets better with every fight, he's reaching Fedor status and GSP is extremely young, look what happened when Tito became Champ when he was so young, not saying the same would happen to GSP as he is much more humble but the point is, fighters typically reach their prime at a later age (Tito is in his prime right now) and Matt is the most dominant UFC champion in the history of the UFC and has noticably improved his dominance with every fight so good luck taking that away GSP. I like them both but cmon, Hughes is a freak of nature.

even if pat was in matt's corner, and he lost u would probably expect to see a rematch since they will be even. but if matt wins then u wont see a third one, but im sure gsp will win and im sure that there will be a rubbermatch.

If Wandy fights Chuck it will be on the UFC 65 card, not UFC 63 which will feature GSP/Hughes, and Jens fight.

You see this is why I don't like Dana White.

He does things like this then goes on radio shows & comes over as a normal fan wanting what's best for the sport. When in actual fact he's a power hungry retard trying to kill off competition.

For such a cunning buisiness man it beggars belief that he says he has no idea what the IFL are up to unless someone mentions them. The company that he has filed lawsuits after & tried to soak up all their promotional funds in legal bills & he says he's unconcerned with them. Bullshit.

He needs to be careful cos the way mma is going in the US at the moment with WFA, IFL, Strikeforce etc gaining status & sponsorship (money!) if Militech decides to boycott his gym from the UFC I would imagine that most of them would show loyalty to him & not the UFC. If that happens as someone said in a previous thread no WW champ, no HW champ, poss no LW champ (pulver) & poss no MW champ (if Franklin becomes full time MFS).

White should act his age. If he scheduled his card for a week later, this would not be a situation, but he has to do these things. He's beginning to get that Don King feel to the way he does business.