MMA News Forums » MMA Forums » General MMA Forum

[chungt79]

I was watching the show last night when Rich gave that stupid advice to Serra. Dana comes on and says something along the line of "He is a world Middle Weight champion! F*** pride and listne what he has to offer". These guys aren't rookies. They've been around and they seem to train well with one another without having too much ego.

Maybe I am over reacting here but Dana always seems to protect his favorite fighters too much. Too much to the point where the fans miss out on good fights because of this favoritism and the fighters themselves lose out by Dana's extreme favoritism.

It was well-known that Dana White was against Chuck fighting Babalou in their first fight because Dana didn't want Chuck to lose his #1 contender status. So in a lot of ways, Dana is controlling who becomes Champion at UFC. This is MMA and MMA is a sport. I hate the idea that some fighters are told against fighting someone because Dana is pulling the strings and creating matchups so we are sucked into the soap opera he created. I am getting tired of Dana building up crappy fighters to be contender and basically fooling us to think they are better than they actually are.

Moreover, since Dana is trying to protect Chuck, we may never see Rampage or Wand fight Chuck until Chuck is past his prime.

I have a lot more examples but I will stop here I suppose.

[BigBanda]

Yeah Dana for sure has favorities. I mean look how he sucks up to his champions. He's actually generally nice to everyone like when fighters lose on TUF and he tries to lift their spirits and tell them to keep trianing. But we all know he doesnt see eye to eye with everyone. I mean look at him and Tito a while back and Frank Shamrock will not fight for the UFC. Yes he does need to get over trying to be buddy buddy thugh and make some bad ass fights happen by reaching out to other organizations, mainly Pride.

[ArMnHC]

no i agree...what i saw on the show last night was pretty lame. Dana is sitting there nuthugging RIch, while Rich is saying he doesn't even wanna train with the guys and making dumb remarks about the staph goin around. then he gives Serra that BS advice...he'll never EVER fight a guy like Serra, so why give him some BS advice? and Dana saying this, that and the other thing about Rich. Cote was right, Rich was just there to scope out possible opponents. Randy and St. Pierre are truly trying to help these guys and GSP could end up fighting one of them one day. Rich is a good guy dont get me wrong, but may not be the messiah class act he's portrayed as. but hey if i was champ id do whatever i could to stay champ, legally of course...LOL

[Bran]

i have to disagree on this occasion. clearly dana is more friendly with some fighters over others, but he was right to stick up for rich when he did. he said that they shouldn't be too proud to ask him for advice and he was right. this, of course, was before franklin told serra to drop to one knee which was utterly ridiculous. i agree that they SHOULDN'T be too proud to ask rich for advice, but when someone finally did he makes an ass of himself. and franklin's my favorite fighter.

[ArMnHC]

Originally Posted by TheBranMan

i have to disagree on this occasion. clearly dana is more friendly with some fighters over others, but he was right to stick up for rich when he did. he said that they shouldn't be too proud to ask him for advice and he was right. this, of course, was before franklin told serra to drop to one knee which was utterly ridiculous. i agree that they SHOULDN'T be too proud to ask rich for advice, but when someone finally did he makes an ass of himself. and franklin's my favorite fighter.

true, but RIch wasn't even trying to give his advice...Randy and GSP are exactly the opposite.

[The Iceman]

Why shouldn't Dana favor his champions??????? Also how is he protecting Chuck and what "can" has Chuck fought? The Silva/Lidell fight didn't happen because Silva just got his @$$ handed to him and there is no way he'll be granted permission to fight. The Rampage/Lidell fight didn't happen because Rampage signed with WFA. Dana's not protecting Chuck.Granted I thought Franklins advice was a little dumb but if Dana questions him everyone else would also....

[chungt79]

Originally Posted by The Iceman

Why shouldn't Dana favor his champions??????? Also how is he protecting Chuck and what "can" has Chuck fought? The Silva/Lidell fight didn't happen because Silva just got his @$$ handed to him and there is no way he'll be granted permission to fight. The Rampage/Lidell fight didn't happen because Rampage signed with WFA. Dana's not protecting Chuck.Granted I thought Franklins advice was a little dumb but if Dana questions him everyone else would also....

Listen, if Dana was only friendly with the fighters, that is cool. But that is obviosuly not the case. Dana is pulling the strings on who should fight who and he's basically controlling the ranking at UFC by giving certain one's easier fights. MMA is a sport! You wouldn't expect David Stern or Taglibue to show favoritism in their league, so why should MMA be any different? I understand UFC is trying to make money but i am totally against Dana tarnshing the integrity of the rankings at UFC. Why should Chuck be protected of his status as #1 contender (b4 he was champ)?

Its a damn shame Rampage didn't join UFC. Rampage already beat Chuck and there is a 50/50 chance that Chuck will lose to Rampage if they fought again. If that does happen, people will begin questioning the quality of UFC and the marketing value of Chuck will drop. Chuck is one of the most popular figure in UFC and Dana can't afford to do that.

As for the Silva/Liddell fight, I believe Silva will be allowed to fight only if UFC would agree to it. It is only the fear from Dana that Silva may beat the UFC's best guy and that is stopping this fight from happening. During the interview, he didn't even entertain the idea of letting Chuck fight anyone from Pride. As for Silva's permission to fight, i am not solid so someone give me a credible info on that. But I don't know if th jursdiction extends all the way out to Japan.

[The Iceman]

You keep saying Chuck Lidell is being protected by Dana White, when Chuck Lidell has fought every top contender in the UFC and some in Pride....If fighting Couture(2),Babalu(2),Ortiz,Horn,Belfort(in his prime) & Randleman is protection I bet you would want to be the most unprotected star in UFC history.

[Afro]

im still convinced that Dana is clueless

[chungt79]

Originally Posted by The Iceman

You keep saying Chuck Lidell is being protected by Dana White, when Chuck Lidell has fought every top contender in the UFC and some in Pride....If fighting Couture(2),Babalu(2),Ortiz,Horn,Belfort(in his prime) & Randleman is protection I bet you would want to be the most unprotected star in UFC history.

I am not saying Chuck is being protected from his fellow UFC fighters. That's ridiculous. Championship fights involving Chuck is bread and butter for UFC. However, what I can tell you is that if there is some sort of protection within the UFC, it is for those who are legitimate contenders. #2's are being protected so that their hype doesn't die down until they fight the champion.

But if you are talking about Chuck being protected from fighters outside of UFC, then he definitely being protected and I already explained that in my previous post on this thread.

If Chuck loses to anyone outside of UFC, then UFC lhw division takes a massive hit and that is probably the most profitable division for Dana. He will do anything he can to protect the image of Chuck until he is past his prime.