Dana White and the UFC have been reluctant to cross-promote in years and Bellator commentator, John McCarthy believes he knows why.
McCarthy believes the UFC doesn’t want to cross-promote after sending Chuck Liddell to PRIDE and not getting anything in return.
“Dana got ripped, and I don’t blame him [for not doing cross-promotion]. Dana got ripped when he was first president of the UFC by PRIDE in giving over Chuck Liddell to PRIDE. And, then didn’t get anything back,” McCarthy said on the “Weighing In” podcast (via BJPENN.com). “He said, ‘I’m never going to do that again.’ And unfortunately, he stuck to it.”
“Now he’s stuck to it to the point where he looks at it like, ‘Why am I going to damage my product if I put a fighter out of my stable up against a fighter from another stable and he loses. It just damages my product there’s no reason to do that.’ I don’t blame him.”
Several promotions have been open to cross-promotion with most notable being Bellator and RIZIN who have formed a very good relationship. Yet, the chances fans will ever get to see Bellator fighters compete against UFC fighters is very unlikely. Even though many fans would want it to happen. And, according to John McCarthy, fans can blame PRIDE and what happened to Chuck Liddell.
