News UFC lawsuit: Dana White threatened rival MMA promoter Scott Coker/Strikeforce to sell

That’s the fight to make
Coker needs some conditioning
 
Hope UFC gets thru this lawsuit unscathed. Enjoy my UFC do not care how much fighters make but the cheaper for me the better.
 
TCE said:
UFC purchased Strikeforce and put them under the Zuffa umbrella in 2011, until they eventually closed down the MMA promotion and absorbed their key fighters in 2013.

According to Strikeforce founder Scott Coker, that sale involved some threats from Dana White.

A lot of interesting information has come out from the recently unsealed documents pertaining to the antitrust lawsuit against the UFC. Apart from being able to figure out several of the top UFC stars’ full payouts, Bloody Elbow has also obtained documents and depositions that detailed Strikeforce’s business model and negotiations with Dana White and the UFC.

It also showed the good cop, bad cop routine that Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White used to run for negotiations.

“In or around October 2010, Dana White called the Strikeforce owners to inform them that Lorenzo Fertitta wanted to acquire Strikeforce and, in November 2010, the Strikeforce owners met with representatives of the UFC concerning the potential acquisition of Strikeforce at the offices of WME,” lawsuit documents stated, as obtained by Bloody Elbow’s business expert John Nash.

“At that meeting, Lorenzo Fertitta reportedly stated that he thought ‘Strikeforce is building a great brand, but [Zuffa felt] there should only be one brand, so [Zuffa] would like to buy [Strikeforce].’

“For its part, Zuffa’s internal correspondence in 2012 indicates that the UFC sought, by its Strikeforce acquisition, to eliminate it as a competitor. In a conference call, UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta stated that: ‘Lawrence and Pete Dropick, who run Strikeforce for us, went back to New York, had negotiated a separation agreement with Showtime to essentially shut Strikeforce down. We would then pull all of those Fighters into the UFC which is essentially what we want to do anyway.’ According to Zuffa, acquiring Strikeforce’s Fighter contracts was definitely the most important’ aspect of the deal.”

Scott Coker didn’t want to sell Strikeforce to “Darth Vader”
In Scott Coker’s deposition, he noted how he didn’t want to sell his company at the time, as it would be the end of “the MMA industry” and would lead to worse purses for fighters. He also compared the Dana White-led UFC to the evil empire in Star Wars.

“I believe that the phone started ringing from [Dana White] because we had signed [prominent heavyweight] Fedor (Emelianenko) and we announced the heavyweight tournament. It was clear that although we were a very small company, much smaller than the UFC, but we were in the same business, that we had a better heavyweight division than they did, and I think that was one of the considerations on their part.”

“Strikeforce got on [the UFC’s] radar and I think they [Zuffa] wanted to control the market share,” Coker’s deposition stated.

“Affliction took the easy way out. Now it’s UFC and Strikeforce. If you can’t battle these guys it’s over for the MMA industry. UFC will be the only one left. We’re the last chance. Otherwise, fighters’ purses will go down if UFC is the only one – is the only one period. We’re Luke Skywalker and UFC is Darth Vader and the Death Star.”

Dana White threatened to make life hard for Strikeforce
Lorenzo Fertitta complimented Strikeforce and had a polite and measured approach, but according to the lawsuit documents, when the carrot didn’t work, Dana White stepped in with the stick.

“According to Scott Coker, Strikeforce’s founder, Lorenzo Fertitta stated that his plan was to close [Strikeforce) down, and we would take all of the Fighters and bring them to the UFC.’

“Coker testified that, after negotiations stalled, Dana White threatened that he would “come after [Strikeforce’s] fighters, and he would make our life hard, and, you know, give us a bad time.”

Faced with Dana White’s threat and limited options, Coker eventually decided to sell Strikeforce, where many of their fighters went on to headline big PPVs and win titles in the UFC.

More: https://bloodyelbow.com/2023/11/06/uc-dana-white-strikeforce-sell-threat/
Click to expand...
I’m actually surprised that was the worst thing Dana ever did to Scott Coker
 
Cries that fighter pay would go down, cries that Dana said he would pay more than Coker.
 
TCE said:
as obtained by Bloody Elbow’s business expert John Nash.
Click to expand...
Damn, they have a business expert. Do we have a business expert at sherdog ? We can never afford anything, I'm sick of this life, I should've listened to my sister and married bloody elbow.
 
The UFC wanted to give fans the best fight possible, sounds evil.
 
Threatened? I think Dana is a douche but him saying he is going to try and make things hard for a direct competitor isn't exactly something groundbreaking or evil.. not like he said he would kidnap his kids or something.
 
Nothing new, Dana is ruthless when it comes to business. Judging by Coker selling Strikeforce and how he sank Bellator, its safe to Coker isn’t a great business man.
 
  • Like
Reactions: lsa
After reading that article can't imagine how uncomfortable it was for Coker to then work for Zuffa after the strikeforce purchase
 
It's time to move on from this clown
Dana White Greedy.jpg
 
2 of 10 because of title. Jesus Christ, expect better of you TS. If I knew any better I would call you a noob. I should give you one out of 10 because TLDR. Come on man!
<LikeReally5>
 
David R said:
Hope UFC gets thru this lawsuit unscathed. Enjoy my UFC do not care how much fighters make but the cheaper for me the better.
Click to expand...
I think (well I kinda hope) that there is a price above which the PPV sales would crumble, it is already absurdly expensive... Also, I don't know the kind of deal they have with ESPN, but IIRC a shitton of money is involved, so I would suppose they may not be able to rise their prices indefinitely if it ultimately deters people from suscribing to ESPN.
Don't quote me though, I absolutely don’t know what I'm talking about :cool:
 
It should surprise no one that this sort of thing had to come out at some point. It is essentially impossible to end up where the UFC has without such tactics, especially starting where the industry did. Like, they didn't get here ethically, and it will be decided whether they did so legally. I would imagine not. I'm not passing judgement. All promoters do scummy things. The UFC felt that they could get away with more than most promoters would try, and got a ton out of that gamble. We will see what happens next.

Also, a promotion managing to even be marginally profitable vs the UFC after PRIDE is...really freaking impressive. Looks like Coker warned them that it was the last chance that anyone would have to actually do this the traditional way. Now it is going to take tons of sport washing money.
 
DaleBoca said:
Strikeforce was a damn good organization. They had an eye for talent and just look at how many of their fighters became champions or became top level contenders. A damn shame it was bought out the Goofinator and the Mafiosi.
Click to expand...

I got into mma in the late 2000s and obviously UFC was the main thing but discovered Strikeforce soon, my first event was Fedor v Werdum. Had some great cards and the HW tourney was epic
 
jsbx45 said:
2 of 10 because of title. Jesus Christ, expect better of you TS. If I knew any better I would call you a noob. I should give you one out of 10 because TLDR. Come on man!
<LikeReally5>
Click to expand...

Lol I just copied the title from the bloody elbow article.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
1,237,110
Messages
55,468,028
Members
174,786
Latest member
plasterby

Share this page

Back
Top