Would the UFC today be better off without Dana White?

Would the UFC today be better off without Dana White?

  • Total voters
    187
I think it's easier to imagine what a good president would be like than actually pick one. Dana brings controversy and people who hate/love him care to tune in to hear his views and what he says. You can always choose a safer one like Coker, but people are going to be bored and tune out at how he dodges hard stances. Dana gets people talking and debating, which probably draws in more people. He's built such a brand for himself, you have to think how many fighters have come and gone since he was president, he's stayed in and been a constant. End of the day, WME makes all the decisions and Dana just makes it look like he was in charge of them so he takes the heat for the bad ones. Not saying he can't be replaced because he will one day, but they need to pick someone that has some personality that can engage people like Dana does.
 
Yeah,the promotion is suffering from bad marketing ideas and lack of quality promotion. When a current champion, Islam Makhachev says you're not covering one of the most important fights of all time properly, you know there is a problem. They lack the right marketing strategies to attract casual interest to the vast majority of cards. They could have more fight night/ quarterly year press conferences, opponents doing 1 on 1 interviews and a plethora of other things but Dana is all about power slap and doesn't give a fuck about the UFC since the Zuffa deal. He seems like a president/promoter in name only and just delegates responsibility to people who have no passion for the business. They rely too much on their current stars while not giving up and coming fighters the platform to appeal to the casual audience. When all their current stars leave, there won't be anything left to drum up interest.
 
NO.

Yall are crazy.

This man does alot of shit behind the scenes to make all the best fights.
 
Dana obviously has his issues, personally and professionally.

That said, they need to avoid mistakes like orgs do with coaches and general managers all the time. Getting rid of the bad doesn't always = getting something better.

DC has been tossed around a an option, but he is a wrestler and fighter, not exactly big business CEO stuff imo. Campbell's name has been tossed but a lot think he's not meant to be the face of it all.

I'm not saying nobody else can do the job, or that Dana is great (although he has done a ton for it, like him or not) - just don't want to see it end up worse just to get Dana gone.
 
Better the devil you know, probably. Could they better off? Maybe. Would they? Hard to say.
 
Absolutely, then we can go back to the best fighting the best and maybe have someone who actually promotes instead of trash talking fighters. We would also have more guys become draws more naturally. Similar to how Leon Edwards has become a draw despite Dana White.
 
noizer said:
I think at this point the ufc could use a better and more professional face for the company.

Its not like Dana is making the big decisions these days but if they really want to clean op the sport they could start with a frontman who doesnt act like a spoiled kid with all this controversy surrounding him and who throws his own athletes under a bus whenever he feels like it.

I think a spokesperson like Brian Stan or Rich Franklin would be a solid replacement.
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Someone honest, morally upright, does everything by the book and has a clean image isn't exciting.

Dana being so rough around the edges and polarizing, someone you love to hate, it adds a lot to the value he brings to promoting fights and the overall brand.

Like Dana himself says, you need the "it" factor. And you either have it or you don't.

Dana has it.

It's no different than when fighters play the role of the villain or heel. That love or hate quality they try to create.

It's that extreme of emotionality which gets people so invested.

You could bring in a guy who does everything by the book, but he wouldn't have what Dana has.

The business and stuff being done behind the scenes is easily replaced. But not the personality itself.
 
Yes, time for a change. He looks bored with it all anyways
 
The funniest shit about this place is that people think shit would actually change if he was gone. Like overnight Fighters will get more money, uniforms will be thrown away, fighters will have a seat at the table and we'll all hold hands and sing together.

Only shit that would change is the face of UFC wouldnt be Dana at a press conference, it would be someone like Reed Harris or a Scott Coker type who has no personality and nobody cares what they say.

Maybe thats what sport needs. Less of the tapout wearing, dropping f bombs one of the boys and more of a commission like other sports have.

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He's a little fiesty.Besides that he doesn't really do anything special and has the major flaw of being petty amd shady. We're just used to him, but there's plenty of people that can do a just as good or better job
 
Maybe, maybe not. Will getting rid of Dana all of a sudden mean that we don’t get watered down cards? No, it won’t. Dana giving Colby a title shot is wrong and maybe Dana’s replacement wouldn’t have done it, but that’s a very minor change/improvement compared to how poor the product has become. Nothing will change as long as the UFC needs to churn out almost weekly cards - the sport isn’t big enough to sustain weekly cards unless you are content with regional fighters filling up the main card.

So who cares if Dana is gone or not, it’s not like the product would radically improve.
 
I voted “I have no idea”, because no one here knows what his job entails.
 
MXZT said:
No question he has done a lot for the UFC through the years, but I think his mojo is dying. Dana I believe reached his peak with the UFC years back. And it's time to move on with someone else in the helm.

Not sure who, but hopefully someone who make the UFC bigger and better.
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I think people will look back and realize that time to get rid of Dana was somewhere between coming up with the idea for Power Slap and hitting his wife.
 
Shilajit said:
Someone honest, morally upright, does everything by the book and has a clean image isn't exciting.

Dana being so rough around the edges and polarizing, someone you love to hate, it adds a lot to the value he brings to promoting fights and the overall brand.

Like Dana himself says, you need the "it" factor. And you either have it or you don't.

Dana has it.

It's no different than when fighters play the role of the villain or heel. That love or hate quality they try to create.

It's that extreme of emotionality which gets people so invested.

You could bring in a guy who does everything by the book, but he wouldn't have what Dana has.

The business and stuff being done behind the scenes is easily replaced. But not the personality itself.
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I get your point i honestly do.

What the ufc fans want is not a real sport where rankings matter. They want sports entertainment, A circus where the biggest loudmouths get titleshot after titleshot. Where the big boss is a huge rockstar himself.

In this case they better fire Dana and bring in the Mcmahon family. Mma has always been tightly connected with PW and the Mcmahon's are basically PW royal family. I am sure they can make an even bigger circus out of the ufc.
 
He was a perfect fit for the grungy edgy early era of the 00s onward. But as time passes his style of doing mob style business and how he treats the fighters isn’t aging well.
I’d say the beginning of this year with the whole slapping controversy was a perfect time for the company to part ways with him and establish some new blood. I don’t really know yet who is a good fit for the company, but for better or for worse I think Dana White has become a bit dated.

To be clear I’m not championing for a morally better replacement who is gonna lie about paying fighters better or change the game (We all know this is a circus), I just think we could find a better figurehead that can represent the UFC in the modern era.
 
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AmbassadorFright said:
Yeah,the promotion is suffering from bad marketing ideas and lack of quality promotion. When a current champion, Islam Makhachev says you're not covering one of the most important fights of all time properly, you know there is a problem. They lack the right marketing strategies to attract casual interest to the vast majority of cards. They could have more fight night/ quarterly year press conferences, opponents doing 1 on 1 interviews and a plethora of other things but Dana is all about power slap and doesn't give a fuck about the UFC since the Zuffa deal. He seems like a president/promoter in name only and just delegates responsibility to people who have no passion for the business. They rely too much on their current stars while not giving up and coming fighters the platform to appeal to the casual audience. When all their current stars leave, there won't be anything left to drum up interest.
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The problem with this is that it assumes Dana has more power than he does.

He owns a small piece of the company.

One man in a 100+ person team of executives.

The bulk of decision making isn't done by him.
noizer said:
I get your point i honestly do.

What the ufc fans want is not a real sport where rankings matter. They want sports entertainment, A circus where the biggest loudmouths get titleshot after titleshot. Where the big boss is a huge rockstar himself.

In this case they better fire Dana and bring in the Mcmahon family. Mma has always been tightly connected with PW and the Mcmahon's are basically PW royal family. I am sure they can make an even bigger circus out of the ufc.
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Dana doesn't have as much power as anyone thinks he does. He's the front guy, just like the president of the USA or many political leaders.

The decision making is done by hundreds of suits and shareholders behind the scenes.

Dana plays a role, but If you really wanted to change those things, you'd have to uproot and replace WME.

I get what you're saying completely and maybe in a different world things would be different.

Unfortunately this isn't grounded in how things actually are in the entertainment and at the end of the day, this is a business.
 
I think Hunter Campbell is the real pitbull of the company.
 
noizer said:
I get your point i honestly do.

What the ufc fans want is not a real sport where rankings matter. They want sports entertainment, A circus where the biggest loudmouths get titleshot after titleshot. Where the big boss is a huge rockstar himself.

In this case they better fire Dana and bring in the Mcmahon family. Mma has always been tightly connected with PW and the Mcmahon's are basically PW royal family. I am sure they can make an even bigger circus out of the ufc.
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I would also add that Dana isn't reinventing the wheel here. As a promoter, he's adopted a similar formula that has been used in combat sports since the days of early boxing.

It's always been a circus. It's the entertainment industry. They'll make the moves they feel are necessary to sell the most tickets and put asses in seats.
 
UFC generated 20% more revenue in 2022 than 2021.

(and no 2021 wasn't a covid lowball, 2021 was another signifcant jump on 2020).

To shareholders, board etc he's killing it. A few fans are whining. A few fans are alway whining. Fans are definitely still paying.

What would be really interesting is seeing numbers of new subscribers/new fans/increase in viewers or interest or increase in name recognition of UFC stars among people who identify as "Sports Fans".

Increased revenue is one thing- can be generated through increased efficiencies, better broadcast or sponsorship deals, squeezing more $ out of existing fans or increasing the business/fan base. It's the latter which will drive even further room for impressive growth by also opening ways to increase all the former- while the if only the former drive the increased revenue it hit limits sooner or later.

So by some numbers- Dana looks to be doing a great job. But I'd be really interested if anyone searches up any of the other stuff mentioned.
 
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