Dana makes a fool of himself on MMAweekly

AikaImmortal · 02-20-2006, 01:43 PM

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/...=1600&zoneid=2

When a show on near its 60th even cant even pay as much as a show on its SECOND event.. theres something wrong with the picture. It seems like Dana wants the fighters to sacrifice decent pay and work a second job to make ends meet in return for getting 'mainstream' exposure, rather than pay them well.. esp a vet and good fighter like Chris Brennan.

What a prick.

SeikanJudanski · 02-20-2006, 02:03 PM

Notice how Dana tried to talk all professional at the beginning of the Interview, and then turned it into a bag of trash talking with F"§/king being every second word. lol.

Jras0001 · 02-20-2006, 02:29 PM

i dont know if many feel like me, but if it were me getting the chance to fight and i had the choice between the pennies they offered at the ufc and 5 times that at the gracie event, id take the gracie event also. i dont care if the entire world knew who i was as long as i was making a descent and respectable amount for the fighting i was doing. if you are good, and you perform, and you have skills, people will get to know who you are on their own just as easily as if you were fighting for the $50 bucks and case of Bud the ufc has been offering lately....

PghPens71 · 02-20-2006, 03:10 PM

"bah humbug" white strikes again

JoeRoganismyhero · 02-20-2006, 05:12 PM

You gotta love Dana White, "he should be in it(the fight game) to Win" yeah I guess he shouldn't worry about money because you take all of that!! Dana should be ashamed that the Gracie event was willing to pay Brennan 5 times the amount the UFC was!! I would have done the same thing if I was Brennan!

[Danny] · 02-20-2006, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jras0001

i dont know if many feel like me, but if it were me getting the chance to fight and i had the choice between the pennies they offered at the ufc and 5 times that at the gracie event, id take the gracie event also. i dont care if the entire world knew who i was as long as i was making a descent and respectable amount for the fighting i was doing. if you are good, and you perform, and you have skills, people will get to know who you are on their own just as easily as if you were fighting for the $50 bucks and case of Bud the ufc has been offering lately....

I actually agree with you.

rhtufts · 02-20-2006, 08:05 PM

Can someone paste the story here please? For those of us that aren’t MMA Weekly members.

Thanks!

[Danny] · 02-20-2006, 08:37 PM

It's on the main site dude. Both his and Brennan's interviews are under the daily news section.

AikaImmortal · 02-20-2006, 09:00 PM

Here is dana's portion. sometimes mmaweekly is screwy like that.

‘The West Side Strangler,’ Chris Brennan, made comments to MMAWeekly Radio about his negotiations with the Ultimate Fighting Championship regarding a rematch with Joe Stevenson on the April 6, Spike TV event. (To hear Brennan’s statements to MMAWeekly Radio, click on the radio archive).

MMAWeekly's Jeff Cain contacted UFC president, Dana White, and White responded to Brennan’s handling of the situation with poignant words exclusively on MMAWeekly.com

MMAWeekly: Chris Brennan said some things on our radio show. I don’t know if you heard them or not, but I wanted to give you the opportunity to respond to what he said.

Dana White: What did he say?

MMAWeekly: He said he had a fight with Joe Stevenson lined up for April 6, on Spike TV, but turned it down because the Gracie event offered him five times the amount of money. He said Joe Silva told him he was an idiot for accepting the fight. He also said Joe Silva told him if he took the fight in the Gracie event he was done with the UFC.

White: I think you should call Joe Silva and talk to him about it.

MMAWeekly: I plan to. I thought I would give you the first opportunity to respond.

White: Here is the thing. All I saw was what Chris Brennan wrote on the internet, which I think is chicken ****, and he should have called Joe Silva is what he should have done. At the end of the day, all this stuff is business, and he wants to jump out on the internet and attack a guy like Joe Silva. Joe Silva is a good guy, and Joe Silva loves this sport and loves the guys that fight in it.

He cares a lot about all these fighters. At the end of the day, a guy like Chris Brennan got offered an opportunity to come into the big show and fight Joe Stevenson, a kid who just won ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ And he’s beat him once. First of all, Joe told me. I didn’t know anything about the whole story. Joe told me that Chris Brennan got the contract and didn’t get back to him for a month. A month he sat on the contract. He never got it back to him, and then called him back and said that he was probably going to take this fight instead, the fight over in the Gracie thing, whatever they’ve got going on. So then I’m sure Joe was pretty pissed off that he had planned this fight, and Chris sat on this thing for a month. At the end of the day, and Chris said something like, I’m 34 years old, however old he is, and kind of made it sound like boo-who, I’ve got to do what is right for my family kind of thing.

MMAWeekly: He actually said this is probably the last year that he’d fight because his clothing company is doing really well.

White: His clothing company? What is his clothing company?

MMAWeekly: He has No Gi, not the same company that Vitor sported in the Tito fight. It’s the same name, and they’ve actually sued each other over it.

White: Beautiful. Welcome to my world. I’ve never heard of either one of them, Vitor’s or his. At the end of the day, he’s 34 or however old that he is.

MMAWeekly. He is 34.

White: If you’re a real fighter and you get offered an opportunity to come in and beat a guy like Joe Stevenson. You know what I mean? A huge opportunity. You know what I mean? A huge opportunity. Not to mention the fact that it would be live on Spike TV, and Chris Brennan beat him before. Just because Chris Brennan feels he is washed up and can’t beat Joe Stevenson, would rather go and take a different fight for the money; that is up to him. What he did, that is what is written all over it for me. He doesn’t feel like he can beat Joe Stevenson, and he even said in the thing something like that Joe is bringing me in to lose. Joe Silva doesn’t decide who wins and loses; Chris Brennan and Joe Stevenson do. You know what I mean?

MMAWeekly: Yes.

White: If you believe in yourself, and you believe, you know? Why are you really in this f#%king game unless it’s to win? Are you looking for a few extra paydays? Or are you in this f#%king thing to win, and to be somebody? See, that’s the thing where I completely disconnect with guys. You are either in this thing because you f#%king want it, and you want to be a winner; you want to be a world champion. If you’re in it for any other f#%king reason, go get a real job. Go sell No Gi T-shirts, and that is the decision that he made. But the bottom line is, at the end of the day, I don’t give a f#%k about what people say about me. I don’t care. Believe me. It doesn’t bother me one bit. But for a guy to jump on the internet and air that **** out, and lie about it, and f#%king lie. He lied because he said, I can’t remember what he said about the contract, but it was a lie. He had the contract for a month and never returned the contract. I can’t remember, but there were like ten lies in his whole story. Then Joe Silva called him on it. Joe said, why didn’t you ever call me? My phone broke. I lost my phone. You know? He was never even a man about it. At least be a man about it. Call Joe Silva and talk to him about it. Don’t jump on a f#%king public forum and start smashing Joe Silva and making him look like a bad guy. One of the things I’ll tell you about Joe Silva, Joe Silva is an honest guy who really does care about all these fighters. And it pissed me off.

MMAWeekly: I’m fortunate enough to have met Joe Silva, and he seemed like a stand-up guy.

White: He is a stand-up guy. He’s a nice guy. For Chris Brennan to jump out on a public forum and start bashing him is acting like a *****, and it pisses me off. You know what I mean? He is sitting there complaining; now I’ll never get in the UFC again, and I’ll never get a free ticket. Dude, shut the f#%k up. What the f#%k kind of crybaby **** is that? Give me a f#%king break. Jumping on a public forum like that, he should be f#%king embarrassed. He should be embarrassed.

MMAWeekly: So you’re saying he lied, and he handled this completely unprofessionally?

White: Completely. And Joe Silva is too good of a guy to jump out there and say something to him. I’m not. I’m not a f#%king nice guy.

MMAWeekly: So you did make that thread on the ‘Underground?’

White: Of course I did.

MMAWeekly: There was some question whether it was you or not.

White: Yea. It’s me. If I were you, I'd call Joe Silva and get the real story.

MMAWeekly: I will.

Dana White: Joe told me the real story today.

MMAWeekly: Dana, we just wanted to give you the opportunity to speak first on the matter. Thank you for the time.

White: All right buddy.

subgenius · 02-20-2006, 09:14 PM

Based on Dana White's spin doctor work, I think that he's right. I did not see him say that UFC fighters would work for peanuts and also have a day job. I did not read that into what he said at all. He gave Brennan that hypothetical choice to come to the UFC big show and big exposure (and I assume decent pay) or go sell No-Gi products -- not both.

Again, the real story may twist all around from what White said, but I have not seen the other side...

What did this mean: So you did make that thread on the ‘Underground?’ Was that about the fight now in the UFC or never again in the UFC thing? What thread?

AikaImmortal · 02-20-2006, 09:22 PM

White: If you’re a real fighter and you get offered an opportunity to come in and beat a guy like Joe Stevenson. You know what I mean? A huge opportunity. You know what I mean? A huge opportunity. Not to mention the fact that it would be live on Spike TV, and Chris Brennan beat him before.

and then

You are either in this thing because you f#%king want it, and you want to be a winner; you want to be a world champion. If you’re in it for any other f#%king reason, go get a real job.

How can you NOT see what he is saying?

Here is what Dana posted online.

http://www.mma.tv/tuf/index.cfm?ac=L...1&FID=1&pc=442

From: Dana White@Zuffa
Date: 02/17/06 01:21 PM
Member Since: 01/01/2001
1019 Total Posts Ignore User

chris, you are a liar, a crybaby and a punk. joe silva is to good of a guy to tell you in public. i'm not!

And here is the story from Chris Brennan.. i mean come on.. fight a top 5 guy like Shaolin and get paid more than you would in a THREE FIGHT CONTRACT fighting TUF guys in the UFC? He made the right choice.

Chris Brennan, ‘The West Side Strangler,’ will take on Vitor ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro on March 3rd in Gracie Fighting Championships (GFC): ‘Team Gracie vs. Team Hammer House.’ Brennan recently spoke with MMAWeekly Radio about his upcoming bout with ‘Shaolin, why he’s not rematching Joe Stevenson in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and more. To hear the interview in its entirety, click on the radio archive.

Brennan and Ribeiro square off in what is being billed as a “super fight” on March 3rd, in Columbus Ohio. Discussing the match up, Brennan said, “As usual, I’m the underdog. That’s all right with me. He is a good fighter. He actually has the kind of style that is bad for me. He is good at getting people down to the ground and being very slow and methodical and winning decisions. All I’ve been working on since my Takase in Pride was getting out from the bottom, you know, getting up and getting back to my feet, sweeping, something to get on top or get back to my feet; so hopefully that will work out here. I’ve got Pete Spratt that’s going to be here tomorrow. He is going to work with me for the next two weeks on my stand up, like always. That always helps. For this fight, hopefully he’ll try and test himself a little bit on the feet too, and give me another chance.”

Will there be any stand-up in this fight? Brennan thinks so. He said, “I hope so. My takedown defense is getting better and better. My wrestling is still ****ty, but I’m doing a decent job at stopping the takedown, so I’m hoping for that. He is no Olympic wrestler or anything. He’s got a good double leg, so I’m going to try and fight that off and swing for the fences.”

Brennan was question what he sees in Ribeiro’s game that he can exploit. Chris answered. “On the feet, I think I’m definitely better on the feet. Normally I’m fighting for my life to get to the ground because I’m either fighting a guy who is either taller, or has better stand up than me. In this fight, I feel I have 100% confidence on the feet, and I really don’t think he’s going to submit me on the ground. I know he’s got good ground, but he just fought last weekend against Eiji Mitsuoka and won a unanimous decision over three rounds. I submitted that guy twice in one round in Pride. I know B plus D doesn’t always equal C in this sport, but I think he is more of a decision fighter. I saw him fight in Shooto the night I fought Gomi. He took a guy’s back three rounds in a row and stayed there the whole fight, but never submitted the guy.”

Brennan was offered a fight with “The Ultimate Fighter 2,’ welterweight winner, Joe Stevenson. Brennan holds a win over Stevenson in King of the Cage 1: ‘Bas Rutten’s King of the Cage’ back in October of 1999. It’s a rematch that Stevenson wants, but Brennan didn’t accept the offer.

He told MMAWeekly, “Unfortunately for me and whoever else, I had a fight with Joe Stevenson lined up for April 6th, on the Spike show, but I was offered a fairly small amount of money. This Gracie deal stepped up, pretty much five times the money. I was told by Joe Silva that I was an idiot for taking that fight, but come on. I mean, it was literally five times what they were offering, so I had to go with it. It was unfortunate because I know Joe has wanted to rematch me for a long time, but the money that was being offered for a rematch with a guy I beat in two minutes, who now is their super hero, was not very good.”

MMAWeekly’s Ryan Bennett followed up by asking if he thought he would ever fight in the UFC Brennan answered. “No. He told me if I fight in this event I’ll be done with the UFC, so I guess I’m done with the UFC.”

What about fighting in Pride? Does Brennan think he’ll go back to Pride? He said, “I have a lawsuit actually going with Pride right now because my contract ended about a year and a half ago with two fights left on it, and they refused to pay me or put me in the ring. Now they’re offering to put me back in the ring, but then they’re saying that it may not be in Pride. It could be in SuperBrawl or something else, but I’ll still fight for the money that my Pride contract is for. I don’t care. Whatever. I just want to fight and get paid. This will probably be the last year I fight anyway. My clothing company took off and is doing really, really good. I’m married with three kids, and I’m actually moving to Dallas in June when the kids get out of school.”

Brennan has a clothing company entitled “No Gi,” but it’s not the same company worn by ‘Shogun’ Rua and Vitor Belfort. Brennan’s “No Gi” sued the Brazilian company with the same name. Brennan discussed the legal action taken by his clothing company and the result. He said, “We’ve had our company since November of 2003. November of 2003 is when we actually have record of it. We sponsored Grappler’s Quest in Vegas and whatnot. At the end of 2004, in December, they came on ADCC’s website and said that this is a new company, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Then Vitor should up wearing them. Well, our company had already been out there, but we didn’t have the huge dollars that they had to be throwing on all of the big fighters, so it wasn’t quite as seen. They filed for a trademark in Brazil fifteen days before we filed for ours here, but we showed that we were in business before them. Because we filed here first, they realized that they couldn’t do anything, so then they filed after us, about three months after us, in the United States as well. The only thing that could end up happening is they could continue to sell in Brazil, but not here. Now we have, and I forget what it is called. My attorney is taking care of it. We have something where at the border they will turn their products around and send them back to Brazil anytime they try to ship them into the U.S., which is cool.”

Brennan’s MMA career appears to be in its final stages. Fights in the UFC and Pride don’t seem likely, and he has a tough match with ‘Shaolin’ Ribeiro the first weekend of March. MMAWeekly contacted the UFC for a response to the comments Brennan made on the radio show. Check back with MMAWeekly.com Monday for the official UFC’s statements concerning Brennan’s comments.

subgenius · 02-20-2006, 09:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AikaImmortal

You are either in this thing because you f#%king want it, and you want to be a winner; you want to be a world champion. If you’re in it for any other f#%king reason, go get a real job.

How can you NOT see what he is saying?

Well, Dana White is a first class prick (if you will excuse my French). I am not disputing that, LOL. And, I see that he is twisting this all around as much as anyone else involved and more. But, I think that he is saying that a quick payday fight is a waste compared to the UFC, and that he was offering a lot more (which I doubt). But, Brennan said himself that he is about to retire. So, I have to agree with Brennan -- go for the money.

What you quoted seems like Dana spouting off his TUF speech to the fighters about how they should F'N want it and such. Is he serious about Brennan getting in line for a world title? Nah, Dana just wants to one-punk him as a can for Joe Stevenson. I am certain that the Joe Stevenson we see today is a lot better than what Brennan saw in 1999. Beat Joe now in two minutes? I do not think so...

JoeRoganismyhero · 02-20-2006, 10:08 PM

What dana basically said is that you can't make a living in the UFC so get a real job if money is your primary concern! He is unbelieveable!! it wouldn't hurt the UFC to make each fighter get a $10,000 minimum. and Rich Franklin still getting $13,000/$13,000 a fight is just criminal!

DrumzCT · 02-20-2006, 10:14 PM

How can they expect a fighter to be as dedicated as a professional athlete and compete at that level when they're getting paid such crap? On top of that, no thanking sponsors. It's freaking rediculous. Randy was getting 250k/250k when he retired right? Granted he deserved it but when you look at the opening fights it's just rediculous. You gotta pay these guys, every time a fighter steps in the cage/ring he's risking injury and not being able to A) train for his next fight and get paid or B) not being able to work his day job. This is the biggest hurdle MMA needs to jump right now. Pay the guys who make the shows possible for crying out loud!!!!!!!!!

[Danny] · 02-20-2006, 10:24 PM

Put it this way. Until another organization can compete with them in America, they will not fork out the money for the fighters, unless the fighters in the US MMA scene unionize.

With the UFC's television deal, they own the US, make that north america, when it comes to MMA.