http://msn.foxsports.com/boxing/story/9408882/W…
Dana White has long chirped that the Ultimate Fighting
Championship deserves mainstream media coverage.
Well, he’s got it now — but for every wrong reason
imaginable.
Dana White’s rantVideo: Dana White had some choice words for a
female MMA reporter about a recent story. See
the expletive-laden rant.
So what is this whole rant about? Check out the story that
sparked White’s attack.
The UFC president did far more than verbally
assault a female reporter Wednesday in a video blog entry. White
slurred women, homosexuals and the mentally disabled in the
obscenity-laced rant. The diatribe already was yanked from
UFC’s web site, but footage can still be
found across the Internet. Next up: News outlets (this one
included) that will salivate at the chance to show White at his
worst.
He swore around 35 times in a three-minute span. White seethed
about what he believed was an inaccurate article — or in his words,
“an absolutely (expletive) retarded story” — about UFC’s credentialing policy for fighters’ agents and
managers. He called Sherdog.com writer Loretta Hunt a “(expletive)
dumb bitch” among a litany of other insults. And he knocked an
anonymous source she quoted by using an anti-gay slur as well as a
slang term for female genitalia.
The video was so over the top that you half-expected White to
end the segment by saying, “April Fools!” Instead, White capped a
foolish tirade with an obscene gesture and one final F-bomb toward
Hunt.
Dana White presides over the UFC Fight
Night weigh-in in March. (ufc.com / Special to FOXSports.com)
In other pro sports leagues — the ones that White wants to have
the UFC mentioned along with — these are the
kinds of comments that would get a commissioner fired. I don’t
expect the promotion to take that step with White, who is a
part-owner of UFC’s parent company.
UFC, though, should use some of the
multimillions generated under White’s watch to purchase a
muzzle.
White is a bald version of hucksters like Don King and Vince
McMahon, shooting from the hip since taking the UFC reins in 2001. At times, it’s one of his most
endearing qualities in a sanitized sports world. This is someone
who didn’t have a shred of self-consciousness while conducting a
2007 news conference in a Dead Kennedy’s T-shirt featuring a
crucifixion scene. He’s also the same guy who later made sure to
hold open the elevator doors for two older ladies and press buttons
for their respective floors even though he was rushed preparing for
a UFC card in Cincinnati.
I’ve covered team owners and promoters like McMahon who I truly
consider rotten to the core. I don’t feel that way about White even
after this episode.
And perhaps surprisingly, neither does Hunt.
“I’ve had good experiences with Dana in the past,” Hunt told
FOXSports.com in her first interview about the video. “I still like
him. I think he’s done a lot of great things for the sport.”
His middle name really should be “Black and” because White views
the world that way. White is devoted to those who give blind
loyalty. Those who have questioned UFC’s
business practices, including legendary fighters like Tito Ortiz
and Randy Couture, have felt White’s verbal wrath. Hunt, a
long-time MMA journalist and author of
Couture’s autobiography, clearly falls into the latter
category.
White’s impact on mixed martial arts is just as clear-cut. His
vision and indefatigable work ethic have transformed a company on
the verge of bankruptcy into a burgeoning worldwide entity and
pay-per-view giant. When the UFC was under
previous ownership in the mid-1990s, MMA
bouts were barred in most states. White and partners Lorenzo and
Frank Fertitta saved the genre thanks to rules changes and the
targeting of young males. Now, more of that demographic is bound to
watch a live UFC fight than an early-round
NBA playoff game. Malls are filled with as
many teenagers wearing TapouT shirts as traditional sports
jerseys.
In the testosterone-fueled culture he has created, White’s
comments may not be considered over the line. Some insiders will
write it off as “Dana being Dana.” But in the big picture, those
aren’t the people that matter most.
The ones that do? Advertisers that might already be feeling
squeamish about being affiliated with an inherently violent product
and television executives who don’t want to deal with a
high-profile promoter spewing hate speech. The sport won’t grow
without the support of either party. Even with all the strides
UFC has made toward mainstream acceptance,
the quickest way to head back into the dark ages business-wise is
to have a spokesman who sounds like he is still living in them.
Hunt said she didn’t know White well enough to judge whether his
slurs were reflective of deeper personal biases. Regardless, they
are wrong.
The backlash may just be starting. The Gay and Lesbian Alliance
Against Defamation (GLAAD) already has publicly called upon White
to apologize. A UFC spokesperson said the
promotion had “no comment” when asked about White’s video.
Here’s what White should be saying while asking for forgiveness:
“I’m sorry to Loretta Hunt. I’m sorry to have embarrassed the
UFC. Sorry to have fed into misogynistic and
gay stereotyping. Sorry to have vented in a fashion that casts a
negative light on the entire MMA world.
“Really, really (expletive) sorry.”