Tag: Dana White

The 300s Top 5 List of Who Should Replace John Skipper At ESPN

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As I am sure you have heard ESPN President John Skipper has stepped down due to all his male employees being perverts, declining ratings a substance addiction he wants to address. To that end, best of luck to him. Dougie is going to dive into the details of exactly what down at some point (it could be before or after this is posted, I don’t know, that’s our je ne sais quoi) but until then I figured I would take on the intriguing task of surmising who will be appointed to the helm of the Worldwide Leader In Sports. There is an endless list of viable candidates out there from the pedigree-perfect to the outside-the-box darkhorse types, so let’s check out a few of both, in no particular order.

1.) Drew Bledsoe

Wow, out of the gate a name no one expected. I know right now you think I’m pandering to the New England audience, those who giggle with nostalgia when they hear the name of the beloved 90’s Patriots QB1, but just stay with me here for a second. The fact of the matter is that both times Bledsoe was playing in a stable situation and got hurt and replaced, that back up became a star – in one case a franchise QB and in the other the GOAT. So the play here is to put Bledsoe in the driver’s seat but to promote, probably internally, a young gun into an EVP role so that when #11 becomes embroiled in scandal or has a lung collapse while he is walking from his office door to his desk chair, they’ll be ready to go and primed to become the greatest sports media exec of all time. Or Tony Romo

2.)Marissa Mayer

ESPN has been absolutely demonized lately as one of the worst places on earth for women to work. Just a horrifically misogynistic, sexist place. What better way to start rehabbing that image then to hire a female boss, and a well-known one at that. Now I know what you’re thinking, “But Joey B, Marissa Mayer drove Yahoo into the ground.” True, true she did, yes. But maybe if you surround her with a solid team of top flight subordinates to do things like “budgets” and “business strategy” the Engineer and Product Manager in Mayer could possibly create ESPN a future. Or maybe she’ll just tell everyone they can’t work from home anymore. Idk.

3.) Dana White

One of ESPN’s issues in terms of their declining ratings is that they are just completely out of touch with the newer generations. You know, my generation and the ones just younger than us. We mostly fall into two categories: those enraged with the student-loan soaked world our forefathers have left us with or those so fucking timid they need legit separate rooms at their college to hide in when they feel upset. Well, Dana White would solve the ESPN problem for the former. Instead of well thought out PR announcements and Capital-J Journalism strategies to address large and sometimes sensitive stories, DW would just yell, swear, and belittle Bristol back into the force of nature it once was.

4.) David Benioff and DB Weiss

Thissssss ones a stretch. These guys obviously have no executive experience. They actually don’t have any business experience as far I know. I mean if we’re going into “as far as I know” land they may not have any business acumen. These are the kind of naiveties we end up with when HBO gives two relative unknowns $50,000,000 and says “be cool if we got that back.” However we do know they have one thing: vision. They can depict battles. They can give us twists and turns. They can make incest seem romantic. Not only could they possibly give ESPN some future direction, but I’ve now talked myself into them being able to spin zone themselves out of any kind of quagmire they will undoubtedly be faced with. They might move a little slow though.

5.) The Mooch

This might seem to be low-hanging fruit but that just goes to show you how some bad press and a few satirical portrayals can cloud the other half of the story. Anthony Scaramucci has a BA from Tufts and his JD from Harvard (a lot of high-level folks in business get their JD, it’s just a good degree to have if you’re going to be on the exec level). He had a very successful career in investment banking and therefore is worth a fuck ton. He also is from the Met-NY/Tri-state area so would mesh well with the culture in Connecticut. There has been enough scandal in the Mooch’s life lately that he’d probably at least try to not do so much blow  lie low. There’s also sports fandom in his background, as he bought the jersey Piazza was wearing when he hit that national post-9/11 dinger and had it displayed in a couple of different spots including the Hall of Fame.

So there it is. A few candidates for the top job at ESPN which will inevitably go to someone from inside Disney. If that indeed becomes the case I vote for the guy who wrote and sang “You Got A Friend In Me” and all those other songs. At least shit will be happier over there.

 

Tyron Woodley Threatens To “Leak Some Shit” If He Doesn’t Get A Personal Apology From Dana White

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So after UFC 214 Dana White slammed Tyron Woodley’s performance for being boring. I saw it as more of an excuse to re-greenlight the GSP-Bisping fight but it was still some harsh criticism of a guy who just stuffed 21 takedowns. While White is not totally wrong, thus is the nature of a multi-disciplined combat sport. Weary of the one thing Maia could beat him with, putting him on his back and either submitting him or grinding him too a pulp, Woodley fought intelligently, defending takedowns and working the body and sometimes head as necessary. Watching from 300s HQ, I understood why people were pissed, but also understood Woodley’s game. That’s why the strap is still around his waist, after all.

As for his threats, they are interesting to say the least. First off this is NOT how you come to an understanding with Dana White. He has much too much pride and unbridled bravado to bow down to a fighter he is unhappy with, let alone one he believes may have cost him future dollars. Secondly, it is fun to wonder what this information”The Chosen One” has is. Allow me to take a few guesses….

1.)The McGregor Knockout Footage

I did a quick skim of a couple keyboard warrior message boards and this came up a few times – that maybe Tyron Woodley would leak video of Conor McGregor getting knocked out. I’m not sold on this though as it seems a stretch as to how Woodley would have come into possession of it.

2.)Some Shady USADA Shit

Given some interesting anomalies with how CyRoid and Brock Lesnar were treated recently, I wouldn’t be shocked if Woodley had some sensitive info pertaining to a few folks who popped positive for something but were given a pass. You see folks, a lot of people assume that since USADA has “United States” in the title that is either/or an official Government or another kind of organization of the utmost repute. Well surprise! It’s not. It’s a completely private company that has done sketchy shit in the past, including the infamous Floyd Mayweather IV scandal. Hmm, come to think of it, isn’t Floyd fighting a friend of Dana White’s soon?

Quick note on Lesnar – I could even see Brock, before UFC 200, straight up telling the UFC he was on a cycle and them kind of shrugging, putting Mark Hunt at risk.

3.)Gym Deals Or Otherwise Sketchy Promotional Tactics

I’ve said in the past the simplest answer is usually the right one, and this could be the case here. If fighter X from gym/management company Y fights on this date against this opponent, The UFC will do 1,2, and 3 for another fighter from that gym/management company. Something like that.

5.)Ignoring Concussions/Injuries

Another simple answer. Dana White and/or other members of UFC Management knew certain fighters were hurt and either…

-Made them/pressured them to fight
-Allowed them to fight when they shouldn’t have
-kept the knowledge secret longer then they should have in terms of the fighters opponent and the event, maybe for monetary purposes. Dillashaw vs. Garbrandt comes to mind.

4.)In-Fight Rigging

More and more recently certain fights, in and outside the UFC, have been accused of being works. Sonnen vs. Ortiz, for example. I want to go on the record as saying I don’t believe it but if Woodley could prove this, it would be explosive. Game-changing even. However, this would hurt Woodley as well as it would negatively effect the entity, and sport, that cuts his checks. That said, it’d be mighty interesting to find out that Correia Vs. Rousey wasn’t all it was cracked up to be or there was a reason CyRoid didn’t jump on Evinger when she first knocked her down on Saturday (WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THAT?!).

All in all it is going to be a VERY interesting to see how this all plays out. After a long period of frustration with how he is treated, Tyron Woodley seems to finally have snapped. With that said he is waging a war against a man with a ton of experience fighting his battles publicly, which is never an edge you want to give.

The 300s UFC 214 Fight Week Primers – The Curious Case of Barao vs. Sterling

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Image result for barao sterling
You ok my man?

 

As I mentioned before this card is fuckin staaAAAAaaaAAcked so I’m going to write a little about it each day (nerdgasms everywhere) and then do the usual preview Friday. Today I’m going to cover why in the 7 kingdoms two guys from the same weight class are fighting at a catch-weight.

UFC 214 in now upon us and one fight on the FXX prelims is particularly intriguing not just for the fight or fighters, although those two things are quite firestarters themselves, but for the regulations surrounding the bout.

In the second to last fight of the prelims, Aljamain Sterling faces Renan Barao in a – I hate using this word but it fits here – pivotal fight at…..not 135 pounds. We’ll get to that in a second. First our fighters.

Sterling is coming off a win over Augusto Mendes (UD) after dropping two in a row to Bryan Caraway and Rafael Assuncao, both by decision, and split decision at that. Sterling thought he won both fights, which he has a case for, particularly in the Assuncao fight. To play devil’s advocate, Sterling maybe should see this as a sign he needs to go for the finish more and not play it so safe, but either way it got bad enough that at 27 and as one of the better prospects in the division, he said he was prepared to walk away from MMA had he not got the nod over Mendes. Now that he did, he looks to take a giant leap back to contendership by besting the former champion, and, sort of, returning Barao.

As I just alluded to, Barao, almost, returns to the bantamweight division after a two fight stint at featherweight. Having gone 1-2 in his last 3 bantamweight fights, losing twice to the then-champion T.J Dillashaw, Barao decided to stop wreaking havoc on his body cutting to “35” and try 145 on for size. He saw mixed results, getting outpointed by former 155er Jeremy Stephens before taking a unanimous decision from Phillipe Nover, albeit in lackluster fashion. Not seeing the returns he was hoping, Barao decided to take his talents back to the division he did not lose in for almost a decade. There was one small hiccup awaiting him, as you may have picked up on me ominously hinting at.

UFC 214 takes place at the Honda center in Anaheim, a city located in California. California has an athletic commission, like most if not all states do (you know my opinion on research. I just know not every last area they hold fights in has one). An athletic commission is a state’s governing body over, mainly, combat sports and it’s participating competitors. Basically, they make sure every fighter follows its rules and follows them the same way. In May, California’s decided to put its money where every other state’s athletic commission’s mouth was and pass very strict regulations pertaining to weight classes and more importantly weight cutting. As I detailed in my write up on Chris Weidman (I was pretty fuckin wrong about him huh?) severely dehydrating yourself to make weight can have a very negative effect on performance. What I left out (to not distract from the story, #writing) is that it is also dangerous as all holy hell. Just check out this article on former welterweight Brian Melancon who had to retire from MMA because weight cuts basically almost shut down his kidneys. So California said no mas. Beginning, June 15th fighters had to, among other things, weigh in 30 days out from their fight to make sure they were in reasonable cutting distance from their scheduled fight weight. They also added that if you gained more than 10% of your weigh-in weight back between weigh-ins and the fight, you’d be asked very politely to move up in weight. Basically, California is no longer fucking around.

Here is we arrive at our Barao-Sterling curveball. Renan Barao has to basically kill himself to make 135. It’s well documented. He even had to pull out of his first rematch attempt with Dillashaw because he passed out standing up or something. It’s sickening to think about. Guess where that failed weight cut occurred? That’s right, the Sunshine State. So with all this documented in front of them California straight up told him they would not license or allow him to fight at 135lbs and the fight was moved to a 140lb catch-weight, with Barao’s 135lb future, at least in California, to be reviewed at a later date depending on how 140 goes.  The whole situation puts Barao’s career in a weird place as if he is never allowed to fight at 135lbs in California again he may be forced to go back to 145 for financial and promotional reasons. It also sort of puts the UFC in a pickle in terms of being at minor odds with an athletic commission, which they do not like to be as AC’s tend to band together and could make the UFC’s life harder than it needs to be.

All in all, it has made a very interesting fight matter a slight bit less as it isn’t being fought in an actual division. However that is a shitty way to look at what might be my MMA Nerd Fight of the Night come Friday. The perennial “almost” there vs. the prodigal son. It’s gonna be a fun one, as long as Barao wins his fight against the scale to get there.

This Week In MMA and UFC

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UFC 214 is next week and is a STACKED card so instead of just putting out something next Friday or peppering in periodic updates, starting Monday I am going to use the entire week to cover it, save a quick peek you’ll find below. That leads to a pretty non-eventful few days over here on the MMA blog, but there are a few items of note to mention.

Brock Lesnar Returning?

This JUST broke yesterday evening. Twitter provocateur and MMA scoop ninja “Dizz” came out of America’s heartland to state that Brock Lesnar met with the UFC during International Fight Week, entered USADA’s testing pool, and will be returning to the Octagon. The UFC would obviously be all for a Lesnar return as he is an enormous draw, but it is a head-scratcher as to why Lesnar would do it, as he makes plenty of money on limited WWE appearances and has never seemed to really love professional fighting. I suppose his relationship with WWE could have soured again or something. Either way somehow Dizz is usually if not always fucking right so keep an eye on this.

https://twitter.com/TalkMMA/status/887612744060612608

Conor McGregor KO’d In Sparring?

Honestly either way this is much ado about nothing either way. Sometimes you just get caught, as many fighters have attested.

That said, the story went that two high-level pro boxers, Brandon Rios and Jessie Vargas, had come out and said they knew for a fact Conor had been KO’d in sparring, or something. Then Vargas came out and said he knew nothing and never said he did, or something. Then the picture below surfaced which clearly shows…something. Again, no matter which way you slice it it shouldn’t change anyone’s opinion of the fight. When highly trained grown men are swinging on each other, once in awhile someone is going to go down.

The Jon Jones/DC Social Media Beef Continues

I once threw down $10 on roulette in a small Indian casino in middle-of-nowhere New Hampshire in hopes it would grow to $50 to buy the PPV and watch DC-Jones I. I pulled it off and watched the fight, the disappointment cascading down my spine as Jones lackadaisically toyed with a mentally burnt-the-fuck-out DC. I am trying to stay hype for DC-Jones II as on paper it could be one of the best ever, but shit like you see below makes me not want to even watch as it is not only annoying, but evidence we’re probably going to see a repeat of the first fight.

Dana White’s “Tuesday Night Contender Series” Seems Pretty Cool, I’m Still Not Buying Fight Pass

So every Tuesday this summer, Dana White will put together five or so fights made up of contenders from regional promotions around the country with the possibility that one or more of the more impressive combatants will be signed to the UFC. This is a really cool idea and the fights have seemed to be really entertaining, especially considering the commentary is provided by Urijah Faber and Snoop Dogg. However, and I’ll admit I don’t know how TV deals work, I’m skeptical that there is really something so important going on that FS1 can’t air “DWTNCS” rather than it. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to finally get me to order UFC Fight Pass, but this isn’t it.

Anderson Silva Calls Out Nick Diaz Because Sure, Why Not

I’m not a psychologist, but it would seem Anderson Silva, who I regard as the GOAT for what it’s worth, is having just as much trouble letting go of the spotlight and prestige of being a prizefighter as he is the actual act of getting in the cage and competing. This week, he is trying to bait Nick Diaz to come out of unofficial retirement and rematch him, as he knows this is a run-back Diaz himself has even pined for in the past. The problems number two, one being that this fight lacks any of the intrigue or relevance the original did and two, even more importantly, Diaz has not only shown an apathy for the fight game but is kind of in a bit of shit with USADA for not telling them where he is….4 times. After a life of not exactly loving being punched in the face, Nick Diaz has figured out a way to support himself by showing up places as Nick Diaz, and I don’t know if anything would make him give that up to train for and participate in a fight. However, if anyone could lure him back, it would be Anderson

Cain Velasquez Is Returning To Fight Stipe Miocic In October?

Back in March Cain Velasquez’s coach said the oft-injured former Heavyweight champ was rarely training and didn’t seem to be in a rush to resume his MMA career. Dana White has said himself in the past that when you stop giving a fuck to that extent maybe it’s time to pack it in. At 35 with more injuries than I care to even add up all over his Goddam body on his resume, maybe Velasquez is done.

OR MAYBE, as reported a couple days ago on bjpenn.com, which shoots about 50% from the line, Cain Velasquez is returning to face Stipe Miocic for the title at UFC 216 In October. Although I know I JUST speculated Cardio Cain could be finished with his career, making this bout would not be as unlikely as it seems. Velasquez was last expected to fight for belt last February, beat Travis Browne (before we realized he was spent) in July, and was supposed to fight Werdum in December before the NSAC was like, “bro, you are wayyyy too fucked up to fight“. Basically if he has healed enough legally he could be good to go. And you know what the crazy part is? He could pull it off.

 

I Have A Mild Clue What Is Going On In The UFC

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Editor’s Note: Introducing Danny Coughlin, who will be our resident MMA guy covering everything from the UFC to the upcoming mega-fight between Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor.

So, a year in it doesn’t take a genius to see things in the largest, and yes, most talent laden MMA organization are just different. It’s a straight up Wizard of Oz situation in terms of exactly why or who is causing it to be this way. Maybe it was like this during the Zuffa era (The Fertittas as owners, Dana White ostensibly had more direct power/say) but I feel like we got to know that regime enough to kind of be able to deduce why they made certain decisions. Not the case with the new owners.

At a high level, or maybe more accurately at a fundamentally business level, there are two separate strategies that are most likely to be causing these changes. One would be if WME-IMG were looking at their new property as a straight up M&A situation. Here they would cut costs by making such moves as reducing non-essential staff (they have) while trying to jack up revenue, which nets out a ballooned profit, which would allow them to flip the company for a higher price than they bought it for. This would also explain letting some non-headliner/PPV buy-driving but subjectively expensive fighters walk to places like Bellator without a fight while putting on more, but (probably, I aint into research) cheaper  (or “watered down” as some bitter fans like to call them) shows. Again, less costs, more revenue.

The other business strategy is just to put together a long term earner of a business, which I think would seemingly be (see below) the more plausible scenario here. Let’s face it – it would take God-fucking-knows-what to make the UFC that much more valuable than $4 billion dollars in order to flip it for a profit when you take into consideration things like interest. On the flip side, putting on a larger amount of cheap, entertaining-enough-to-make-a-solid-nut shows to keep the cash flowing in? Throwing a few top-heavy/pomp-heavy Conor/Jon Jones/Diaz ragers  every year to churn some serious cheddah? Could work….

RECORD SCRATCH. What throws a wrench into strategy/idea two is the fact that if WME-IMG just wanted a profitable ATM of a business then why the fuck would they change what they inherited – A business and entertainment model/example that grew in value from $2 million to $4 BILLION in a fairly short amount of time – in the first place?

The answer to that question is most likely the answer to the overall question of “what the fuck in general is going on?” And the answer is our old friend ego. The same ego that made Bernie Madoff think he could endlessly swindle people out of 31231 kajillion dollars. The same ego that made good ol’ Eldrick Woods think he could piss on every hooker whose named ended in “i” within a 100 mile radius of Jupiter, FL. The same ego that made Det. The Rock and Samuel L think they could survive a quick 20 story leap off a building to expedite chasing down a perp. WME-IMG brass might not have the public swagger of Dana and Lorenzo, (and Frank, Joe Silva, etc.) but remember figurehead Ari Emanuel is the guy they based ARI FUCKING GOLD on. This is more than dollars and sense to him too, just like the Zuffa boys. But different men mean different egos. And WME-IMG want to succeed in their own way.

The best, and most entertaining IMNSHO, way to explain it would be to compare the egos of Moe Green and Michael Corleone. Moe Green wanted to prove to everyone he had the biggest dick and the most cash. He was flamboyant (Mayweather-McGregor), he was stubborn (Letting multiple top-10 guys walk). He cared less about his reputation (fighterpayfighterpayfighterpay) among his peers and the public than he did his bottom line. He rubbed the list of those bottom line accomplishments in everyone’s faces. WME-IMG and Ari might be plotting to do just that.

Michael Corleone was serious, surly even. He was a bit petty, sure (Dana), but in the end he not only wanted to be rich, which he sure as fuck did, but he wanted to be seen as legit (Zuffa) and build the biggest and baddest organization of it’s kind the world had seen. Kind of like how Zuffa stared across the pacific at Pride, tugged on it’s balls and put the UFC on it’s back. Pride fell. Strikeforce fell a few years later. The UFC were the undisputed kings of the realm.

In the end, only time will tell what WME-IMG’s end game really is. This is all just blogger speculation. It’s worth noting that should it happen, it wouldn’t be the first time the Fertitta’s had sold a business only to buy it back once the buyer realized they couldn’t run it as well. The question is by the time WME-IMG sets its strategy in place, will the UFC, or Bellator, or someone new, be the family in charge?