RIO DE JANEIRO – UFC president Dana White is less than thrilled with a recent ESPN.com story detailing the financial struggles of UFC fighters.
He's downright incensed at the "spin" video he anticipates from the cable channel's forthcoming "Outside the Lines" piece focusing on the same subject.
So as you might imagine, the fiery UFC boss isn't staying mum on the subject. In fact, he's taking full aim on everyone involved in the project and promises a thorough reply which he says will truly set the record straight.
"I don't even have to see the completed piece," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) following Friday's UFC 142 weigh-ins in Rio de Janeiro. "They didn't even have to show up for the interview for me to know what they were doing. That's why I didn't do the interview. I refused. I turned it down. They wanted me and (UFC co-owner) Lorenzo (Fertitta). I refused and turned it down.
"I want nothing to do with ESPN's sneaky [expletive] 'E:60' and 'Outside the Lines' and all their crock of [expletive] shows. These guys come out with an agenda."
While White declined to talk to ESPN, Fertitta did accept the invitation, and he's among the featured subjects of the "Outside the Lines" piece, which debuts Sunday morning at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN2.
A preview clip of the episode focuses on UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock, who contends the UFC's practices of eliminating their competition have left fighters with few viable options.
"UFC has gone out and strategically bought out every company, or they cut the knees out from underneath them when they tried to get started by putting on shows while their shows were on, which is fine," Shamrock said. "There's nothing wrong with that kind of business, but when you get in that position, then don't use that position to hold the fighters hostage."
White offered little apology for his organization's practices while detailing precisely what he and the UFC did for Shamrock when he brought the MMA legend back to the promotion in 2006.
"This thing started making money in 2005, 2006," White said of the UFC's growth. "It's 2012. If you look at the money the guys made from 2006 to 2012, it's phenomenal what we've done. These guys are coming out, and they got Ken Shamrock. Are you [expletive] kidding me? You know how much money Ken Shamrock owes me?
"Ken Shamrock filed a bogus lawsuit against us and lost. He owes us that money. Do you know what I've done for Ken Shamrock? Ken Shamrock, when I brought him over, he was broke – flat [expletive] broke. He was in income-tax trouble. His knee was shot. I rebuilt his knee. I got him out of income-tax trouble, fronted him a [expletive]-load of money. We gave him money – literally gave him money – $60,000. We gave him $60,000 just to get him back on his feet. You know how much money he made in the two fights he fought with us? $2.5 million.
"[Expletive] you, Ken Shamrock."
Speaking to ESPN, Mixed Martial Arts Fighters Association founder Rob Maysey estimated that the median per-fight income for UFC fighters is currently between $17,000 and $23,000 and that the promotion likely only distributes 5 percent of its total income in the form of fighter pay.
White admitted he couldn't estimate the median income off-hand, but he scoffed at the notion the company wasn't appropriately spreading its wealth.
"We're right on par with the NFL, Major League Baseball, everybody, which is up in the 50s," White said.
White contends ESPN went on a mission to track down fighters willing to trash the company. According to the UFC boss, when many athletes instead had good words to say about the company, ESPN declined to air their thoughts.
"They went out and tried to talk to all these fighters," White said. "The fighters were calling us going, 'ESPN is here.' One of them notably was Matt Serra. Matt Serra said, 'They come in, they waste my [expletive] time, they set up all their cameras, and when I started giving the interview, they didn't like what I was saying. They shut the [expletive] thing down and left.' We had numerous fighters say that. They were calling me and saying 'ESPN is showing up and wanted to do an interview, and when they don't like what we say, they leave the interview.'"
It was this reality, White contends, that led ESPN to Shamrock.
"They had to dig so deep they had to find Ken Shamrock, the guy who ends up getting busted for steroids three times after he leaves the UFC," White said. "You couldn't find a more honorable, honest and great guy to come out and interview than Ken Shamrock? I have absolutely zero respect for Ken Shamrock. I think Ken Shamrock is a horrible [expletive] human being."
The interview with Fertitta was filmed in late July 2011 according to UFC officials. White said UFC cameras were also in the room, and he plans to use the footage to offer a full rebuttal following ESPN's debut of the "Outside the LInes" episode.
"I know how they operate," White said. "I've done interviews with them before. What we did is, when they filmed Lorenzo, we filmed them filming Lorenzo. We have the entire interview right there. It's pretty interesting to see how they're going to spin it.
"What I'm going to do is I'm going to watch their piece. Then I'm going to put out a piece with my interview to show how you can really spin it and make stuff look one way or the other. Then I'll show the interview in its entirety."
White said Fertitta also addresses the revenue-sharing issue during the interview, and he believes the UFC co-owner's words will speak volumes when heard in their entirety.
"When you hear Lorenzo's interview and what the facts really are, yeah, I don't even know how they can do this story without spinning it," White said. "That's why it took eight [expletive] months to do."
As a private company, the UFC is not required to open their accounting books to the public, and there is, of course, little value in such a move for the promotion. However, White said many of the issues he expects to be addressed in the piece have changed greatly since this past summer, and he looks forward to proving his critics wrong.
"A lot has happened since [Fertitta filmed the interview], so we're going to play the thing in its entirety and update everybody on what's going on," White said.
