Dana White Promises 2017 Will Be ‘Dynamite’ Year For UFC
The UFC could be heading into the new year of 2017 without its two biggest stars of all time, as UFC featherweight and lightweight champion Conor McGregor won’t be competing until May after the birth of his first child; and former women’s bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey has stated that her bout with Amanda Nunes next month could be one of her last.
Despite being without ‘The Notorious One’ or ‘Rowdy’ to kick-off the new year, UFC President Dana White has been through this issue countless times before while losing great stars such as Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, and Georges St-Pierre to name just a few. Speaking to the LA Times last week, White still promised a ‘dynamite’ year for the promotion in 2017:
“Every day I walk in this office is a new day for the sport. This is what we do, what we are,” White said. “I’ve been doing this [stuff] for years, and I can tell you, 2017 will be dynamite. This is the … fight factory.”
“We’ve done this for 16 years, with a lot of big stars who couldn’t fight or moved on – Chuck Liddell, Anderson Silva, Georges St-Pierre. There’s not a day in this office I don’t get the question, ‘What are we going to do about this guy?’ Every day I turn around, I’ve got a reporter saying we’ve peaked,” White said. “If I listened to any of that, we probably would be done.”
Now that the UFC is under new ownership in the form of WME co-CEO Ari Emmanuel, however, White remains optimistic on the future of the company while calling Emmanuel a ‘fresh-eyed guy’:
“But I can tell you, we’re just getting started. Ari is a bright, fresh-eyed guy who’s just getting into this business, and he’s in love with it.”
Without McGregor or Rousey leading the helm into the new year, are White’s promises of a ‘dynamite’ year for the UFC realistic? Or will the company suffer without the star-power of their two biggest draws today?
Rousey’s next Octagon appearance will come against bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes for the 135-pound strap in the main event of UFC 207 live on pay-per-view (PPV), from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada on December 30, 2016.
