Dana White pushes back on idea of cross-promotion: “If somebody is really that good, and they’re in another promotion, they’re going to be here anyway.”
Dana White has recently given his explanation as to why the UFC will not do a crossover event with other MMA promotions.
Dana White’s Ultimate Fighting Championship was built from the ground up all the way back in 1993 and is known as the premier combat sports organization in the world. Amid the upcoming cross-promotional card of Bellator vs. Rizin, questions have been raised as to whether the UFC would put on an event similar to this.
Due to the UFC’s reputation and status as the premier MMA promotion, Dana White believes that cross-promoting with another organization is unnecessary. It is worth noting that the UFC may be the most prominent but is not the only large promotion in the world. Today, MMA fans can enjoy Bellator, Rizin, PFL, ONE Championship, Cage Warriors and more in addition to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
Coming very soon on New Year’s Eve, Bellator and Rizin will engage in a massive cross-promotional event at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokyo, Japan where we will see Bellator’s top fighters take on top counterparts of Rizin FF.
Dana White Offers a Plain Explanation
Dana White kept it very short and simple when explaining why he’s not interested in reproducing an event of this nature with the UFC’s involvement:
“If somebody is really that good, and they’re in another promotion, they’re going to be here anyway.”
While it would be exciting to see how another promotion’s top fighters would stack up against those of the UFC, Dana White’s reasoning is logical and understandable. The talent pool of the UFC simply trumps that of any other promotion in the world, therefore, there would be no reason for Dana to make the crossover event.
Dana White has grown Mixed Martial Arts as a sport since the UFC’s inception, and he plans on continuing to do exactly that. The focus for the UFC President is not expanding into untapped markets and new promotions, but instead internally growing the UFC and continue taking it to levels far and above those of competing organizations.
In the end, the upcoming Bellator vs. Rizin event will have little effect on Dana’s UFC, as the promotion believes they don’t need to depend on others to continue their exponential growth.
While it would be intriguing for fans to see a “UFC vs. Bellator” or “UFC vs. Rizin”, the idea is simply not on White’s radar.
Will Dana White change his perspective on doing a crossover event in the future? Do you think that a cross-promotional card would be beneficial to the UFC? And finally, how do you think that other promotions’ fighters would fare against the cream of the crop in the UFC?
