Dana White Says UFC Fight Pass Will Just Keep Getting Better
The new way to view non-PPV UFC events has started to take over; Fight pass has been widely discussed since the unveiling in the pre show at UFC 168. At $9.99 per month, UFC fight pass may not break the bank, but it is not exactly a welcome expense to an already expensive hobby.
Some critics labelled the move as ‘money grabbing tactics’, although many fans would argue that it is a great way to get tons of MMA content in one place. It comes at a time where UFC is starting to expand to a global market, arguably watering down many of its events and alienating certain fans.
Dana White commented on the launch of fight pass during his UFN 35 post fight scrum:
“Normally when you launch something, you’re going to have all kinds of problems and trying to work out the kinks and stuff. I was on a mountain in Wyoming and I couldn’t even get cell service and I watched a fight from China without one glitch — no audio, no video glitch. The thing’s just gonna keep getting better and better.”
“What we are hoping for is to have everything we own on there by the date when you can’t watch free anymore. Everything will be on there and what we’re gonna do is even though there’s issues — there might be an old tale of the tape that has a sponsor that shouldn’t be on there — we’re still gonna put it up, then take it down piece by piece and start to fix it while it’s all up there and continue to add more content over the next year.”
The question was raised after the reveal as to whether fight pass would catch on. All initial reports seem positive from the company, and ironically the launch date was mere weeks before the WWE launched their own online network.
“Good for him, I hope it works out for him and I hope it’s successful for them. He hates UFC, we don’t hate WWE. Sometimes it seems like it, I wish him and WWE nothing but the best.”
Although Vince McMahon and White have had their differences in the past, DW seems level headed when discussing his business rival. How long will it be before the UFC is the premium sport on the globe? At this rate, I doubt it will be too long.
Combat sports has evolved in and out of the cage, but is yet to be globally accepted. Perhaps the lure of huge amounts of revenue will help change the minds of the New York politicians once they see how the sport is growing. Or perhaps it will grow so much that NY doesn’t matter to Zuffa anymore.
