Sit down, Dana, you just got OWNED…
Talk of poor working conditions and favouritism in the UFC has flared up again recently. There’s always been an underlying tone of alleged maltreatment by the world’s biggest MMA promotion.
Fighters like Conor McGregor, Ronda Rousey, Sage Northcutt and others are big sellers for the UFC. In promoting these athletes more than others, the UFC has left a trail of disgruntled employees in their wake.
One such frustrated fighter is former middleweight champion Luke Rockhold.
Luke Rockhold vs. Dana White
The first shot was fired by Luke ROckhold last week. As quoted by LowKickMMA.com, ‘Rocky’ got pissed when the UFC booked the title fight between Michael Bisping and Georges St-Pierre.
Although that fight is dead in the water, the feud with Dana White is burning:
“I don’t know, man,” he told Ariel Helwani on The MMA Hour when asked about his situation. “You can’t predict anything these days. So, [the UFC is] just chasing to pay off a debt really, is what they’re doing, trying to put these megafights together that don’t make sense. I don’t know. You never know what they’re going to do these days. Who knows.”
“If they’re not putting an interim title on the line, or if they’re not making Bisping fight a contender, I’m not fighting anybody,” he said. “And so should the rest of the division, too. What’s the point? Without me, Mousasi, Yoel, and Whittaker? I think everyone should just stand their ground, and say f*ck you. Put a title on the line or else, f*ck, you don’t even have a division.”
“I think everyone is already on strike, aren’t they?” he said. “We’re all waiting on a title. Whittaker’s down. I’ve voiced my opinion, and I think Mousasi should stand his ground too. I mean, without us you have no f*cking division. Make something happen.”
Dana Lashes Out at Rocky
“Listen, I was thinking about this when I talked to some of the media here yesterday: A lot of the guys are talking about deserve, deserve, nobody deserves anything. You have to earn it here, you know what I’m saying?” explained White during the post fight presser.
“These guys want to sit around, you got Rockhold screaming, “I deserve this…’ you got knocked out in the first round, you don’t deserve anything, you have to earn it and Maia earned it,” he added.”
The saga has continued, as Rockhold took to Twitter to absolutely decimate Dana White:
@danawhite “You have to earn your way in this company”? Tell me how did GSP earn a middleweight title shot? Think before you run your mouth
— Luke Rockhold (@LukeRockhold) May 16, 2017
As tension mounts between the top contenders and the UFC, you can’t help but feel a boilover coming soon. Bellator is always happy to welcome frustrated UFC stars, and Luke Rockhold could well be considering his options right now.
Fair Pay?
During an interview transcribed by FOX Sports, UFC president Dana White defended the promotion’s payment of fighters. As well as the previously mentioned title picture, compensation of athletes has been a controversial topic in the past:
“If you look at where the UFC came from and where we are today, the one number that’s gone like this (pointing up) is fighter purses,”
“There’s different level fights,” White explained.
When you fight on pay-per-view and you’re a star — basically in this sport you eat what you kill. So the guys that bring in the majority of the revenue, make the majority of the revenue.”
Below is a snippet of Dana wrecking another fighter, Nate Diaz, for ‘not being popular enough.’
Dana White-UFC President & ‘Promoter’
“Whatever his deal is, he’s got a pretty good deal.” White told Yahoo! “I mean, listen, at the end of the day, what is Diaz worth without Conor McGregor? I don’t know. The kid isn’t in a position for pay-per-view or any of that type of s—t. But this could put him in a position. If he fought Tony Ferguson, it would be for the interim title.
“Obviously, if you held the interim title, you would get a piece of the pay-per-view. Diaz has to put himself in a position to make the pay-per-view money.”
“It doesn’t change my life one way or another. People really like the Diaz brothers. When they get in there, they’re tough and gritty and they mix it up. They’re fun to watch and their interviews are fun, and funny. They’re popular guys. But at the end of the day, people are excited about guys who want to win world titles and they want to find out who [are] the best fighters in the world in each weight class. Those are the things that sell and those are the things that people are interested in.”
Nate Diaz’s response is below:
Nate Diaz Gives Zero F*cks
“If you’re trying to pull me out of a normal life right now, I’m not doing it for a fake title at 155 pounds,” Diaz told ESPN. “I told them I’d take the fight at 165 pounds, no belt. I’m not interested in losing a bunch of weight for no reason.”
“We never talked after that,” Diaz said. “It’s really not a problem for me, though. You’re trying to call me out of my life. I didn’t call you begging for a fight. I’m fine with taking a fight, but I’m telling you what it’s going to take.”
“Titles are manipulation,” Diaz said. “Titles and rankings are a controlling method. They want you to think you need a title to feel like you’re worth anything. I think, if you’re worth something, you’re worth something.
“You start believing in that title theory, you’ll be chasing one forever and living delusional.”
“He’s making stuff up because that’s what he needs to do. He’s trying to get me to argue with him, but there’s no argument necessary. It’s cool. If I’m not worth s—, why am I all over the news with people trying to figure out what’s what, when I’m not fighting?”
“If they call me with a nonsense fight, my number is $20 million,” Diaz said. “You call me with a fight that won’t do me any good, you need to pay me $20 million just to hear that bulls—.
“I have a contract, but that’s only for when I want to fight. That’s how that works, right? Right now, I don’t want to fight nobody.”
wrkd
wrd!
GSP’s past and what he has already proved what he’s capable of, to me is enough said. Who cares if diff weight division. To me UFC should go back to the old ways of no rounds or weight class. Reason I liked it before. It was realistic like what would go on in streets or war. Think two people who really wanted to fight in real life ever said “Shit!” To bad were diff sizes and the reason we can’t take this outside? lol.. Plus the round nonsense pretty well made the best fighting styles useless. By the time work for position rounds over, forcing it to be fought in a very non real world like scenario.
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