Dana White hates the idea for next season's TUF

[Soulrise]

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/ufc/article1883149.ece

Speaking exclusively to SunSport, White said: "I said from day one I hate the UK v USA idea.


"It's dumb, I don't like it — it's not USA v the UK, we're looking for the best fighter in the world.


"We put on a card one time, the USA v Canada, it was f***ing retarded.


"I don't care if you're from the UK, Croatia or Brazil because at the end of the day, when Michael Bisping comes to America — Americans don't boo him.


"When GSP comes down and fights in the US more people cheer for him than the guy who's from America!


"When Tim Sylvia from the United States fought Antonio Nogueira from Brazil, everybody booed Sylvia on the way in and cheered for Nogueira. The reason is because in this sport it's not country versus country.


"You either like the guy's fighting style or personality — nationality has nothing to do with it."

[FieldingMellish]

Good old Dana has some exceptionally selective memory here. Or maybe he was just plain drunk while doing this interview.

The Nogueira fight was one of the very, very few occasions Tiimmy has actually been cheered since 2004.

Bisping is exceptionally popular in the UK and not so appreciated anywhere else.

GSP is now established as a star and somebody that UFC fans will cheer for because of that but it was hilarious that for a long stretch of shows, he'd be booed by US crowds during entrances and introductions and would then win them over by annihilating his opponent. Then he'd have to start the entire process all over again 3 or 4 months later when he had his next fight.

And most telling of all, if Anderson Silva were American, he'd be pulling at least 500,000 - 600,000 PPV buys every time out. His best EVER showing is around 400,000.

[Ross Ellis]

Makes sense though.

Although it's interesting to see teams or countries' teams fight each other. Those usually are pretty sweet. At least back then when styles differed very very much.

[Kenshin]

I have a question:

Anybody know how often a Title Fight was held in the UFC without any US-Americans involved?

[EckY]

I have a question:

Anybody know how often a Title Fight was held in the UFC without any US-Americans involved?

Silva vs Cote is the only main event/title fight in Zuffa history that didnt have an American.

[Kenshin]

Silva vs Cote is the only main event/title fight in Zuffa history that didnt have an American.

I think this proofs that nationality DOES play a role. Don't get me wrong, i think the US-Americans have a awesome MMA-Scene and a lot of strong fighter but not that dominating!

[Lord Gaul]

I think that Dana is worried that the American fighters are going to get showed up in the drinking department by the Brits, thus diminishing his TUF theme of best fighting drinkers in the world. I understand Dana, you can cry on my shoulders buddy. Nothing wrong with number two in one MMA related area.

[miscmisc]

FM is absolutely right in terms of facts. What Dana says is utter BS. Many, many fans do care about the nationalities.

However, when one says, "this is such, that is such, they do this, they do that," one doesn't necessarily mean that they are all facts. "You do that" is not necessarily stating a fact, but can be simply telling/asking "you" to "do that." Of course, Dana simply lied about certain facts of the past, of which he is probably fully aware, so that principle can't be fully applied here. But he is a well-known revisionist anyway, and the sentiment behind it is all the same. Politicians do this all the time.

The only point Dana is trying to make is that country vs. country is dumb in MMA. He's simply sending to the people the message that they SHOULD agree with him on that and MUST behave that way, instead of flat out saying they are dumb for not buying Anderson's fights due to his nationality (he can't talk shit about his customers straight like that, obviously). He is clearly irritated by the "fact" that Anderson Silva doesn't draw as much as he would like.

I think country vs. country can be fun if done properly, though. So I'm not sure if I fully agree with him.

[Jarzi]

Nationatility matters as much as in any individual sport which is quite a bit.

[( o Y o )]

Dana is just pumping things up.....

[majorcunningham]

i dunno about anyone else but im a bit worried that we are gonna get beaten badly by the yanks in this. admittedly i dont keep up with the british mma scene anymore but with the size of the american talent pool compared to us im a bit worried that this could turn into an embarassing whitewash... not to mention the ego trip that this might be for america. hope im wrong tho :)

[gols]

He should be more worried that the show is just gonna be the same UK striker Vs USA wrestler over and over again, and we all know what the outome of those fights are.

[Soulrise]

What I don't understand is how much power Zuffa has in decision making versus the Spike execs. If Dana really hated the idea that much is he so powerless in TUF decisions that he couldn't have vetoed the idea?