Dana White says UFC will use Fox Deal to educate the masses
Posted on August 23, 2011, 09:31 PM by Trent Reinsmith
While UFC President Dana White’s main focus in the coming days is Saturday’s UFC 134 event in Brazil, running a close second is the seven-year deal the promotion recently signed with FOX Sports. The network television deals puts the UFC and MMA on the same playing field with the other major US sports.
However, being on the same playing field doesn’t mean that they’ll get in the game, a fact that White is well aware of. The LA Times reports that White told the UFC staff last week, “We're not mainstream yet. Now's the time to dig in and work. If we pull this thing off, we will be mainstream."
Since Zuffa LLC purchased the UFC in 2001 they have seen significant growth in both revenue and fan base, with most of that growth coming slowly over time. The signing with Fox opens the door to fast growth through television viewers that may be entirely new to the sport, a fact not lost on White.
"We live in a bubble in our [UFC Las Vegas] offices and take it for granted people know what armbars, guillotines and triangle chokes are -- nobody knows what this [stuff] means. We have to view [Fox programming] as if nobody knows anything about this sport, that people die in this cage.”
"We're going to educate the masses, treat it like nobody knows who we are. I think our [hardcore] audience understands that's necessary." - full story at LATimes.com.
Further Reading: UFC signs multi-year agreement with Fox Sports
Comments
Hopefully. So tired of TUF Fanboys.
I remember seeing Rashad on a late show the other night. They showed his knockout of Chuck Liddell and the crowd gasped like they just saw someone get murdered. I think I even heard someone vomit on themselves. Hopefully people can grow up and learn to enjoy grown men beating the sh** out of each other.
Yes, he is a true educator. His own mother wrote that he behaves like the son of Satan.
fix this i just tried to weak this guy and it "sharped" him instead
but agree with Dana....LOTS of people know little about MMA and the rules...this is a good chance to educate the people
I just weaked you. Seems to be working fine.
it has its moments lol
So his mum called herself the Devil..lol she must not be the sharpest tool in the shed
exactly how i feel , i still feel MMA in general is like a secret hidden sport with a limited fan base. many people i know don't even know what MMA is and have never watch UFC or any other MMA organization. feels like a very hardcore fan base and the ones who know MMA is in a very casual way , only knowing the UFC and the most popular fighters
i hope the deal with Fox ends this =)
Well, I don't know how in the States is, but in the area where I live there are quite a lot people that follow mma, and by that I don't mean just the ufc, but the sport in general. Because of that it seems almost incredible to me, when I read about how Fedor or Overeem are not known in the States.
just curious where do you live?
I think this is the biggest hurdle to overcome in this fantastic oppertunity; educate the masses.
There is potentially 100 Million + people who have no idea what MMA is and are going to be switching onto FOX with two men perhaps in the ground in a trinagle and the viewer has no idea or appreciation of what is going on.
Joe and Mike in my opinion have the most pressure to step-up and take this on. It's their voices heard around the world by fans watching UFC (English version) and will be the introduces for the 100 million + FOX audience.
Once a good number of the FOX audience have learnt about and have become UFC fans, then MMA will trully have become mainstream and legitimised in the view of the public.