UFC President talks Women's MMA, Strikeforce and the Olympics
Posted on August 2, 2012, 08:01 PM by Mike SearsonDana White was available for a scrum with the media today in advance of UFC on Fox 4 and the UFC President spoke on a number of subjects including Strikeforce's Ronda Rousey and her upcoming title fight in September: "I am a huge Rousey fan, I want to go, If I'm in town I will be there."
While on the subject of Strikeforce, the UFC President confirmed that Josh Barnett might be making his way back to the Octagon, since his loss in Strikeforce to Heavyweight Champion Daniel Cormier: "Barnett is healing. He was hurt in that fight and when he's ready we'll find him a fight."
Cormier will be fighting former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir in a crossover match for that promotion's final Heavyweight bout. Although Tim Sylvia was rumored to fight Cormier, Mir stepped up and took the fight: "Mir just lost, he's been fighting for us for 11 years, since we started. The opportunity makes sense and whether he gets smoked or Cormier gets smoked it's gonna be good stuff. It is going to be a Title fight and even if it's their last one and the guy (Cormier) has one fight or ten fights, he's their guy"
When asked if the UFC might absorb the all female fighting leauge, Invicta, White gave the same answer he's been giving for the past few years: "I think Invicta is a great thing it will get the women training but they have to make money. The more women that fight, the deeper those divisions will get. Is there potential? Absolutely, I don't focus on it but I love it. (Right now) there's just not enough good women out there."
Earlier today a woman, Kayla Harrison, won the first Olympic Gold Medal in the history of the US team. Both Cormier and Rousey were former Olympians. When asked if UFC was doing any scouting at the Games in London, White said: "No, this is not a judo company, if someone wins the Olympics, they have to train their ass off to fight in MMA, but i would love to see some of these Olympians starting to compete."
As this weekend's UFC on Fox 4 is going up against the Olympics, White laughed and said jokingly: "I didn't think people still watched the Olympics. What a lot of people don't realize is that you are always going up against something in this business whther it is TV or Pay-Per-View. Another sport, a movie, anything that gets the attention of 18-34 year old males."
Comments
This thing about there not being enough depth in women's MMA is becoming a tired excuse, especially when Dana admits he doesn't even effing pay attention to women's MMA. The women's 135 lbs division is currently way better than the men's 125 lb division, and the fights invicta put on were more entertaining than the BS that was Kongo-Jordan or Lombard-Boetsch.
I could not agree more. The womens divisions not being deep enough is a Bullsh!t excuse.
As you said the 135lb division is way deeper and even more exciting than the mens 125lb division. They have like 4 fighters in that weight class and he's bitching about the women?? C'MON!
Invicta is great and what they're doing is awesome. There are some amazing female fighters and the females aren't getting nearly enough attention for their skills and hard work. Can't wait to see a womans fight headline a UFC card one day!
By depth he means "there aren't enough hot chicks like ronda to promote big money fights at the moment" least that's what I think he means...
He's not being entirely truthful IMO, but I still think he's right as casual fans aren't ready for a women's division yet. If you look at the numbers the only fights that have really blown ratings out of the water are matches that involved Gina Carano. They are pushing Rousey a bunch, but her fight with Tate did mediocre ratings. Invicta's online numbers are down right abysmal, and if they don't start pulling good statistics within the next few events they might go down the drain.
They might have as much depth as 125 right now (which is debatable), but without the demand the UFC really has no need to bring in the division.
I think the more likely explanation is Zuffa's relationship with showtime. There is absolutely no prospect of the UFC starting a women's division while the best women are in strikeforce, and if there is indeed an agreement between Zuffa and showtime to not scavenge anymore strikeforce fighters to the UFC, we will not see Rousey, Cyborg etc in the UFC as long as the relationship between Zuffa and Showtime exists. This basically means there will be probably be no women in the UFC as long as Strikeforce exists on showtime.
Those could be good points too, but for guys like Luke Rockhold and Gilbert Melendez (other stars of SF, who draw similar #s to Rousey) there are fighters against bigger names (Frankie Edgar, Anderson SIlva, Nate Diaz, Chael Sonnen, etc.). For Ronda, Miesha, and women of their skill level there is no draw (or known face) to match them against because they are already the biggest stars of WMMA. Gina has pretty much retired, and Cyborg tested positive for PED's so now nobody will take her seriously.
The UFC's relationship with Showtime definitely could cause some problems, but there's little demand for them to make a move for WMMA right now (and it will probably stay that way).
Once the money is there then Dana and the Ufc will jump on board.
I feel almost the same about womans mma and tennis. If the girls arent hot then I dont really care to watch. And rousey isnt all that hot, its just that compared to the average female fighter she looks good.
MMA is a man's sport, period. No one is screaming to watch chicks beat the living tar out of each other. Especially when they aren't hot.