Ads During UFC 324 Walkouts: Dana White Says Paramount Bought it, They Can Do What They Want With It
Dana White addressed some of the fan response surrounding the prevalence of advertisements during the UFC 324 live broadcast, which marked the kickoff card of their Paramount media rights deal. Sponsorships were heavily prominent during the January 24th event with advertisements overtop of fighter entrances as well as during the corner work in between rounds, which drew the ire of many online MMA fans.
The near eight billion dollar price tag that Paramount signed this UFC deal for, in concert with modest subscription fees for consumers, have lead to a predictable surge in advertisements as a means of Paramount recouping some of the currency from their initial allocated sum.
At the UFC 324 post-fight press conference as the company CEO responded to some of these observer related considerations with the more prominent ad-placement on numbered events, which were largely devoid in the prior PPV model, White said,
“I haven’t seen it yet, and all this is a work in progress. It’s $8.99 – you’re not paying [__] however much anymore. These guys got to make some money too. That is a fact – Paramount paid for it, they get to decide. But these guys are incredible to work with already, so we’ll figure it out.”
Dana White on controversial last minute UFC 324 bout cancellation
Dana White also touched on the Michael Johnson vs. Alexander Hernandez bout which dropped off of the UFC 324 card. Some betting irregularities were detected leading into the fight with flagging taking place on route to the promotions crapping the lightweight matchup.
The issues with Isaac Dulgarian from late-last year as he was involved in a widely discussed betting controversy and the UFC is clearly not taking any potential issues in this vein lightly in the wake of FBI curiosities regarding these perceived improprieties.
When discussing the underpinnings of why Johnson versus Hernandez was scratched from the UFC 324 rundown, White stated [via MMA Fighting],
“We got called from the gaming integrity service, and I said I’m not doing this s**t again. We pulled the fight…The FBI’s already deep into all this stuff anyway.. I’m sure this one [Johnson vs. Hernandez] will be next.”
At the referenced UFC 324 post-fight presser, White also offered up a succinct “I don’t know” regarding if Johnson or Hernandez would face similar blowback to what Dulgarian dealt with in his own betting irregularity related controversy.
