How Dana White Just Took Over The MMA World

BlackSpade · **Joined:** Mon May 18, 2009 10:47 pm **Posts:** 68

OK, here's my theory on Josh Barnett popping positive in his fight against Fedor:

First the summary. Dana White was behind it. He probably paid Barnett to pop positive.

Now before you say "no way", hear me out.

Who and what are we talking about here? For starters, we're talking about several key people.

* Dana White, the President of the UFC, who will soon be a billionaire, known for tightly controlling his fighters with extensive contracts and shrewd negotiations. But Dana hasn't just been lucky. He's made sure the UFC has success by crushing his competition. Dana White doesn't just make sure his own events are good: He does whatever he can do to crush other organizations. One of the ways he does that is to make sure his superstar performers (and their SPONSORS) do no business with other fight organizations. In so doing, all of his marketing efforts remain closely guarded, promoting ONLY the UFC.

* Josh Barnett, former UFC heavyweight contender; having beaten Randy Couture, he was awarded and then stripped of the Heavyweight Title Belt after a post-fight steroid test revealed the presence of performance enhancing or banned substances. The question I'm asking myself is: "If I was Dana White, and I wanted to bring down M-1 Global (the only organization that poses a threat to UFC dominance in the sport), how would I go about doing it? Hey, Barnett, c'mere and lemme talk to you for a second". Barnett is the tiny crack in the armor of M-1 Global.

* Fedor Emelianenko. With a current record of more than 30 spectacular unanswered heavyweight wins, some say he is unstoppable. So why isn't he in the UFC? Mostly, Fedor disagrees with Dana about how much control the UFC has over its fighters. Fedor wants to go where the fights are, and the UFC contracts say you can only fight when we say and where we say. These are the same contractual control mechanisms that were used successfully against the UFC's biggest stars (Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, and Ken Shamrock, among others). In all cases, the needs of the UFC come first, even if it means a fighter misses out on financially getting ahead elsewhere. No matter what your opinion of the UFC or MMA, no one can argue that the biggest MMA star outside of the UFC is Fedor Emelianenko. Some say he is the last unbroken stallion yet to be tamed by MMA bowties.

Now, against that backdrop, I'm thinking about the fact that this is approaching a BILLION dollar industry. I'm thinking about the fact that Dana White has said he intends to crack the billion dollar mark. I'm thinking the only thing standing in his way is M-1 Global, since Kimbo Slice almost singlehandedly bankrupted Elite XC with his loss to underdog Seth Petruzelli (another example of how smaller, desperate organizations can sometimes put all of their eggs in one fighter's basket). The UFC stands in the Ocatagon virtually unopposed, with Elite XC under their feet, PRIDE bought and paid for, and only M-1 Global still standing.

But a good look at M-1 Global a couple of weeks ago would have revealed that the organization's position was relatively shaky. For one thing, it hadn't developed very deep pockets, since most of what it tooks in was spent on the handful of stars it had managed to hold onto. For another thing, two weeks ago, it was hanging all of its hopes and dreams on one key fight: Josh Barnett vs. Fedor Emelianenko. This one fight was drawing enormous buzz, and would probably have put the M-1 Global organization on the map, had it ever materialized.

If I was Dana White, and my competition was putting all of its hopes and dreams on a single fight, how far would I be willing to go to shoot their best bomber down, and establish total air superiority?

In my opinion, a cool million or two in cash- completely off the books- would be enough to get Josh Barnett to pop positive on a steroid test just a week and a half before the M-1 Global main event. And for a cool one or two million bucks, I, Dana White, could sink the biggest (and only) organization out there that poses a threat to total UFC dominance in the exploding world of Mixed Martial Arts. With that relatively small investment, the biggest fight in the world -outside of the UFC- would no doubt be canceled, and with it the future of M-1 Global.

In my theory, Dana White makes the proposition, Josh Barnett becomes independently wealthy, M-1 Global collapses like Elite XC before it, and the UFC reigns supreme. And to put the cherry on top, the biggest independent MMA star in the world- Fedor Emelianenko- is left without a home, without a place to fight.

All of a sudden a contract with the UFC doesn't look so restrictive, does it?

How Dana White Just Took Over The MMA World

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