We knew it was only a matter of time before UFC President Dana White commented on the recent EliteXC: Heat event.
In an interview yesterday with Dan Duggan of The Boston Herald, White had the following comments:
“It disgusts me,” White said. “I’ve been busting my (expletive) for 10 years flying all over the planet to show everybody what a great sport this is and what amazing people are involved in it. Then CBS throws this guy who fights at people’s barbecues on the main event because they’re trying to compete with us, and he gets knocked out in (14) seconds by a guy who didn’t win ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ and couldn’t fight in the UFC. Then the guy turns around the next day and says, ‘The promoters actually paid me to not go to the ground with this guy. They paid me to stand up,’ which I’m pretty sure is illegal.”
“(Slice is) a joke,” White said. “It was bound to happen. These guys have lost $60 million trying to get this thing off the ground. They’re building their promotion around a guy who can’t fight. It’s kind of (expletive) stupid, isn’t it? You’re in the fight business and you’re building your business around a guy who can’t fight.”
“It put a nail in my coffin, too,” White said. “When dirty people go out and do stuff like that, it hurts. Promoters have a bad rap as it is because of the last 100 years of boxing. We actually started to turn that around and were doing the right things and then you have these guys coming out and doing (expletive) like that. It hurts us.”
Actually pretty mild comments from White compared to what I was expecting.
I still, however, find it funny that White continues to bash other promotions because they operate “in the red” when they first startup. I know Dana’s memory isn’t so short that he forgets the huge financial hole the UFC was in during the early days when he and the Fertita’s first bought the company. It has only been within the last few years that the UFC has become profitable and started operating in a cash-flow positive manner.
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Patrick and anyone else whos interested, heres the latest in the Noons situation.
After being stripped of his EliteXC lightweight title, K.J. Noons has stated that he believes that he has now become a free agent in a new interview with Sherdog.com. Noons’ belt was taken away after he refused to accept a title defense against Nick Diaz, whom Noons had defeated in November of last year.
“I’m a free agent,” Noons said in the article. “Since I’ve been stripped, I’m no longer the champion and I don’t owe them the fights (Noons says that he had two fights remaining on his deal if he were champion). I owed them fights for being a champion.”
EliteXC Head of Fight Operations Jeremy Lappen thinks otherwise. According to Lappen, Noons still has two fights remaining on his current contract regardless, but isn’t sure whether or not the promotion will have the part-time professional boxer fight for them again.
“K.J. still has two more fights on his contract,” Lappen also said in the article. “I’m hoping we’ll work something out, but there’s really not much to work out. He’s still under contract with us.”
The two sides are currently going back and forth, attempting to come to some kind of agreement that will have Noons return to an EliteXC cage in the near future. However each party seems equally optimistic as they are doubtful. In the short time, Noons is scheduled to take on Alejandro Bogarin in a middleweight boxing match on November 13.
- I dont think were gonna see KJ back in the cage for a loooong time, on a side note i hope he gets his *** kicked in his boxing match, i might even watch it.. hmm. maybe not lol.