http://mmajunkie.com/news/28529/ufc-president-to-address-fighter-behavior-at-upcoming-summit.mma UFC president to address fighter behavior at upcoming summit by Steven Marrocco on May 03, 2012 at 7:00 pm ET NEW YORK CITY Concerns recently voiced by UFC sponsor Anheuser-Busch over the behavior of fighters has prompted Dana White to address the issue at a fighter summit to take place in the next month. "Same stuff that all the other organizations go through," White said following Thursday's pre-UFC on FOX 3 press conference. "NBA, NFL they all go through the same thing." At the heart of White's upcoming talk with fighters: Getting them to use common sense. "There's only so many characters on Twitter, and you can't explain the context in which you sent the text," he said. "You just have to use common sense." That skill has seemingly been lacking in several highly publicized incidents in which fighters have used sexist or homophobic language in public and over social media. Anheuser-Busch, which owns the Bud Light and Bud Light Lime brands prominently advertised in the UFC, raised several of them in a warning issued this past week to the promoter. The brewer said it would take action if fighters continued to use offensive language in the public domain. Major sports franchises such as the NBA and NFL have written guidelines on the use of Twitter, and both professional and college athletes have been suspended and/or fined for misbehaving on the social media site. White downplayed the severity of Anheuser-Busch's warning, but said he took seriously the task of keeping fighters in check. "It is absolutely something that needs to be addressed, so we're pulling together another fighter summit, bringing guys in and talking to them," he said. At the same time, he said some comments made by fighters have been blown out of proportion. Told of UFC welterweight Josh Koscheck's repeated use of the word "******" during an open workout on Wednesday he used the term to describe those in the MMA media White broke out in laughter. "One thing you guys have got to understand: This is the fight business, and most of our guys are educated," White said. "These guys all went to college. Stuff is going to happen. Things are going to slip out. It happens, and I have to deal with it when it happens. "I've done it. I'm not going to sit up here and act like Mr. Holier Than Thou. It's one of those things you have to handle after it happens." Indeed, White has grappled with anti-UFC critics who've targeted his behavior as an example of why the promotion is unfit for children. That, however, wasn't the problem with sponsors, he said. "Listen, if you ever watched the sport, you knew what you were getting into with me," White said. "It's not like I all of a sudden lost my mind and started saying stupid [expletive]. I've been doing it for 11 years." Despite several brushes with controversy, White remains a staunch advocate of the social media that's frequently been at the root of things, particularly when it comes to the language he uses. "I like being open and honest," he said. "I love having a personal relationship with the fans. I love that our athletes do. I like it to be real. "I tell people to [expletive] off on Twitter all the time, and some people think that's weird. But if a guy came over to me right now and said, 'Hey, I think you're a dickhead, and your organization sucks,' I'm going to go, '[Expletive] you.' What's the difference between that and Twitter? If you say stupid things to me on Twitter, I'm going to say stupid [expletive] back to you. "If you have a problem with it, you know what the solution is? Don't follow me on Twitter." Whilst i understand where he's coming from, Dana clearly lives in a bubble and simply doesn't get it.
I don't get this at all. MMA fighter behavior is in no way worse than the norm for athletes in all of the other major sports.
These are guys that fight for a living. Why is Bud light concerned about how they talk? Since when is beer a family product? This is crazy land.
So...... Dana White started off by saying he is going to try and keep his fighters in check, and by the end he ended up saying I'm going to say **** you dick head to UFC fans. And to everyone who said I don't get how UFC fighters are different to other sports, well I have the answer. In most other sports athletes don't say **** on TV after a fight event. The UFC is live in Korea and you can hear fighters say **** regularly. Bottom line is there needs to be some kind of standards, and if Dana White thinks its OK to say **** you to people then there aren't going to be any standards.
I guess the days are gone where Tito Oritz in one post fight interview had both Ken Shamrock and Chuck Liddel walk into the cage ready to kill him
The UFC is far more widespread and popular than it was back then. There's a certain etiquette/standard that business partners will expect of the UFC. As the UFC grows and matures Dana will have no choice but to comply unless he wants to see his business fail or get marginalised back into obscurity. With fame comes a price. Dana like everyone else before him must pay his due.
Completely agree. Personally id prefer MMA remain niche or go back to Eastern markets. It simply makes more sense in the long term. The UFC is simply far too much of a commercial entity for its past success and ethos to work moving forward, bearing in mind the big names its getting on board with. All that will happen is the sport will be diluted even further.
