Dana White Addresses UFC's Injury Epidemic

[xtremebadass]

Despite recent rash of injuries, White says UFC's handling of fighters won't change
by John Morgan on Jan 01, 2010 at 5:00 pm ET

LAS VEGAS – Fans and MMA pundits alike have frequently referred to the "curse" of "UFC 108: Evans vs. Silva" as a rash of unexpected injuries has forced the promotion to constantly scramble to keep the Jan. 2 card filled.

But on the eve of Saturday night's pay-per-view event at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White said he doesn't believe the UFC needs to make changes in the face of an injury epidemic.

In fact, White says he's just surprised the promotion hasn't dealt with a similar situation before now.

"It's just one of those things," White said. "Guys are getting injured. It's never happened in nine years. Then again, this is a physical sport.

"These guys train hard. I don't think people really realize. You can watch it on TV, but you don't realize what goes into mixed martial arts training. It's actually shocking that we haven't injuries like this sooner."

While a wide variety of training-related injuries have plagued the UFC 108 card, White points out that not all of the card's casualties have been suffered in the normal line of duty.

"There's some freak stuff out there, like what happened to Brock Lesnar," White said. "You've got [Carlos Condit] cutting himself on sheet metal. You've got some weird, goofy stuff, too."

White and the UFC have frequently told contracted fighters that it's better to withdraw from a fight than to suffer a loss due to injury. White said that policy hasn't changed despite the cost to Saturday's event.

"If you're hurt, you're hurt," White told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). "Listen, it screws up the schedule and things like that, but I'm serious when I say this – this isn't any fight promoter BS – we're in the fight business. Our job is to make fights. Guys get hurt some times, and we've got to put on more fights. That's what we do.

"We have a deep roster. We have 350 guys under contract, and there's guys out there that want to fight. For instance, like [UFC 108], all these guys (getting hurt), it would be easy to say, 'Oh, Brock Lesnar isn't on the card.' But all these other guys have got to get paid, too. These guys make money, and these guys have got to fight."

With Lesnar, Condit, Steve Cantwell, Sean Sherk, Rory Markham, Gabriel Gonzaga, Antonio Rodrgio Nogueira and Anderson Silva all being forced out of the UFC 108 card with a variety of injuries, White and his team have admittedly struggled to fight through the "curse" of the event.

Even matchmaker Joe Silva recently fell victim to the odd circumstances.

"This is so bad, Joe Silva blew out his MCL," White said. "Even the matchmaker is down. Everybody's getting injured.

"He's got to have knee surgery now. You'll see his ass hobbling around here in a few days."

But despite the seemingly never-ending string on injuries and the growing number of UFC fight cards that need to be filled, White said he's not looking to change anything about how he or his fighters deal with injuries.

"We put on a lot of shows last year, too, and this didn't happen," White said. "These guys want to fight. They enjoy fighting."

For complete coverage of UFC 108, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of MMAjunkie.com.

John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com

Dana White doesn't have to deal with this shit

 

[Quintastic One]

With each new news post on Dana White commenting on the industry I respect the man more and more. Where in WWE they say "Either fight injured or you lose your push" UFC says "It's better to drop out than fight injured and effect your record and possibly have a worse injury".

 

[phantomgerald]

With each new news post on Dana White commenting on the industry I respect the man more and more. Where in WWE they say "Either fight injured or you lose your push" UFC says "It's better to drop out than fight injured and effect your record and possibly have a worse injury".

Quoted for emphasis. It's easy for Dana to ask his fighters to get back into the ring for the sake of PPV buys if his injury wasn't too severe, but he's willing to let the PPV take a hit just so they will put on a better show in the future.

 

[xtremebadass]

The point of this thread it to further convince everyone that Dana White is NOT in it for the money. I know ppl even I say it sometimes, but when it comes right down to it, he is not in it just for the money. That's just icing on Dana's year round birthday cake.

 

[phantomgerald]

^^^ I agree. He really spends alot of time on work. You just need to look at his public appearances. He'll be doing some publicity/video blog/meeting. It seems like he never needs to go home.

 

[xtremebadass]

I don't think he is ever home. Dude works round the clock always flying here, flying there, with Lorenzo lol

 

[Wrestling Station]

I would like to see the backstage preparations for them when they are setting up a live PPV event, TUF season, the Octagon girls :shifty: etc..

 

[Millzy Pt. 2]

^^^ I agree. He really spends alot of time on work. You just need to look at his public appearances. He'll be doing some publicity/video blog/meeting. It seems like he never needs to go home.

I mean look at it, does Dana even have a wife/girlfriend by any chance?

Dana seems like he would rather book Penn/GSP III than attend his wedding judging from his work ethic towards the UFC.