LAS VEGAS – Dana White has taken the negotiating reigns with Showtime.
The UFC president on Wednesday met with executives from the premium cable channel to resume talks on the future of a broadcast partnership Zuffa, LLC assumed with the purchase of Strikeforce.
Previously, UFC executive Lorenzo Fertitta had spearheaded negotiations. But with the recent exodus of Ken Hershman from Showtime to HBO, White reversed his stance on getting involved in the process.
"I think it went really well," he said today.
Although he didn't elaborate much on the result of the talks, White said Showtime wants to stay in the MMA business. Without Hershman in the picture, he said, his outlook has brightened considerably on the partnership.
"Because he's an idiot, and the rest of the guys aren't," White said.
The relationship between Showtime and Strikeforce, which was forged in February 2009 when Strikeforce struck a five-year deal with the Viacom-owned channel, was cast into doubt when Zuffa purchased Strikeforce. White's fiery relationship with Hershman, and the departure of several Strikeforce champions to the UFC, added to skepticism that Showtime would exercise an option to fulfill the full term of the deal.
White didn't say whether the renewal, which comes about in late February of next year, is going to happen. He did say, however, that UFC programming will not be on Showtime. He also isn't sure whether Hershman will be replaced with an executive to spearhead the channel's current MMA operations.
"I don't know what their plans are, but I had a great meeting with them," White said. "I met with all of them. The whole crew over there. It went very well, and we'll see how it progresses."
The business landscape of MMA is certainly changing. News that the Viacom has acquired a majority stake in Bellator raised questions today about White's reasoning for taking a front seat in negotiations. The UFC is partnered with the Viacom-owned Spike TV until the end of this year, and beginning in 2013, the tournament-based promotion will slide into a spot occupied by the UFC since 2005.
Many observers have said Bellator's move could create a legitimate competitor to the UFC. White isn't ready to sign off on that just yet.
"Who knows? That remains to be seen," White said. "And as far as competition, I don't know what you mean by competition. Dude, the UFC's been around for 18 years – we've been doing this for almost 11 now. And if you look at how we built our business ... it just doesn't happen overnight. Guys, we've all been standing here in the same position asking the same questions before. Television does not mean success. It doesn't."
"We've been in this situation before, when we were doing the deal with CBS, and you got a guy like Hershman that says, 'You know, we can do this ourselves, without them. So we'll just do it ourselves.'
"Dude, this is what we do. This is what we do literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It's not what Spike does."
White also dismissed the idea that Bellator on Spike TV muted critics that say the UFC has a monopoly on the sport.
"Let me tell you what Viacom is sitting on," he said. "They're sitting on $5 billion in cash. So they've got the platform, the money, the network. We'll see what happens. I guess it's always fun for you guys, for the fans – 'Oh, they've got a new competitor,' and all that stuff. It just doesn't work like that. I've been saying that for 10 years. Most of these guys that everybody thought were competitors were 30 or 40 million in the hole when they ended up going away.
"This is not a monopoly. It's the dumbest thing ever said. We are far from a monopoly. If you guys could really know that story, too. If we're a monopoly, Viacom now owns a mixed martial arts company. They're sitting on five billion dollars cash. What does that make us? Now we're the mom-and-pops. I can tell you this: The UFC has been tremendously successful. We're not sitting on $5 billion in cash.
"Seriously, you have to be a moron – an absolute moron – to say that this thing is a monopoly, or just out to get us, and just hate us and want to say us. It's one of the two: you're either a hater or a moron."
Right now, White is just one thing: busy. With UFC on FOX 1 around the corner, UFC 137, and negotiations ongoing with Showtime, he has little time to worry about his rivals.
But with one longstanding rival in the rearview mirror, progress is being made in securing another platform for Zuffa programming.
