UFC President Dana White has been making the media rounds to promote the UFC 287 pay-per-view this weekend in Miami, FL., where Israel Adesanya challenges Alex Perreira for the UFC Middleweight Championship and hometown boys Jorge Masvidal and Gilbert Burns will duke it out in a fan-favorite fight.
During a recent discussion with the Associated Press, the boss man for the Ultimate Fighting Championship spoke about parent-company Endeavor acquiring WWE and merging the business into one mega-company with the UFC.
“You have the power of the fanbase of WWE," White began when asked about the subject. "You have the power of the fanbase of UFC. You have the power of the viral. I don’t even know what the hell this thing is yet, the viral ability and whatever that fanbase is going to be for Power Slap. We can reach all these people in so many different ways. There is a lot more resources now. WWE has a lot more resources. It’s a phone call away now. All they have to do is pick up the phone now and say, ‘Hey, how did this happen? I need this. I need this contact. How did you do this?’ You all work together to make sure that everybody wins. We’ve been together on the same weekend many times. Come out of a UFC event, you have Monday Night Raw. Who knows. These are all things that can be figured out on the business side."
White continued, "The difference between UFC and WWE is, if you look at the WWE, they have an entertainment value, and they have these guys that are incredible athletes that go in there and do their thing. It’s well known that it’s scripted. When you look at the UFC, this is as real as it gets. That’s our tagline. You have these guys that are incredible athletes that have to be well-rounded and well-versed in all these different aspects of martial arts. Then you have the entertainment side of it too, but it’s real fighting, it’s real. There are no predetermined outcomes in the UFC. There won’t really be any type of crossover."
Check out the complete Dana White interview via the YouTube player embedded below. H/T to Jeremy Lambert for transcribing the above quotes.
