Crappy quality, but here's the whole interview.
VID Egg on Conan
- Thread starter Onetrickpony
- Start date
-
- Tags
- conan
Gross. I hate that BLAF gets more push than most of the fighters not named Ronda or Conor (or the fighters that beat them).
Like him or hate him the UFC wouldn't be where it is without him. I think it's time they moved on to someone who handles conflict in a more calm and calculated manner but Egg has done more good for the sport than bad.
IMO, that's arguable and has been debated ad nauseum on various forums for years now. As far as BLAF is concerned, I think it just came down to timing & being both lucky & connected to the Fertittas. The sport has always had enough merit to grow with or without him. Before TUF, Zuffa was on the verge of bankruptcy, & BLAF was initially against the idea:
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E43z-ywg3KQ
I don't have the energy to present a counterpoint & will respectfully disagree. And it's all good. I may very well be wrong. There are good arguments to be made that the UFC wouldn't be where it is without him.
Last edited:
I don't like Dana but it's hard to argue either way when there is no else to compare him to.
Coker is quiet, respectful has backers with deeper pockets than the fertittas but has not been able to bring his organizations to the same level as the UFC. Strikeforce was definitely on its way to becoming a contender but the UFC saw that and bought them out before they became an issue.
I'm not saying if Dana ran Bellator it would be different. I think that Dana and the Fertittas together were what MMA needed. Brash, unforgiving and ruthless in their business decisions. I both hated and loved the way they ran things but they always kept pushing forward.
I'll be happy when Dana's gone but I can't deny the effect he has had and modern MMA.
Maybe. I don't think so, but you may be right.
I would say the sport grew despite their brashness. They managed to fail forward with TUF & grow from there. I seriously doubt they could take Strikeforce from the ground up the way Coker did, or grow Bellator the way he's doing now. That's on reason why they bought out orgs like Strikeforce & the WEC, poached the best fighters, & had them fight in the UFC.
The UFC has always had name recognition: THE ULTIMATE Fighting Championship. So much so that to this day people refer to MMA as UFC.
Again, not worth arguing, but that's how I see it. They failed forward, stepped on their own dicks, & managed to grow the sport in spite of themselves. Not cause they were brash or thoughtful or particularly creative. I could be way off base here & you may very well be right, but that's how I see it.
I'm obviously not very convincing on this topic & doubt anything I said will change anyone's mind, but I know I'm not alone here. Maybe others with more energy can present more convincing counterpoints.
I understand the failing forward analogy (and quite like it actually) and that could very well be the case. My guess is that it's likely the truth falls somewhere between both sides, with business intuition, stupidity, timing and luck all mixing together into the UFC we see today.
Last edited:
M
member 3289
Guest
In all fairness, Conor promoted himself really well until he got so big that it would've been stupid for the ufc NOT to give him a big push.
It's not like the UFC threw him in our faces from the beginning (like they did with Rhonda).
Conor started from the bottom now he here.