Let's Get It On!_ The Making of MMA and Its Ultimate Referee - Big John Mccarthy [150]
After Dana came out at a press conference basically blaming me for these rule changes, I probably could have offered this information to clear things up. However, that would have meant throwing some committee members under the bus, and I didn’t feel that would be in anyone’s best interest.
Publicly, this is where people say things got uncomfortable between me and the UFC. Honestly, though, my relationship with Dana and the UFC had begun to unravel some months before.
As I mentioned, TFN booked me for many radio interviews to promote the channel. During one of those interviews for a Toronto radio station, one of the three hosts started talking about the UFC when Zuffa took it over from SEG. The radio host described how Dana White bought this “diamond in the rough,” ran toward regulation with the state athletic commissions, and changed the rules to make the sport safe.
Some MMA websites called this version of MMA’s history the “Zuffa Myth.” It really wasn’t a myth but a shortened version of what had transpired over time. When Zuffa bought the company, they did run toward regulation, just as they were stating. The problem was that major media outlets only heard this part of the story and didn’t investigate things any further. If they had, they would have seen that the UFC’s previous owners had begun working with athletic commissions since UFC 15.
It’s a fact that the UFC and MMA were first regulated in Mississippi back at UFC 15, long before Zuffa or Dana White owned the promotion. I told the host that UFC 16 and 17 had been sanctioned and regulated by state athletic commissions and that UFC 28 had been sanctioned by Larry Hazzard and the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board in 2000. Again, all of this happened before Zuffa bought the UFC and was the result of the concerted effort of many people behind the scenes who cared very much for the sport.
I then explained how the rules of the sport had evolved over the years and that finally in April of 2001 the NJSACB had brought together many promoters, including Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta, Paul Smith of the IFC, Marc Ratner of the NSAC, and representatives from Japan’s Dream Stage Entertainment (which promoted Pride Fighting Championships), to write down a set of regulations everyone could use.
“This is not what Dana says,” the radio host repeatedly stated throughout my tutorial.
I guess I could have backed down and not bitten, but I’d finally had enough and said, “Well, if that’s what Dana’s telling you, then Dana is lying to you.”
It was stupid of me to say it that way and to fall into the trap the radio host was hoping I would. I didn’t think Dana was lying about anything. He’d just quickly abbreviated everything into one statement, and they’d taken it as fact.
The news got back to Zuffa fast. About two weeks later, I received a phone call from the UFC’s majority owner, Lorenzo Fertitta, who asked me about the interview. I told him what was said and that the radio host was trying to say things that weren’t true. I told him I gave them the facts and that if people asked me about the sport or the UFC, I’d always tell the truth, plain and simple. I didn’t tell Lorenzo this in an adversarial manner; I had and still have enormous respect for him as a businessman and a person. I simply wasn’t going to condense, alter, or cover up the sport’s true history.
After that conversation, I knew my relationship with the UFC had changed forever. I was raised to hit back harder when someone hit me. It might be a great way for a kid or for an adult destined for jail to handle things, but the civilized world is made up of much smarter people than me.
When the UFC pulled away from me, one of the smarter people who tried to advise me was Marc Ratner, who’d retired from the Nevada State Athletic Commission and taken a job as Zuffa’s vice president of regulatory