Not surprisingly, Dana White has been all over the airwaves today trying to spin the EliteXC debut to Zuffa’s advantage. Here’s a quote from The Canadian Press:

“Back when we were hurting, when we were bleeding millions of dollars, it would have been pretty easy to put a freak show on and go out and get a sh*tty TV deal, it would have been pretty easy to do,” White said. “But we never went that route.”

That’s a bit of revisionist history–back when the UFC was in financial disarray no one *wanted* a MMA promotion on TV. SPIKE TV took a chance on them and it worked well for both parties. Furthermore, regardless of the terms of the deal its hard to dismiss any exposure on prime time network TV as a ’sh*tty TV deal’. Among knowledgable MMA fans there’s no doubt that Kimbo Slice has a ways to go before he’s considered a top heavyweight. The important thing to remember, however, is that Kimbo is a rock star and casual fans who have no idea about the qualitative differences between fighters and promotions are willing to pay money to watch him fight.

Michael David Smith over at AOL Fanhouse has a video of Dana White on ESPN, basically appearing to further dengrate EliteXC. Here’s his commentary on the video:

“Mixed martial arts didn’t put its best foot forward,” White said. “What happened on CBS was horrendous.”

The appearance was set up as a debate between White and St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Bryan Burwell, who hates MMA, but Burwell really didn’t have much of an answer for why he thinks it’s OK to show violent entertainment programs like 24, and show sports like football, but not show MMA.

The closest Burwell came was when he said of football, “The object of the game is not to kick somebody in the head.” True enough, but then again, MMA never has a 200-pound man getting drilled simultaneously by two 300-pound men. I have a hard time understanding how anyone who wants to ban MMA doesn’t also want to ban football.

Dana White goes on ESPN to rip Elite XC @ AOL Fanhouse(with video)