Opinion: Dana White, UFC Failing to Practice What They Preach

Editor’s note: The views and opinions expressed below are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Sherdog.com, its affiliates and sponsors or its parent company, Evolve Media.

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With UFC 309 just around the corner, there’s a wide swath of fans who don’t believe the Ultimate Fighting Championship is being straight with them. Some may say I’m beating a dead horse, but there’s no denying there’s very little enthusiasm around the heavyweight main event between Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic this Saturday at Madison Square Garden in New York. Fans have voiced their desire to see Tom Aspinall in the challenger spot ahead of Miocic, especially if the rumors of Jones and/or Miocic retiring following the contest are true, regardless of the outcome. However, UFC CEO Dana White has insisted this is the fight to make, steadfastly standing by the booking. In other words, many fans feel as though White is urinating on them and telling them it’s raining.

Regardless of whether I’m right or wrong in that assessment—I’m sure White would dispute my opinion—what can’t be denied is that the organization is ignoring the fans. White and Jones have both fended off several questions regarding why Aspinall isn’t the one challenging “Bones” for the heavyweight title instead of Miocic. If fans and journalists weren’t more interested in seeing Jones fight Aspinall, they wouldn’t be asking about that contest. They’d be content with Jones and Miocic settling their score.

Instead, White and Jones have doubled down on saying Jones-Miocic is the fight to make. Coming from an organization that prides itself on making fights that fans want to see, that’s very rich. What’s even more rich is White’s affiliation with the Republican Party. This is not a political website, and I’m not stating an opinion on the recent presidential election in the United States. All I intend to do is point out the irony of the situation given White has been very vocal in his support for President-elect Donald Trump.

When the Republicans gained control of the presidency, the Senate and the House of Representatives, the primary reason for their success—as appeared to be largely agreed upon by political talking heads on both sides of the spectrum—is that the Democrat Party seemed to be ignoring the plight of the common people. Citizens were feeling the pain of inflation and enough of them didn’t believe the Democrats in charge were doing enough to address it—or even cared—so the Republicans took control. Two-time Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders said as much. Yet here we sit with White blatantly ignoring what his customers want, going against the grain of what his party claims to stand for.

Will the decision to force Jones-Miocic on buying customers bring down the UFC empire? No, but as a former junior high and high school teacher, I loved reminding my students that Rome fell—something no one thought possible when the empire was at its peak. Somewhere along the line came the first domino to fall in the eventual collapse. It may be possible this isn’t the first domino. It’s also possible to pick the domino back up in these situations, though it would have been easier if the UFC didn’t need to pick it back up. Regardless, pushing a fight on fans when they’ve expressed their desire for something else is certainly a fallen domino. I’m not saying Jones-Miocic is a terrible fight, but there are three things that stand out about it that makes it the wrong fight for the heavyweight title.

First, the time for it came and went. That time was last year, prior to Jones tearing his pectoral muscle. Aspinall easily disposed of Sergei Pavlovich in the interim title fight created in place of Jones-Miocic at UFC 295 and only beefed up his momentum this summer when he destroyed Curtis Blaydes with ease. Miocic has done nothing in that time to give fans a reason to want to see him challenge for the belt. The time has come and gone.

Second, the champion of any division has a responsibility to keep the division moving along by facing the most deserving challenger. There are times when that might not be so clear and other times when the champion has cleaned a division to such a degree that exceptions can be made, provided the chosen opponent has at least done enough to place himself in the title picture. Aspinall has proven himself as the most deserving challenger in this instance. Miocic has not. He may have the most impressive resume as a former heavyweight champion, but Demetrious Johnson would be considered the most deserving flyweight challenger by that standard. Johnson hasn’t done anything in the UFC in years, and neither has Miocic. Consider this: There isn’t a single person on the current UFC roster that Miocic has fought. Johnson can at least claim that Henry Cejudo and Dominick Cruz are still around.

Third, I can understand exceptions being made to the most deserving challenger from a business perspective. I advocated for Kamaru Usman to be plugged into UFC 310 in an interim title fight with Shavkat Rakhmonov despite his having lost three consecutive fights. Jones and Miocic isn’t the business exception. Miocic has never been a fighter who produced large numbers in terms of pay-per-view buys. Disappearing for almost four years is unlikely to help his ability to draw eyeballs. Aspinall hasn’t proven to be a major draw, either, but he’s causing enough of a stir within the MMA community and in the United Kingdom that I have a hard time believing he wouldn’t be better than Miocic for the bottom dollar.

I will be the first to admit the UFC has information to which I’m not privy. Perhaps it knows something I don’t that would justify having Miocic in the contest. I’m inclined to believe there isn’t, but I can’t deny the possibility. Regardless, without that knowledge, provided it exists, the UFC can’t expect me or the rest of those clamoring for Aspinall to be Jones’ challenger to believe the company is justified in placing Miocic in the main event. If White and the UFC continue to ignore their fans, they could pay a price down the road. Then again, perhaps White doesn’t care. He won’t always be the CEO and president of the UFC, so perhaps he anticipates the piper won’t be paid until he’s gone. With that said, we have a very strong example in recent history of what can happen if those you serve are ignored, even if it’s just their perception. After all, someone’s perception is their reality.