"Strike Farce": Dana White Unimpressed by Fedor Emelianenko Vs. Brett Rogers

In a just released news article, published only an hour ago by yahoosports.com's excellent scribe Dave Meltzer, which can be found here, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White aims low and fires both barrels in the direction of a recently held—CBS prime time-aired—cage fighting event known as Strikeforce.

“CBS made its biggest mistake partnering with a tiny, small show with a roster no one cares about,” said White. “Just because you read on MMA.TV that someone is a superstar doesn’t make it true. This should prove that no one out there gives a [expletive] about Fedor.

“We’re pulling those numbers on Spike,” White said. “I mean, how the [expletive] is what they did considered any good in any way, shape, or form? What kind of numbers do you think we would pull with a live show on CBS? I’ll tell you. Huge. It would be significantly, significantly more than what they got with these idiots from Showtime.”

Is he right?

Well, unfortunately in many ways, and in the opinion of many experts including this writer, the answer is a resounding yes.

It's very unfortunate, however, to those of us who aren't rolling in the green stuff and wish there were weekly shows with real live sanctioned cage fights.

Because, honestly—the soap opera atmosphere, along with the umpteen million commercial ads for video games we have to put up with now on the weekly episodes of The Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV, leaves something to be desired.

President White points to Spike TV and his reality show baby TUF in the above article, stating that he has a much better product, which offers more bang for the buck; and predictably he also mentions the rare times one of his larger pay-per-view events is generously aired on the network for free.

Here is where I get a little skeptical, because my feelings and intuitions are that Mr. White only airs these freebies during weekends where he is challenged by other promotions and has no other choice but to try and compete.

Times such as this weekend, when his British UFC event will showcase an "over the hill" Randy Couture, who continues to fight on name recognition, facing a confident but questionably skilled up and comer named Brandon "The Truth" Vera.

The event will be aired live and free of any PPV charge on White's beloved Spike, which—by the way—has a partnership/sponsorship contract with Zuffa, which owns the partial rights to the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

So in the eyes of this writer, this weekend seems to be a classic case of "charity begins at home."

Because a closer look will tell us White's reasoning for his generosity is not so much to do with his love of us loyal fans, but more so with the fact that he happens to be up against the king of PPV number-grabbers, Filipino boxer Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao, which airs on the same night.

Pacquiao was mobbed by more than 1,000 cheering fans on his arrival at the MGM Grand on Tuesday and is certain to attract most of the support at the 16,000-seat arena on Saturday when he faces Puerto Rican superstar boxer Miguel Cotto.

For those of us who scoff at the monopoly that the UFC has over cage fighting, and the way we hate to slap down our hard-earned $50 for a night of controlled mayhem, in many ways, the free major event on Spike this weekend will be a blessing.

White is most certainly doing the right thing by not attempting to go "head to head" with Pacquiao in the PPV numbers department, where he would undoubtedly lose by a huge margin.

For fans such as me, it will be a "two for the price of one" package, because I'll pay for the boxing and record the UFC cage-fighting event.

Honestly, it would be nice to see all of these combat sports promotions and lowlife promoters somehow coexist in this wonderful world of pugilism.

Because I believe the fans who—let's face it—pay the salaries and the wages of these crooks are the ones who should ultimately—excuse the pun—get to reap the benefits.

I, for one, can't seem to ever get enough of this stuff, whether it be Strikeforce, UFC, or even a Bob Arum Top Rank or Golden Boy Promotions boxing event—I want it all and then some.

Yet whether the big American network CBS/Showtime can compete with the UFC and continue to give us these great free fights—similar the ones we saw last Saturday night—is anybody's guess.

There is only one aspect in this scenario which I know for sure.

Fedor Emelianenko in a televised fight against anyone—even in an empty parking lot with the town drunk at a local 7-11—would still be a huge spectator draw. So if they keep showing his beat-up face—on CBS prime time—they can't go wrong. The viewers will continue to show up.

The way he gets clobbered by these no-name fighters before thrilling his fans with the big one punch knockout is the perfect story to try to sell to any audience.

Best of luck to Strikeforce and Emelianenko going forward—they both will need it.

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