Dana White: The MMA-Nopoly Guy

Boardwalk was acquiring the UFC for pennies from SEG.

Pride Fighting Championships, that was Park Place.

And a handful of those green properties; WEC and Strikeforce.

No one went to jail. Zuffa and its fighters are collecting millions of dollars.

Poor board game analogies aside, Zuffa, the UFC's parent company, has systematically bought, dismantled and assimilated every rival Mixed Martial Arts promotion in the world, renegotiated contracts with name fighters, and effectively put on THE greatest show on earth. Gone are the days of "dream" match ups, fantasy fights, the what-ifs. These fights happen. They are booked. We, the MMA fans, will drink the honey.

But among the self-knighted "hardcore" MMA crowd, there is possibly no man more hated than Dana White, the UFC's president and chief promoter. These fanboys resent him for Zuffa's numerous acquisitions, for killing Pride Fighting Championships, for doubting (prophetically) the real-time relevance of Fedor Emelianenko in today's heavyweight picture. They hate him for his supposed strong arm tactics with fighter sponsors. They revile his cocky, Boston attitude towards fights as business.

They want him gone.

But the Dana abides.

If the UFC is the evil empire, then so be it. What American combat sports does not need in this day and age is multiple organizations sporting multiple champions. MMA needs no Ring Magazine. MMA needs no ranking system. As long as the UFC gobbles up rival promotions, the best fighters will fight.

If Pride still filled stadiums in Japan, we would not have Jones/Rampage. Rua would not have cleaned Griffin's clock and Big Nog would not have been the lion he was in Rio. Consider the fights that would not have happened had the UFC stayed away from Pride. No Nog/Randy. No Rampage/Chuck 2. No Rua/Machida 1 and 2. No Gomi mannequinizing Tyson Griffin. The beat goes on, the beat goes on.

No Cro-Cop/Gonzaga.

Without fighters under the same roof, without a bulldog of a boss, teeth sunk firmly in fighter glutes, without the threat of cuts, without contracts, we'd have Mayweather. Dana White adds the stability MMA needs to be considered legitimate. With Strikeforce hearing the death-rattle, Alistar Overeem fights Brock. Hendo/Rua. Diaz/Penn. This would have been a Sherdogger's wet dream two years ago, but now Dana has brought it from blog to cage.

Soon, we will no longer deal in the hypothetical. As Strikeforce hears the fly buzz as it dies, fans will see which fighters are truly the best. Uncle Dana, the don of the only show in town, will give them no choice but to fight the best.