Dana White feels that Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm fight is his best work as a promoter
UFC President Dana White has promoted a lot of fights. Thousands. But which those countless fights does he feel he did the best job promoting? Apparently, Ronda Rousey’s famous UFC 193 title fight with Holly Holm, which marked the violent and decisive end of her seemingly unshakable title reign.
Heading into this fight, very few people gave Holm, the massive underdog, a chance of defeating Rousey. White, however, feels his promotional savvy ultimately convinced people that Holm might just win. And of course, she did.
White riffed on this fight in a recent conversation with motivational speaker Tony Robbins.
“I would say my best one is Holly Holm versus Ronda Rousey,” White said (transcript via MMAJunkie.com). “I did a really good job with that one. When that fight came out the odds were incredibly huge that Ronda was going to win that fight. Nobody gave Holly a chance. I said, ‘Ronda’s never fought anybody like this. Holly striking, her head kicks, her this, her that.’ Even Joe Rogan said, ‘There’s no way Holly Holm wins this fight.’ Not only did we sell the fight, but Holly Holm won the fight.”
Dana White then added that, when it’s boiled down to the simplest terms, that’s basically his job: to convince fans that fights are closer than they think; that the underdog can win. It’s the uncertainty of the outcome, after all, that drives us all to tune in for a fight.
“When we put together fights, my job, because everyone is going to have an opinion right away saying, ‘This guy is going to win!’ My job is to get you to question who you think is going to win this fight,” White said. “So I need to gather all the information I can get on both guys and then I need to sell you on why this fight isn’t going to go the way you think it’s going to go.”
What do you think of these comments from Dana White?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 8/22/2018.
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Dana White