UFC's Dana White believes nobody asked for Floyd Mayweather Jr. versus Juan Manuel Marquez. Actually, scratch "Juan Manuel Marquez." Dana refers to him as "What's his name?" in this video:
I'm not saying Dana White has no point. Mayweather-Marquez is not looking like the major event boxing would have hoped for it to be.
But this is just an obnoxious insult. It's petty and it's contrived and it's a wack attempt to sell his show and downgrade Floyd-JMM. I get it from a business standpoint. But it's not like this is going to actually affect sales, either. People have probably made up their minds about which show -- if either -- they're going to order. Both Mayweather-Marquez and UFC 103 are strong shows top-to-bottom, but the biggest star of the night is Floyd Mayweather Jr., even with the recent talk that he's not the star he thinks he is.
You know what UFC's countering with as a main event? Rich Franklin v. Vitor Belfort. I mean no disrespect to either of those men, but in fairness to what Dana's saying, I don't recall asking for Franklin-Belfort or wanting to pay for it. (I'm a big Vitor fan and have nothing against Franklin, really, I'm just saying. Not exactly a huge fight for UFC.)
But as I said over at Bloody Elbow, this is really just more of the same. I'm really not upset or anything like that, I just hate that Dana put on this annoying, fake face and pretended he doesn't know who Juan Manuel Marquez is. Marquez is a credit to combat sports, a guy who will fight anyone, takes risks, and leaves it all in the ring.
If boxing wins the night on PPV, Dana will say the two sports aren't competitors. If UFC wins, he'll tell you for the hundredth time that boxing is in trouble. It's the same ol' schtick he's been doing for a couple years now, as the world has been infested with "Is MMA killing boxing?" stories, while boxing just keeps existing. Yada, yada, yada.
