Dana White

I would say that I am a big fan of Dana White. I like him as a businessman and I like the way reaches out to his fans on a personal level by being so accessible on Twitter and always giving away free tickets to the big events. He takes it upon himself to be good to the fans, almost too much in this case.

This past Saturday during the Anderson Silva, Damien Maia fight I lost a little respect for Dana when he had words with Silva’s corner. I guess he felt that Silva wasn’t engaging enough and perhaps wasn’t too impressed with the taunting that was happening in the earlier rounds. Dana gave Silva’s Championship belt to his corner because he refused to put it on Silva after he was “embarrassed” by his performance.

In summary Anderson Silva came out early taunting and picking apart Maia. When the fighters did engage Maia would repeatedly try and pull guard and Silva would just stand over him and motion him back to his feet. For whatever reason Dana has no problem with this as a strategy but took offense when Silva backed off in the later rounds of the fight knowing full well he had dominated his opponent.

In the fourth round Silva backed off completely and circled the ring waiting for Maia to attack. When he finally did attack his attempts were lack luster and Silva easily avoided any damage. It was then in the fourth round Dana got up in disgust and brought Silva’s Championship belt to his corner and told them they would have to put the belt on Anderson themselves because he wasn’t going to do it. He then left the arena for the first time in his career. I think it’s interesting that Dana knew Silva had won that fight as early as the fourth round. Everyone did, Silva did, and that is exactly why he backed off. Why put yourself in a position to take damage when you have already won? Sounds like a smart fighter to me.

In an interview after the fight Dana says Anderson laid back after the first couple of rounds and spent the fourth and fifth running from Maia. Fact is Dana White is concerned for the fans, the good old entertainment dollar. He wanted Anderson Silva to finish the fight in exciting fashion with a knock out. Instead he danced around the ring taunting and didn’t come to fight at all. Although it looks like Maia was in a fight…

The problem for Dana is that in the post fight interview Maia certainly wasn’t quoted as saying “you should see the other guy…” because Silva stuck to his game plan and came out with nary a scratch. That is by far the most brilliant fight strategy there is. Dana would have liked to see Anderson rolling around on the ground with Maia in a brilliant display of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. That would just be stupid, but a great PPV.

I will admit the taunting is a bit much for me as well. They said that Ali was a big influence on Silva and you can see it in his game fersure. But just like Ali, Silva can afford to be cocky because he is at the top of his game. He can stick his face out and cross his arms and do the chicken dance because there was never any doubt that he was winning that fight. He knew as well as we all did that Maia wasn’t a threat to him, especially if he stuck with the stand-up. When Silva is faced with a fighter he respects you will not see the taunting of late. See Rich Franklin, and Dan Henderson.

I was appalled by Dana’s actions and reactions to that fight and think he needs to stay out of the drama. I don’t think he is qualified to tell Anderson Silva how to fight. He never said boo about our beloved GSP taking Hardy to the ground and grinding him with his jock for 5 rounds. It would have been way more entertaining to see GSP stand with Hardy than drag him down and have his way with him on the ground like a practice partner. The fact that Anderson could pick apart a guy in the first 2 rounds and win the fight is far more impressive than knowing GSP can’t submit a guy to save his life.