In the wake of UFC 232, there are some crystal-clear takeaways:
- The UFC thinks the average fan are idiots. Dana White shilled for Jon Jones to be able to fight because they needed a big event to close out the year.
- Jon Jones has repeatedly failed drug tests for months because of trace amounts that keep going up. That's re ingestion. Jon and his brothers are masters at using PEDS to increase their performance. I have no doubt if something is lingering in his system, it's because a designer PED isn't being flagged but a component is.
- Fighters themselves aren't buying the company line. Werdum has requested his release from the company, and I guarantee we'll see more.
The only people that can change the sport are the fans. If we stand up and say we're not going to pay for PPV or merch until this is fixed, eventually the UFC will have to take notice. They've already shown what they will do to end a fiscal year on a positive note so it's not out of the realm of reason to believe if revenues dip far enough, changes will come.
Do I think Dana White needs to go? Yes. 100%. This latest incident shows he doesn't care about the fans like he says he does. He cares about the bottom line and that's it. In a business requiring relationships to succeed for it to succeed, having someone like Dana as the front man has diminishing returns. He was great at building the sport, but it's time to hand it off to someone capable of taking it far past being the teenage red headed stepchild of a stock portfolio. It's time to hand it off to someone who will draw a hard line in the sand and never let anyone step over it in relation to PEDs.
I spoke with my money this past weekend. I didn't purchase the PPV because I didn't want to help Jon Jones make money by cheating. Until something changes, I won't spend another cent on UFC merchandise or PPVs. They've lost me as a customer because they tried to treat me like a child with this whole fiasco.
Will you make any changes regarding your UFC spending habits?