[Warchief]

Dana White and his fighting league seemed to be on top of the world in March of 2007. White, and his bosses the Fertittas, purchased the No. 2 fight organization in the world, Japan’s Pride, for roughly $65 million effectively snuffing out the only viable competition.

Two problems hit UFC before the finish line. Pride’s fighter contracts weren’t ironclad & didn’t automatically transfer over to Zuffa plus guys like Gary Shaw (boxing promoter) and Dallas Mavs owner Mark Cuban decided to throw their bucks into the cage.

tito3.jpgUFC was forced to lock up most of the Pride stars to new contracts for unheard amounts by UFC standards. Much of it appears to be money poorly spent. Stars like Wanderlei Silva, Shogun Rua and Cro Cop have combined to go 1-4 in UFC. White was so disatisfied with Cro Cop, he exercised an option in the Croatian’s contract to release the heavyweight star.

It’s not huge news and has little impact with most American MMA fans. Cro Cop showed newer fans little in his lackluster performances.

It’ll be a different case if U.S. stars like Tito Ortiz, Andrei Arlovski and Tim Sylvia jump for what they view as greener pastures. Those guys, all former UFC champions, would give a huge boost to smaller fight organizations.

tito2.jpgOrtiz is going to present a real problem in the coming months. His UFC deal ends after one more fight when he battles Lyoto Machida at UFC 84 in May. That gives the former UFC light heavyweight champ a chance to bash the organization and White for three months.

The early shots fired between the two on NBC’s MMA Fight Weekly were pretty nasty.

UFC MAY BE ON THE VERGE OF FIGHTER MASS EXODUS « Mr. Sunshine