UFC Coming to Australia, Brazil, Germany and the Philippines ,iran During the UFC 84 Media Conference, Knucklepit.com asked Dana White which country he was eyeing off next, now that the UFC is in USA, UK and Canada Dana replied, “We’re focused on Germany, the Philippines and Australia iran , ,...next Michael David Smith then asked: Where does Brazil fit in? And how important is it that five of the 10 fighters on the main card at UFC 84 are Brazilian? Dana White: What’s funny is, I had recently, probably about three weeks ago, I did an interview and said, ‘You know what, Brazil isn’t even in our radar right now’. And that’s changed. Actually in the last three weeks, we’re seriously looking at Brazil right now. There are a lot of interesting economical things going on down there right now. And we’re interested. Doug Jeffrey then asked Dana how important fighter safety was to the UFC. Dana White: Very important. I mean if you look at the track record we have in the nine and a half years that we’ve been in this business alone, there’s never been a death or serious injury in the UFC. I don’t even know if badminton can say that. Even if you look at the UFC back in the crazy days, you know, same thing: There’s never been a death or serious injury. Now, let’s say since we’ve taken over, all we’ve done is run toward regulation. We want to get all the states regulated and even when we go over to the UK, where the commission isn’t overseeing us, we overdo it with medicals before events. I’m a huge advocate of all these smaller shows. These guys that fight in the smaller shows have to fight in shows that are in states which are sanctioned where you have to get medicals done before the fight. You know, EKGs, CAT scans, MRIs, et cetera, et cetera. Believe me, I’m all about safety. Most of the guys fighting in this sport are my friends. I like these guys and I care about them. I don’t ever want to see anybody get hurt in this sport. Doug Jeffrey: How soon is Brazil a possibility? Dana White: I don’t know. We just started talking about it. The Philippines is definitely happening. We’re working on that right now. Australia and Germany, those three are right now. And we’re starting to focus on doing something in Brazil. |