That was part of it, back in the early 2000s when people considered MMA "human cockfighting" (but bizarrely, boxing was OK) Trump let the events go on at his venues, however Dana is a pretty formidable businessman regardless of the connection to Trump.
No one has actually said that Dana White is a bad business man. It's just very difficult to believe that's the reason he was appointed to the board of a social media company on the same day that Donald Trump was inaugurated. If he was so consequential why wasn't he named to the board on Jan 7th 2021? I think we know why.
There's been a rightward shift in tech and culture (eg, children identify much less as transger and bisexual than a few years ago), it's likely Facebook is aligning with that.
Zuck spends billions on funding for left aligned causes while spending basically nothing on the reverse. He's a chameleon that merely takes the appearance of a centrist when need be. The money doesn't lie though.
You may wish to read the thread more carefully, because you are mistaken. If after carefully rereading the thread you still believe you are correct, please explain exactly what part of this sentence:
> “And Zuck’s sudden interest in MMA/boxing/Jiu Jitsu as part of his “alpha male” rebranding”
equates general interest in fitness with being an “alpha male”. Because to me it is pretty clearly referring to the interest in combat sports, not fitness.
There’s some weirdness with the UFC’s struggle at the time.
The Fertitta brothers are who actually bought it. Before owning the UFC, Lorenzo Fertitta was on (maybe the head?) of the Nevada State Athletic Commission- the very body who were refusing to sanction UFC events at the time, and the most important governing body in the combat sports world.
Obviously the UFC was hurting bad at that time since they couldn’t be sanctioned, were getting booted from arenas they booked, and were getting dropped by Pay Per View carriers. This decimated their value and the Fertittas scooped up the company for a song.
All of a sudden, now that they owned it, the sanctioning bodies agreed on a set of unified MMA rules, the UFC was re-sanctioned, and they started selling PPVs again.
It was actually quite a success from the very beginning. Their troubles were likely imposed on them by their prospective buyers in order to get the sale done, and all they and Dana White did really were take their foot off the company’s neck.
Agree with most of this but they do deserve credit for the lift off that the UFC saw after the Ultimate Fighter. That was a legit cultural phenomenon for certain demos at the time. Without that, things could have have gone very, very differently.
toasty228 · · focus · HN ↗
tudelo · · focus · HN ↗
dgellow · · focus · HN ↗
nailer · · focus · HN ↗
Traster · · focus · HN ↗
nailer · · focus · HN ↗
0xy · · focus · HN ↗
binlog · · focus · HN ↗
samuria · · focus · HN ↗
solid_fuel · · focus · HN ↗
> Huh, taking care of your body, being interested in a sport, and not being a robot is now labelled as an alpha male?
You're doing a lot of projecting here.
nailer · · focus · HN ↗
solid_fuel · · focus · HN ↗
> “And Zuck’s sudden interest in MMA/boxing/Jiu Jitsu as part of his “alpha male” rebranding”
equates general interest in fitness with being an “alpha male”. Because to me it is pretty clearly referring to the interest in combat sports, not fitness.
nailer · · focus · HN ↗
solid_fuel · · focus · HN ↗
All this requires is basic reading comprehension and a willingness to not read into statements things that weren’t stated.
dxxmxnd · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
toasty228 · · focus · HN ↗
lobf · · focus · HN ↗
The Fertitta brothers are who actually bought it. Before owning the UFC, Lorenzo Fertitta was on (maybe the head?) of the Nevada State Athletic Commission- the very body who were refusing to sanction UFC events at the time, and the most important governing body in the combat sports world.
Obviously the UFC was hurting bad at that time since they couldn’t be sanctioned, were getting booted from arenas they booked, and were getting dropped by Pay Per View carriers. This decimated their value and the Fertittas scooped up the company for a song.
All of a sudden, now that they owned it, the sanctioning bodies agreed on a set of unified MMA rules, the UFC was re-sanctioned, and they started selling PPVs again.
It was actually quite a success from the very beginning. Their troubles were likely imposed on them by their prospective buyers in order to get the sale done, and all they and Dana White did really were take their foot off the company’s neck.
dam_jackalopes · · focus · HN ↗