Dana White explains why the UFC is not interested in cross-promotion events: “They’re going to be here anyway”

UFC president Dana White has explained why the promotion isn’t interested in co-promoting with other companies.

For many years now, Dana White’s primary focus has been growing the Ultimate Fighting Championship. In turn, then, he’s also been growing mixed martial arts as a whole.

Plenty of other major promotions have been and gone in that time. In the present day we’ve got the likes of Bellator, Rizin, ONE Championship, PFL, KSW and many more to enjoy outside of the UFC bubble.

On New Year’s Eve, Bellator and Rizin will team up for a fun crossover event. Dana White, however, isn’t particularly keen on replicating such an idea himself.

“If somebody is really that good, and they’re in other promotion, they’re going to be here anyway.”

White fights back

The essence of Dana’s point makes a lot of sense. After all, the majority of the best MMA fighters out there already reside in the UFC.

Alas, it’d be nice to get a bit of friendly competition going. Bellator has done an especially good job of building up its roster in recent times and even though it still doesn’t compare, they have a couple of divisions that can certainly rival what the UFC has in its locker.

At the end of the day, the success of events like Bellator vs Rizin isn’t going to impact Dana White. In fact, he probably isn’t even going to know many of the fighters who are on the card.

Still, as fans, we can dream of a day in which the UFC gets involved with such great organized chaos.

Do you think Dana White will ever change his mind about co-promoting, as he did with Pride back in the day? Are you excited about Bellator vs Rizin? Let us know your thoughts in the comments, BJPENN Nation!