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SHANGHAI, CHINA – JUNE 20: Dana White, UFC President gives a speech during 2019 UFC Performance Institute Panel and UFC Fight Night Shenzhen Press Conference at UFC Performance Institute Shanghai on June 20, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Yifan Ding/Getty Images)
via Getty
SHANGHAI, CHINA – JUNE 20: Dana White, UFC President gives a speech during 2019 UFC Performance Institute Panel and UFC Fight Night Shenzhen Press Conference at UFC Performance Institute Shanghai on June 20, 2019 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by Yifan Ding/Getty Images)
The UFC has been around for more than a decade. Over the course of its existence, the UFC as a promotion and MMA as a sport has garnered a lot of attention and has slowly started becoming a mainstream sport in the United States as well as the rest of the world.
Recent developments, such as the sale of the UFC for 4.2 billion dollars and the ESPN deals, all but shows that the UFC is a major sport in the United States. Dana White and his team on Saturday took another step towards establishing themselves as the premier MMA organization.
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The UFC aired for the first time on the ABC network. The staff at the UFC as well as the fans could not have asked for a better card. The main card was one of the best main cards ever put together with multiple first-round stoppages and a main event for the ages.
Read: Massive news for Conor McGregor fans as Dana White provides an update
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Dana White speaks on the success of the UFC card on ABC
In the post-fight press conference, John Morgan asked Dana White his thoughts on the UFC’s network debut on ABC.
White replied, “No, it was incredible. You couldn’t script it better. It was a good night, really happy… Its funny I was telling my guys tonight as successful as we’ve been and all the things we’ve accomplished over the last 20 years and coming through the pandemic and all that sh*t…. I grew up on ABC world of sports and you know tonight was a big deal for us.”The UFC President continued, “So if we were to have went over tonight, if the fights went long and we went over, they would have shut us off. It would not have just spilled over cause it goes into the local news. So we got off at 57. The whole thing could not play out any more perfect than it did….they wanted us as we said awesome let’s go this and it was pretty damn good”
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The UFC kicks off 2021 once again with big news for fight fans. To share the same network that hosted the best of combat sports decades is a surreal moment. However, if Dana recently said that the UFC has big things planned for 2021. If this is the beginning of what is in store, the rest of 2021 can not come soon enough.
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