SACRAMENTO, Calif. – UFC President Dana White says although Zuffa is always talking with network execs, they are not actively pursuing any television deals. “If it happens, it happens,” White says, but he insists network TV is not a requirement for his promotion’s future success.
And although White would be willing to work with a television network if the deal made sense, one network White is adamant about not working with however, is CBS. He says CBS is tarnished now, and because of Showtime, they blew their chance at working with the UFC. He goes on to explain this major difference between the UFC and Strikeforce:
“Strikeforce is on CBS because they had to take that deal, they had to do that deal with Showtime. I don’t. I don’t have to do those kind of deals. IFL had to do that deal. They’re bad deals… In every way, shape, and form, they’re bad deals. I was this close, we were so close to this HBO deal, and right before it was there, I said, ‘I don’t like this. I don’t like it. It doesn’t make sense.’ There were a lot of things I didn’t like about it. “