TUF 5: Episode 8, Dana White's promo and the reality that it's TV

The following is the opinion of its author but not necessarily anyone else associated with this site. However, it should be the opinion of all of them.

I wanted to write about the Ultimate Fighter episode I saw tonight. No, this is not a recap of the entire show, Euan you still must do some work for once.

I just want to talk about one thing.



I want to talk about the streetfight but more specifically, Dana White's reaction to it. The short version is that Marlon Sims and Noah Thomas got in to a streetfight after an encounter with some alcohol. Others in the house were there watching and egging them on. When it ends the discussion turns to what will happen and if they'll get kicked out of the house. We don't have to wait long as Dana sees the tape the next day.

Dana pulls all of them together and starts yelling as he is prone to do. Now, let me say one thing before I get to the real heart of the matter. Dana's rant made for an entertaining TV moment. I'm not going to claim that what happened wasn't entertaining TV my problem is with the claims that were made.

Dana basically said (only he used the word fuck a lot more than I will) that he was disgusted by what he saw on the tape. He said that this was the kind of thing that most of the public perceived UFC fighters to be, nothing more than goons. I've got no objection with this so far.

He went on to say that he was working hard to change that perception and couldn't allow for something like this to happen and then he kicked Thomas, Sims and Alan Berube who was the chief antagonist out of the house and off of the show.

My questions are as follows:

1. If this bothered Dana White as much as he would like us to believe based on his rant, then why did all of the commercials for this episode hype up that incident?
   
2. If he were truly upset by this, aren't there other things he could've done to suppress this kind of thing?

If I didn't want to get attention for this kind of thing, here is how I would've handled it. I would've made damn sure that the footage of the streetfight didn't air and I would've not sent those guys home. However, I would've held them off of the Ultimate Fighter Finale and not brought them back for as long as I could if ever. The reason I wouldn't have sent them home is because if you send them home the people need to see why. However, if I'm Dana White I do the same thing he did because ultimately showing this is theoretically going to bring ratings which is supposed to benefit the show and the company.

The Ultimate Fighter is first and foremost a TV program. TV programs need ratings and this is the kind of thing that will get people talking. So, that's why something you supposedly don't want your sport to stand for is the main thing being hyped in your commercials for that week's episode.

I'm not saying that Dana is an evil man for not being completely honest with his audience on this one. Showing that fight is theoretically good for the ratings and that's good for the show which is good for the company, image be damned. However, I don't want to read and am not going to say that Dana's rant wasn't a manufactured part of this show. If he really had a problem with that fight to the extent that he portrayed on the episode, you would've never seen that footage...ever. So he may claim he's trying to bring the sport out of the dark ages, but MMA is just like Pro Wrestling no matter how much the strictly MMA fans want to pretend it isn't.

The Ultimate Fighter is a manufactured TV show. Notice I never call it reality TV. This is because reality TV is an oxymoron. Because it is on TV, it can't be real. The reasons that is true follow:

1. These shows are edited (unless done live) and until you can edit real life to fit your needs...its not a reflection of reality.
   
2. The situations on most shows could never be duplicated in real life. I don't know about you, but I'm rarely ever pulled off the street to go to some secluded place and compete against other people for some prize.
   
3. Show's with competitions I.E. American Idle or the Ultimate Fighter don't really do what they claim. Take Idle for instance. You can't honestly tell me that when auditions take place that the best singers are always the ones that make the final cut. Anyone reading this knows full well that if you're a good singer but have no camera presence, you're fucked...even if you're more talented than people that do make the show. At that point, you're not picking the best singer. Plus, most of music isn't about singing anyway, its about image so really this show could exist without the singing at all and accomplish the same goal. Finally on Idle, I never watch the show but here's the deal. You can't tell me that the best singer is always guaranteed to win the contest. However, I can guarantee that the most popular person will win because...you win using a popular vote.
   In the case of the Ultimate Fighter, they probably had a bunch of guys come in that were more polished fighters than Corey Hill. However, Corey has a unique personality and that allowed him to vault past more experienced guys.

The above rant leaves out sporting events because strictly speaking you could hold the same game on TV or not televise it at all and have no real impact on the game itself other than the one not televised would run quicker due to not needing commercial time outs. The Ultimate Fighter show is not a sporting event though until you get to the finale. Until then it is a dramatic series with a sports contest as the vehicle to drive the drama. You could stick those guys in a house, give them something to do besides fight and get a show out of it...so the fights aren't really essential for this show to exist.

The Ultimate Fighter doesn't set out to find the best fighter as Dana claims every season. TUF actually sets out to find the most marketable stars. There's a difference between the 2. If the idea were strictly to see who the best fighter is then guys that were technically great fighters but had the personality of 100 year-old cardboard would be more prevalent on the show. But because it is TV and people connect to personalities when its audition time you'd better believe personality is taken in to as much account as fight skill if not more so.

So my point is lets not praise these guys for doing something that they didn't actually do. I praise them for putting an entertaining product on the air because I feel that's what they did. However, I don't praise them for taking a stand for trying to clean up the sport...because they embraced what happened more than they tried to shy away from it.

I think Dana White lied in his promo...I don't fault him for it because the lie made for a compelling segment on the show. He's not the first person to lie for the benefit of his company and he won't be the last. So this isn't a straight criticism of what Dana did so much as a wake up call for anyone naive enough to think he went on that rant for the good of the sport.

Want more proof to convince you that the whole thing was manufactured for the greatest impact. Look at the placement of the commercial. Dana says what he saw was disgusting and then we go to a commercial before hearing the rest of the rant. They knew exactly where to insert that commercial in order to keep people watching which is the ultimate goal of any TV show with the possible exception of TNA iMPACT.