CBS: You guys got some press on ESPN this past week with the GSP/Serra fight. Is there any more talks about expanding your relations with ESPN and ESPN possibly covering live events?

Dana: Yea, ESPN will cover the UFC on a regular basis now.

CBS: And Live events possibly?

Dana: Yea, weigh-ins and live events, and you know the results of the events.

Ringside Mag.: (To Dana) Are you going to bring over judges and Refs over from the US? (For UFC 70)

Dana: Yes, inspectors, judges, and Refs.

Ringside: So, on local talent in that regard?

Dana: No, there might be some local guys over there but not as Refs.

Ringside: (To Mirko) You are very well known for you kicking and your punching, what haven’t we seen about you which regard BJJ?

Mirko: Well, I’ve trained JJ a lot, and I have JJ experts in my gym and I feel comfortable even on the ground even with JJ fighters like Gonzaga. I am aware that he used to be a World JJ champion. I am pretty worked in ground fight now. You know of course my background is standup, and I will try to keep the fight in standup position but even if it goes on the ground, I am not scared.

FightSport Mag.: (To Dana) Does the UFC have plans to train European and UK officials in the future or will you just continue to bring people over from the NSAC?

Dana: No, absolutely, we plan on training; we are doing it here in the US too. It is a long hard process, training officials. Yea, it is going to take us some time but the answer is yes. The pool isn’t that deep in the US either.

Orange County Register: (To Mirko) What are the biggest problem that Gabriel Gonzaga present in this fight, what do you have to be aware of and ready for?

Mirko: Well Gabriel Gonzaga is a solid fighter, is a good fighter, he is a tough guy, he won’t hesitate to fight. He is a first class grappler, and I have to be careful, of course I will try to keep the fight in the stand position as long as possible, and he will, of course will try to turn the fight on the ground. We will see, we will see, I don’t want to underestimate Gabriel Gonzaga, you know?

Sportsline: (TO Dana) With this being your first major jump into the European market, can you discuss whether you have had an difficulties doing that, whether logistically or whatever, or has it been a pretty smooth transition?

Dana: No, it was very rough, you know? When we first went into the UK, we were there in 2003, and I had this big plan, and it didn’t go like I had planed it to go because the PPV distributor over there…Lets just say things just didn’t work out. I invested a lot of money in to the UK market and I wasn’t going to let it go I mean I’ve been working on this deal since 2003, to get back over there. Thank God for Bravo. The Bravo network over there, when we reached a deal with them and started showing TUF over there, then we brought the two guys from the UK for the season 3, that is what really help start the whole thing and they made it happen for us over there, but I never gave up on the UK market. We spent a lot of money over there and I wasn’t going to let it go.

Sportsline: Now that your there, and you’ve kind of set up shop and to be there again for future shows, is there anything specific that you maybe would do differently after this time any growing pains involved or….

Dana: No, This show here, pulling this show off and getting everything going, this time it has been very smooth. You know, we kind of knew what we were walking into this time. We have better partnerships over there now than we did before.

Post Bulletin: (To Dana) You mentioned insuring the future of the sport, here in Minnesota we are in a situation where there is no commission and we just had another town that just banned MMA, it is a second here in a month, and I know their going through difficulties down in Iowa too. Are you guys as the UFC kind of being the leader here in the US, are you guys doing something to help out at all with that situation?

Dana: Absolutely, It is incredibly insane for these places to be banning MMA, I mean it is on TV everyday of the week, nobody has been seriously injured or killed in the 15 year history of the sport, and it is just insane. But, there is an education process that is going to take us time we will get it all straitened out. Our goal in the next fight years is to have this thing sanctioned in every state. The UFC might not go to Idaho or someplace like that but somebody is putting on a show there this weekend, and we want to make sure that it is sanctioned and overseen by the commission and safe for the fighters.

Post Bulletin: So it is going to be a matter of putting money into lobbyist, or what is it going to be?

Dana: It takes time, there is only so many things that I can do. We are trying to get, right now we own Pride, WEC the UFC, right now we are going in a million different directions, I started with 3 employees 6 years ago, I have 90 employees now, and that is just for the UFC, that’s not including the WEC or Pride. So, we have a lot of shit to do. I will get to that, that is in our plans over the next five years, to get all these states on board.

Post Bulletin: Right now, these guys putting on shows here are basically under there own regulation, you know, do you have any advise for the guys, you know, I know they want to do things right but what can they do to insure the future here?

Dana: It’s bad, if you’re putting on shows that aren’t regulated it is bad, you know. I highly doubt, believe me, we’ve talked about this going to the UK. Regulating yourself is pretty weird. One of the thing about us is we don’t cut corners obviously we have made a big investment in this sport and the last thing we ever want to see is any of these guys get hurt, you know? A lot of these guys we care about, we have very good relationships with these guys. So the last we want to see is some fighter getting hurt out in some state where there is no governing body, no regulation.

Post Bulletin: So, do you prefer that there are no shows in these states until there was a commission?

Dana: Absolutely

Post Bulletin: how devastating do you feel it would be for the sport if something were to happen in one of these shows?

Dana: Who knows? I don’t know the answer to that question; I know it wouldn’t be good. It is never fun when somebody gets injured or dies, God forbid. You know? Never good.

Canadian Press: (To Dana) Is it just the UK that seems able to get the PPV? What kind of numbers would you like to see?

Dana: We are in 170 countries on some form of TV. Whether it is free TV or PPV. So, no there are many people that are getting it.

Canadian press: So what kind of audience do you think this show is going to attract in the UK?

Dana: I don’t know, I really don’t know, I know the last show we did there with no awareness, you know, when I say no awareness, obviously not he awareness that we have there now, it did pretty well. So, we are pretty confident this one is going to do very well.

Canadian Press: What kind of subject matter are you going to have on HBO, will it be reality shows, will it be fight cards, like PPV cards?

Dana: It will be fight Cards

Canadian Press: It will be something different than PPV cards and UFN’s, I’m thinking something in between.

Dana: Yea, it will be, well, we are going to have this process that guys come off of the reality show fight on Spike TV, and you will have, here I’ll give you an example, you will have you Kos’s and all the starts that come out of there with the exception of the guys who won. The guys who won will move on to HBO. Here I’ll give you an example, Big Nog, maybe his first fight will be on HBO.

Canadian Press: Someone like the next Bisping, would he end up on HBO?


Dana: Yea

Canadian Press: (To Mirko) Do you think that anyone is as dangerous as you are in this sport?

Mirko: No, I don’t think so.

Canadian Press: How would you rate you performance against Sanchez? How do you think you fought?

Mirko: Well, Sanchez avoid the fight, and that is one thing that was hard for me, It was my first time fighting in cage, you know, it is a strange feeling, the cage is bigger than the ring and it is a little bit different, you know? Plus Sanchez was running away, so I had to run after him. And I just don’t like that kind of fight.

Canadian Press: So you thing against Gonzaga, the fans will see more of the real Cro Cop?

Mirko: I believe that Gonzaga is a different type of fighter.

Las Vegas Review Journal: (To Dana) How big do you think a Mirko and Randy could be. Is Mirko well enough know in the US right now to make this another Chuck/Tito fight?

Dana: I’ve got billboards in LA, a whole building on the Sunset strip, I’ve got billboards in Time Square, Las Vegas, and a few other key cities here in the US, he is all over the UK, we are beaming this fight back live on Spike TV. So we are really doing everything that we can to get Gonzaga and Cro Cop known. And yea, I think the fight between Cro Cop and… I don’t like to jump past anybody and you know first of all Cro Cop has got to beat Gonzaga, he has to face Gonzaga first, he wins that fight then yea, we have already been working and will continue to work on making sure that everybody in this country knows who Mirko Cro Cop is.

PART 2: Coming Soon


Las Vegas Review Journal: But, Dana, don’t you have to get past the hardcore people and in order to make a fight to the level of what Chuck and Tito was or bigger than that, do you have to go beyond the hardcore audience and get new fans?

Dana: Yea, I think we continue to do that everyday with the programming we put out, we will put together a whole countdown show like we do for all our other fights that will air on spike and I’m sure we will come up with a lot of other creative ways to hype that fight up, but at the end of the day, there is already a buzz here in the US and the UK and many other countries around the world about Mirko Cro Cop and Randy Couture is one of the most beloved fighters ever, so I think the fight will be very big.

Las Vegas Review Journal: One of the big contentions on HBO and the UFC was that, the production and the announcers and everything. What have you decided on that?

Dana: It has been a long hard process, this deal with HBO; I’m very comfortable where we are right now. I would have never signed a deal that I wasn’t comfortable with. I probably could have had a deal with HBO a year ago, but I was never going to sign a deal that I wasn’t comfortable with and I think that HBO and the UFC are both comfortable with where we are at right now.

Las Vegas Review Journal: Where is that?

Dana: We will be doing a show this summer. [laughs]

Las Vegas Review Journal: But, who is going to provide the announcers and who will be doing the production?

Dana: HBO will be doing the production

LVRJ: Really? So that is the first time that you’ve given that up?

Dana: Yep, [laughs] it wasn’t easy.

Washington Post: (To Mirko) Can you please tell me about your life in Croatia, growing up, and what it is like now.

Mirko: It is hard question to answer in a sentence. Croatia is my homeland and as far as I’m concerned it is the most beautiful country on the planet earth. I have a good life here, and good friends here, and I could never imagine living anywhere else than Croatia.

Washington Post: What exactly do you do for Parliament? What exactly are your duties?

Mirko: Like everyone else, I am parliament member and I duties like every other member of the parliament.

Washington Post: How much have you enjoyed that?

Mirko: Not so much like fighting.

Washington Post: Why not?

Mirko: Being a member of parliament is a great responsibility and fighting is a great reasonability too but, first I am a sportsman and them I am a politician. It is hard to explain in a sentence or two, and especially for me when I have to explain it in English it is not easy.