DANA IN CINCY***
http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071019/SPT08/710190327/1035/SPT
"Ohio's awesome," Dana White was saying. "If you walk through our home office (in Las Vegas), all the screen savers are pictures from Columbus. We went up into the stands and took aerial shots. Incredible.
"When we were (at Nationwide Arena), we broke every record the venue had. We were No. 1, and No. 2 was the Rolling Stones. If you look all over the country where we've been, we're No. 1, the Rolling Stones are No. 2."
"I attribute it to the fact that this is the most exciting combat sport in the world," he said. "We have all the flair and entertainment value of professional wrestling, yet it's real like boxing. That's what really makes this so enticing. We haven't even scratched the surface of how big this thing is going to be.
"Do you know how many people are fight fans? That's something we're all born with. The thing is, who's the baddest guy on the planet? We've all been intrigued by that since the beginning of time. Throughout history, from John L. Sullivan to Mike Tyson, we've always wondered who's the baddest man on the planet. And realistically, these guys are the baddest men on the planet.
"Take four corners of the street," White went on, pointing through the Westin windows at Fifth and Vine. "In one corner over there, they're playing some basketball. In this corner, they're playing some stickball. This corner over here, they're playing street hockey. A fight breaks out on the fourth corner. Where does the crowd go? Even the guys who are playing will stop playing to run over and watch the fight. There's just something in us that we enjoy fighting."
"The thing that people had trouble with," White reflected, "is when one guy's down and the other guy's on top of him pounding and pounding. The way we were raised and brought up is with old John Wayne movies. You don't hit a man when he's down. John Wayne would stand him back up and hit him again. That's the way we were brought up to think and believe. But all these martial arts countries get it.
"Take two guys, put them in the octagon, and they can use any martial art they want? That breaks all the cultural barriers. We're selling out arenas in the UK. This thing is so big in Japan, 100,000 people show up for the events. We're going to be the first company to do global Pay-Per-View."
