Money can't buy love for Dana White & Mark Shapiro
There was more fighting outside than inside the cage at UFC 319.
I don’t know about you, but scoring a $7.7B dollar deal with Paramount would make me one very happy camper if I was running UFC.
But then again, I don’t have to work with Mark Shapiro daily and put up with his word salad of MBA buzzwords. Based on a Saturday Wall Street Journal profile of Mark Shapiro, I could see how someone might easily lose their patience.
Dana White, by all accounts, should absolutely be thrilled to be the face of the UFC as the public absorbs the electric news of David Ellison spending $7.7B to land seven years of fight rights on Paramount.
Instead, our favorite Brand Ambassador is not in any kind of mood to tolerate venture capital financial tomfoolery when he sees it.
Who knew that Mark Shapiro is one of the few executives at TKO that has the ability to make make Dana White look compassionate and magnanimous in comparison.
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal profile on Mark Shapiro can simply be summed up in one word: grotesque.
It turns out that Mark Shapiro has some bigger aspirations than the fight business.
Steve Bornstein, who headed ESPN at the time, took Shapiro under his wing, and Shapiro rose to head of programming and production. Programs he developed included the long-running “Around the Horn” and “Pardon the Interruption,” which remains one of ESPN’s biggest non-sports shows.
Bornstein is now plotting his protege’s next move—succeeding Bob Iger at the helm of Disney next year.
“He’d be a great CEO for Disney,” Bornstein said.
The same ESPN that just got burned over UFC negotiations? The same ESPN handsomely enriching UFC’s coffers can’t even get a “it’s not you, it’s me” break-up line from Mark Shapiro?
Don’t think that this development hasn’t gone unnoticed in certain quarters.
What should have been a giant victory lap this week for UFC has instead exposed a rift and surge in tension between Dana White and Mark Shapiro. Ari Emanuel’s understudy stepped in it big time and Dana is not happy about it.
It all started last Monday on CNBC with David Faber hosting a hand-holding interview with Ari Emanuel & Mark Shapiro. By the time that six minute interview was over, deep fault lines were exposed.