Russell Peters makes people laugh for a living, but the comedian is deadly serious when it comes to his concerns about the UFC.
Peters is a noted MMA fan and recently appeared on The MMA Hour to discuss where he thinks there is room for improvement.
“It really is hard to follow the sport and I’m a fan,” Peters said. “I think the problem is that UFC made it about their name as opposed to the fighters. I think that worked in the beginning, the rebranding. And that really saved and created a genre.”
Peters seemed particularly miffed about the UFC absorbing its rival Strikeforce and PRIDE organizations.
“They shouldn’t have bought PRIDE and Strikeforce and just eliminated them,” said Peters. “They should have kept them and then instead of UFC Fight Night, they could have had PRIDE night or Strikeforce. It gives you some sort of scope and then puts UFC at a higher level. ‘These are our lesser ones, here’s the big one.’ But if you call everything UFC … somebody was like did you catch the fights last night? I was like, ‘What f—ing fights? I didn’t know there was fights.'”
Peters believes that Dana White has created a MMA monopoly where there doesn’t need to be one.
“When UFC starts buying stuff and then getting rid of it, I’m like, well that’s just monopolizing a sport that doesn’t need to be monopolized,” he said. “There’s enough for it to go around. You don’t need to be the only guy in town. … You do want to be the only one standing. But if you own them all, does it really matter? You’re still the only man standing. It’s more for perception, really.
