Why the Nelk Boys got a better Dana White interview than MMA media's best

Spoiler: The deck was stacked against Ben Fowlkes from the start.

Last week not only saw MMA’s biggest star leave his long-time corporate home, it also saw something even rarer: UFC CEO Dana White granting an interview to “MMA media” as represented by Yahoo! Sports’ Ben Fowlkes.

Link goes to full YouTube video but I didn’t like their thumbnail.

This got some huzzahs from MMA media ombudsman (and proud Bloody Elbow alum) Trent Reinsmith:

And some of the most respected voices in the X.com MMA peanut gallery replied:

So I checked it out. Honestly, they lost me at the headline (no worries, Ben, I know some drone at Yahoo! wrote the headline, not you) which literally says the opposite of what they’re trying to convey.

You see, Dana wasn’t defending “criticism” of his actions, he was defending himself against criticisms that he’s transformed the UFC into a full-on campaign wing of Donald Trump’s GOP.

But that’s neither here nor there. The real tell was that MMAWeekly’s rip-off post of Fowlkes’ interview ran the same video segment & transcript with the exact opposite headline.

Ben’s interview is fine — and it is a real feat on his (or someone at Yahoo!’s) part to get almost 18 minutes of Dana’s time. He used it about as well as you can, but honestly there was nothing in the interview of any fucking interest whatsoever to anyone but hardcore nerds.

On the other hand, Dana’s appearance on The Fullsend Podcast actually rewarded my ~45 minutes that I spent watching it. It both fascinated me and filled me with a sense of cosmic horror.

Not because the Nelk Boys have a clue about the UFC, Donald Trump, or anything beyond marketing an aspirational wealthy post-college frat boy golfer lifestyle so they can run NFT scams on their audience — but for other bizarre reasons requiring some time to point out to you as a reader.

These reasons involve Endeavor’s influencer/crypto-bro web and the concept of the court jester.