UFC News: 'Big' John McCarthy reveals why Dana White hates cross-promotion

Dana White, the UFC President, is against cross-promotion. The last time he made a UFC star get involved outside and acted as a co-promoter was for the Conor McGregor vs Floyd Mayweather fight, where he pocketed a handsome fee himself.

Apart from that, White is staunchly against co-promotion or cross-promotion. One of the reasons why Fedor Emelianenko's deal with the UFC didn't work out was because he wanted a co-promotion, which the UFC deemed as impossible. Had it gone through, his debut would have been a Heavyweight Championship fight against then-champion Brock Lesnar.

Speaking on the Weighing In podcast, McCarthy explained why Dana White isn't supportive of cross-promotion (H/T BJPenn.com):

“Dana got ripped, and I don’t blame him (for not doing cross-promotion). Dana got ripped when he was first president of the UFC by PRIDE in giving over Chuck Liddell to PRIDE and then didn’t get anything back. He said ‘I’m never going to do that again.’ And unfortunately, he stuck to it.”

McCarthy explained that the fact that it damages their product and their ability to market their fighter is a reason why he can't blame Dana White.

“Now he’s stuck to it to the point where he looks at it like, ‘Why am I going to damage my product if I put a fighter out of my stable up against a fighter from another stable and he loses, it just damages my product there’s no reason to do that.’ I don’t blame him.”

Before that, McCarthy admitted that it's the best thing for the fans to see cross-promotion, something that Bellator President Scott Coker is a big fan of. He said that the promotions need to discuss the political side of things and do what's best for the fans. However, that doesn't look like it's going to be happening on UFC's part anytime soon.