Fight Inc: Inside the UFC the new documentary series on Roku got a lot of attention on X.com (formerly Twitter) this past weekend.
People seemed shocked and alarmed to discover that Hunter Campbell, Chief Business Officer of the UFC, plays such a central role in negotiating with fighters.
The scene with Hunter telling Dana White and Jon Jones how long Jones would be out after an injury 4.3M views when OOC MMA tweeted it out..
But the scene showing Hunter talking Aljamain “Aljo” Sterling into defending his UFC bantamweight title against Sean O’Malley at UFC 292 in August — a fight Dana White announced immediately after Sterling’s UFC 288 fight in May — got the most attention.
And when you watch it, it’s easy to see why.
The scene is framed by comments from Dana White and shows Aljo and his manager Tiki Ghosn talking to Hunter Campbell. Ghosn is notably silent.
Here’s a transcript with my comments in italics:
Dana White: I announce a fight and the first thing Aljo says is “if my body holds up.” So now you have fans going ‘should I buy tickets and go to Boston and get a hotel room cause this guy might not show up?’ You’re either in the fight or you’re not in the fight.
Dana doesn’t mention that he announced the fight without checking with Sterling or his team first.
Aljo: I’m gonna fight although it’s literally against my will.
Hunter: If you don’t want to fight Aljo, you don’t have to fight. I’m not forcing you to f*cking fight Aljo. So you gotta decide what you wanna do. Whatever you decide to do, I’m cool with.
Hunter plays good cop…
Aljo: It kind of puts me in a bad light where ‘this guy can’t get out of his own way.’ I don’t get the thought process of doing that to somebody who’s always done whatever he was asked to do.
Hunter: You’re at your f*cking peak, you’ve looked incredible. It just this opportunity for you to take this audience which he (O’Malley) has built in and introduce you to them. But, instead of using the platform and the increased media attention, it’s almost like you’re working against it.
Hunter pulls the trapdoor while ostensibly being on Aljo’s side.
Aljo: I see your point 100%. The communication out of the gate…I was a little bit blindsided. I literally just fought and Dana made the fight right then and there. I know it’s a big opportunity. I just wish we’d had a conversation. That was it.
Dana White: Very paranoid people. They start thinking ‘well they want me to lose. They want him to win. They don’t want me to win. They’re trying to force this on me.’ We don’t decide who wins and loses.”
Is Dana lying? Are his lips moving?
Of course they wanted to give their golden boy Sean O’Malley every possible advantage by pushing a hurt Aljo to fight sooner than he wanted to.
Aljo responded to the clip going viral but it was pretty clearly a case of closing the barn door after the horse has done run away.
Poor Aljo. Like all the fighters in the UFC who aren’t Conor McGregor or Sean O’Malley, he’s in a no-win situation.
Now that Endeavor/TKO has clearly decided to start raising Campbell’s profile with UFC fans, it’s useful to go back and watch this MMA on Point video from a couple years back.
The On Point crew not only makes a strong case that Campbell is Dana White’s most likely successor, but that he was already essentially running the UFC on a day-to-day basis by 2020.
They cite some 2021 tweets from Ariel Helwani early in the video. Helwani was tweeting in the wake of the announcement that Derrick Lewis and Ciryl Gane would be fighting for an interim UFC heavyweight title — just months after Francis Ngannou won the title from Stipe Miocic.
I’d add that Dana’s choice to refer to Campbell as “my lawyer” rather than by name was probably a sign that Campbell was still auditioning for the role as Dana’s backup.
The fact that they’re now featuring Campbell so prominently in the Fight Inc doc is a sign that Hunter’s got the gig and it’s time to let the fans and media get to know him.
Here’s some of the key quotes from the MMA On Point video, making their case that Hunter is the next Dana:
The UFC president had this to say about that room you've probably seen a thousand times now. The one that's full of fighters names on a whiteboard that Dana uses to hype up cards on social media.
He said, “We sit in that room for f*cking hours staring at the walls and making fights. We hit some roadblocks but my job is to push these guys to figure things out. Everything I've ever done has been done in that room.”
Do you know who it is that Dana told the interviewer sits in that room with him for “f*cking hours”? Hunter Campbell.
Anotherarea in which White has been quick to compliment Campbell and thus reveal more about his importance is in relation to the pandemic.
Dana White: “Hunter Campbell, who works for me who has been f*cking killing himself. I thought this dude was gonna f*cking die.”
Dana told Yahoo Sports that it was Hunter who got UFC 249 in Jacksonville put together after the promotion was shut down and missed five cards (due to covid lockdowns).
If you've watched the Fight Island Declassified documentary that ESPN did, Campbell was crucial to getting Fight Island secured and setting up the series of cards there.
When Gilbert Burns got covid and had to drop out of the main event of UFC 251 — Fight Island's first card it was Hunter who broke the news to him.
It was Hunter who set up the replacement bout with Masvidal, Dana just gave final approval. Hunter was even doing things like informing Paul Felder that he had to quarantine because he'd been exposed to covid by being around Din Thomas.
Remember when UFC 232 had to get moved to California at the last second because of Jon Jones's pulsing picograms?
Look who's in the room breaking the situation down to Alexander Gustafsson (cuts to video of Campbell and Gustafson).
I'm not sure exactly what it is Dana even has to do when this guy is around. He seemingly does everything.
