Dana White is heading down a dark path with the media.

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Lying isn't new and isn't new to the world of combat sports. Recently, though, it has come to the forefront as straight-shooter Dana White and other branches of UFC's media-facing figures have gone on record, repeatedly actually, lying to the fans and the media about the upcoming Chuck Liddell fight. All of this was done under the clever guise that UFC and Spike TV's reality series, "The Ultimate Fighter" would be compromised by releasing that Tito Ortiz would no longer be a part of the advertised fight between Liddell and Ortiz. A part of me is sympathetic to this, as giving a straight answer when the show isn't even mid-season could potentially "spoil" the entire season for fans and make them lose interest. Luke Thomas recently riffed on this concept, so I'll use this as a lead-in to my next point.

Let's answer the question, then: what is the problem with lying to the media or fans?

Aside from the obvious, the answer is that it severely undermines and erodes the foundation of honesty that guides the relationship between media and organization. The media has a responsibility to honestly and forthrightly publish only true information when reporting; the organization has a responsibility to only release information they know to be true. The UFC is free to withhold whatever information they choose, but knowingly telling falsehoods to select members of the media that seek to undermine other conflicting reports within the media is using the media to cannibalize itself.

I urge you to read the full article as Luke touches upon many good points, including why many tenured heads of companies don't talk in the black and white terms White does and why they do. Here is the thing, you would not exactly need to spoil the season at all to explain that at some point, something happens to Tito and they bring in Rich Franklin to save the show. Actually, a cleverly worded approach and commercial campaign could make this more interesting to viewers and the media.

So I'm sure you are wondering, how exactly is Dana White lying to everybody considered Japanese. It is quite simple, if you've been following HKL since we came up at least, or following the Japanese MMA and kickboxing scene for any period of time, you'll notice how anything said to the media should be taken with a grain of salt. What this means is when Tanikawa of K-1 or Sasahara of DREAM make an announcement it is usually not considered official until it has been added to the official fight card. The same can be said for the media in Japan, whose sources are usually within the companies. What this creates is an atmosphere where fighters, fans and the media are all fed lies on a daily basis and finding out what is truth or fiction often comes down to educated guess-work or waiting until the event is live.

I'll use a recent example where Andrei Arlovski's camp was given a contract by FEG to fight Alistair Overeem on New Year's Eve. They signed it, returned it, then went about getting Andrei's camp in motion to fight Overeem in a MMA bout. The only problem is Bas Boon, Overeem's manager, had not approved the bout and turned it down for a fight with Kazuyuki Fujita. There are older examples, like K-1 giving Bas Boon a contract using him a middle-man to sign Fedor Emelianenko, of course the problem was that Boon had minimal connections to Fedor and there was no way that Vadim and Co. would approve this contract not under their terms.

Tanikawa's Twitter feed is full of tongue-in-cheek rumors, sometimes used simply to throw people off of his trail. Other times he is completely honest. When pressed about Alistair Overeem a few months ago, he said Overeem would not fight at DREAM.13 but K-1 Yokohama. The problem was, Overeem thought he was still fighting at DREAM.13. Do you see why this is confusing and hard to believe?

Dana White is moving down a winding road full of bumps if he can continue to justify lying to the fans and media. This is the problem, he finds there to be nothing wrong with this, when maybe he should take a look at the years of abuse from Japanese promoters and how much of a mess the fight industry is there. If you build your foundation on sand, don't expect it to stand up to a battering of waves.