Remember when Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) President Dana White was flying to remote regions with a blank check to court former PRIDE heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko (and Vadummy) and still couldn't get a deal done?
That was chicken feed.
Especially when compared to the ongoing negotiations with female mixed martial arts (MMA) icon Gina Carano, who White told FOX Sports was the hardest human being he's ever dealt with, thanks to the "pain in the ass lawyers" charged with handling her career.
"The hardest human being we've ever dealt with and I didn't see it coming. I don't know, we'll see how these things play out. Just incredibly difficult. We've dealt with (Brock) Lesnar, Tito (Ortiz), Chuck (Liddell) was fucking king of the world, Ronda Rousey, we've pretty much done deals with everyone on Earth and she is the hardest fucking athlete we have ever dealt with. The problem is she allows herself to be handled by these Hollywood fucking idiots. It's absolutely crazy. We've had all the biggest superstars in the world. You're talking about a girl who hasn't fought in a while. Any time you deal with anyone in fucking Hollywood it's a joke. It's literally a joke, it's comical. You feel like you're in a 'Saturday Night Live' skit. This can't be fucking real. In dealing with her people, I don't know if it can be done. I'm going to tell you what Lorenzo (Fertitta) said to me -- he said whatever you do, if you want this fight to happen, do not talk to her manager. That's what Lorenzo said to me. He said 'you will fucking go crazy, you will lose your motherfucking mind. If you want this to happen, please don't call this guy.' A few days ago Lorenzo was like 'it's probably time for you to call this guy.' That's how bad it's been. I'll leave it at that."
They might be hard to deal with, but they seem to be doing a good job.
Carano has already bagged and tagged another pair of movie roles for late 2014, including October's Bus 657, which also features Robert De Niro (more on that here). "Conviction," once billed as the "face of women's MMA," has not competed since 2009, but considered making her combat sports return for a "super fight" against Ronda Rousey.
Either that, or her manager she was using UFC to help get people talking about her.