UFC Quick Quote: Dana White says UFC is 'mom and pop's' compared to Bellator's backer, Viacom

"I love when you guys say a legitimate threat. A threat to what? Like they're gonna kill us? In what way? We're the 'mom and pops' now. Viacom's sitting on five billion in cash so they're not hurting for any money. It's good for them. Good for them. I'm not looking at them like, 'Oh my god, they're a huge threat!' You guys are so out of your minds. You, all them out here and then some of these fans are nuts. You guys get all nutty like, 'Oh, this is the next thing.' These companies that folded? They went out of business. They went out of business and lost millions and millions and millions of dollars. And when you're losing that kind of money in this economy, you want to get out of this business as fast as you can and that's what happened to all these other organizations. And when you look at somebody getting on television, they were all on television. All those guy had television deals. Even if you look at these guys now that just did the deal, they were on FOX, they were on ESPN, they were NBC, they were on everywhere. Just because you get on TV doesn't mean it's gonna make you successful. These guys gotta get in there and run their business. It doesn't mean that they're not gonna be successful either."

-- UFC President Dana White was asked about Viacom's purchase of Bellator today after the UFC 137 press conference in an interview with Ariel Helwani. White doesn't view Bellator as a threat, but also wasn't quick to dismiss the promotion either. Earlier this week, Viacom purchased a majority stake in Bellator and announced that the upstart promotion would debut on Spike TV -- the same network that helped UFC get on the mainstream map several years ago with The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) television series -- in 2013. That's when the television deal between Spike TV and the UFC's fight library expires. Does White have a point about the fans and media being quick to hail every upcoming promotion as "the next big thing?" Especially, considering that the UFC will hit the FOX television airwaves full force in 2012?