No stranger to a little controversy, UFC president Dana White recently made waves by suggesting in a May interview with ESPN’s Bill Simmons that many mixed-martial-arts rankings lists were influenced through financial contributions.

This past weekend, in a one-on-one interview with MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com), White confirmed that he still believes rival promotions are improperly influencing the media’s opinion.

“Let me tell you what; I’ve been in this business for a long time,” White said. “Nobody, and I mean [expletive] nobody, knows more about this business than I do.

“Everything that’s happened throughout the years, all the [expletive] that I’ve gone through, my biggest beef with a lot of these MMA websites is that these guys are for-profit websites. They’re not [expletive] news sites. They’re for-profit websites.”

White doesn’t necessarily contend that media members are taking direct payments for placing a fighter in a top-10 list. Instead, he believes that the advertising that promoters often purchase on MMA websites can easily skew journalists’ opinions.

When White’s comments first came to light, some MMA observers referenced the UFC’s past arrangement with sports radio host Scott Ferrall – in which Ferrall was paid to attend UFC events and in turn discussed the fights on his SiriusXM show – as proof the UFC president was being hypocritical in his “pay for rankings” accusations.

“Scott Ferrall isn’t making rankings,” White said. “It’s different if you get guys to come out and cover some events. Believe me, in building this business, we had to do some things. But as far as being on the up-and-up? You will never hear a story about me trying to do something with a referee or a judge or trying to pay somebody to rank our fighters.

“We don’t even rank our own fighters. Do you see any ranking system on our website?”

Some fans and media members have pointed to a need for an internal ranking system within the UFC, but White said not to expect that anytime soon.

“It’s a total conflict of interest, and in my opinion, it’s pretty easy to figure out who’s next in line for title shots and things like that,” White said. “And, at the end of the day, we’re in the business of making fights that people want to see. For instance, right now, I am getting terrorized – and I’m shocked that people keep doing it – to put on Anderson Silva vs. Georges St-Pierre. It starts to get to the point where I’m like, ‘I guess if everybody wants to see this fight, maybe we make this fight. We do it as a superfight.’ I don’t know. These guys still have a few fights to go before that could happen.

“But we don’t make our own rankings. It wouldn’t be right.”

White said he believes that in order to be considered among the best fighters in the world, an athlete needs to compete in the sport’s top promotion.

“I’m going to tell you what the big problem is,” White said. “People ask me ‘What do you think about Strikeforce doing this?’ How the [expletive] can you talk to me about Strikeforce? How can you put Strikeforce in the same [expletive] sentence as the UFC – seriously – with a straight face? How can you do it?

“The MMA guys, you guys feel like you have to be fair. No you don’t. It would be like boxing covering some [expletive] event that’s happening in Ohio (rather than a big fight in Las Vegas).”

White’s biggest gripe, of course, comes with media members who believe Russian heavyweight Fedor Emelianenko should be considered the world’s top pound-for-pound fighter.

“[Strikeforce has] sold 4,000 tickets to the (June 26) Fedor fight,” White said. “That fight is in a couple of weeks. Nobody gives a [expletive], and nobody is going to give a [expletive] about Fedor until he gets in here and fights the best fighters in the world. And believe me when I tell you I tried to make it happen. You don’t even know the crazy [expletive] places that I’ve flown and the [expletive] that I’ve done to try and get this fight done. It got to the point where it became an obsession. I wasn’t sleeping.

“I’ve signed Brock Lesnar, who came from the WWE, James Toney from boxing – he’s a nut chasing me all over the place – Tito Ortiz, whom I hated, and he hated me. I signed him twice when we hated each other. I’ve kept Chuck Liddell, kept Matt Hughes, kept Rich Franklin, when they were all champions. Anderson Silva, I’ve dealt with all the crazy [expletive] with him.

“But I can’t sign Fedor? How is this possible that I can’t sign this guy? It’s not possible. These guys don’t want to fight the best in the world.”

White said as the UFC continues its global expansion, fighters will need to fight in the octagon to prove their worth as MMA fighters. Just as the world’s best football players compete in the National Football League, White sees the UFC as the pinnacle of the sport.

“Guys who deserve to be called the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world are the guys who are fighting the best in the world three times a year,” White said. “So when you talk about the rankings and all this [expletive], you’re going to put Strikeforce in the same [expletive] sentence as the UFC? We’re global. We’re all over the world. These guys can’t sell tickets in their own hometown. They’re dying. They just had a heavyweight championship fight with a guy who got knocked the [expletive] out in his previous fight. You know what I’m saying? It’s insane.

“When people wonder why I say these people are being paid for rankings, and this is all a crock of [expletive], do you really have to ask me that question? Seriously, look at it for what it is.”

“I don’t want Strikeforce to go away”

Despite his hard-nosed stance on rankings, you may be surprised to find out the UFC boss isn’t hellbent on eliminating other MMA promotions.

In fact, White says the opposite is actually true. The fiery exec says the UFC needs other organizations to survive in order to help the sport of MMA grow worldwide.

“Everybody thinks it’s me being anti-competition,” White said. “There is no competition. We’re the NFL. You don’t see people looking at the NFL and going, ‘Yeah, but he’s not the best player in the world because there’s a guy playing for the Canadian Football League or the Arena League over here.’ We’re the NFL. There is no other guy.

“Strikeforce, we need Strikeforce to exist. I don’t want Strikeforce to go away. I need these guys. I need them and all the other guys. I wish the other idiots didn’t blow their brains out like they did.”

White insists the world needs viable MMA promotions to help grow the sport and develop talent – talent that could ultimately fight in the UFC after properly developing in smaller shows.

But White offers a stern warning to anyone trying to directly compete with his promotion.

“Everybody wants to come in and try to compete with us,” White said. “We’ve been around for almost 20 years. I’ve been doing this for 10 years, and we’re the ones building the [expletive] industry. We have built this industry over the last nine years. Everybody else is following. You think Strikeforce knows the next move? Is Strikeforce doing anything to get New York and Ontario done? [Expletive], no. We are, and we’re going to get it done. They’re just riding along.

“All these other guys blew their brains out and spent millions and millions of dollars that if done the right way, they could have made money and built the business. But no, we’re going to go out and compete with the UFC. You know how [expletive] dumb that is? It’s like us sitting at my house on a Sunday going, ‘Look at this NASCAR. Oh, my God. Look at all the people there. Look at how much money they’re making. You know what? We should steal a couple of their drivers, and we’ll start our own league.’ Does that sound [expletive] dumb to you? That’s how [expletive] dumb it is to think you’re going to come out and compete with us now.”

White says the UFC’s efforts to gain regulation throughout North America while also growing the sport across the globe are firm testaments to the promotion’s to-dog status.

“Where are these guys going?” White asked. “What are they doing? They’re not going anywhere. They’re not doing anything. You know what we’re doing? (UFC co-owner) Lorenzo (Fertitta) was just on the road for [expletive] 12 days. He was in China. Then he was in India.

“We’re doing deals. We’re going to do these shows. We’re going to open up all these different countries, and people are [expletive] seriously asking me about Strikeforce?”

A promoter in every sense of the word, White never shies away from speaking his mind. And after watching the demise of promotions such as Affliction, BodogFIGHT, EliteXC, the International Fight League and countless others, White’s mind believes it’s time for budding MMA promotions to consider their role in the sport.

According to White, the UFC isn’t relenting its spot as the juggernaut of MMA organizations.

“There was a time when it was neck-and-neck,” White said. “That time is over.

“There were times when we were in dogfights, but everybody needs to just concede and realize we’re the [expletive] NFL. Period. End of story.”

John Morgan is the lead staff reporter for MMAjunkie.com.