MMA

Matt Serra Dishes on Drama with Dana White and Nick the Tooth on “Lookin’ For a Fight”

MMA


Dana White: Lookin’ For a Fight has been a serviceable reality show for MMA fans. Granted, it’s a white washed presentation of White, a petty, greedy individual with the maturity of a pre-teen, but it does a decent job of combining the standard reality show fare of people doing wacky things with mixed martial arts.




Lookin' For a Fight features former UFC champ Matt Serra (left), UFC President Dana White (far right) and hanger-on Nick the Tooth (center). Screen by us.

Lookin’ For a Fight features former UFC champ Matt Serra (left), UFC President Dana White (far right) and hanger-on Nick the Tooth (center) doing various wacky things. Screen by Fight State.

Something odd came up recently, however, when Nick the Tooth, a longtime buddy of Dana White and one of the three main characters of Lookin’ For a Fight, suddenly disappeared and was replaced by former UFC fighter Din Thomas. The three had good on-screen chemistry, despite the fact that Nick just generally feels like a slimy hanger-on, and that left many wondering what the heck happened to break them up.

Well, Serra recently appeared on the Bruce Buffer podcast to revealed what the heck happened. And it ain’t pretty.

Personally, I'm happy whenever an MMA throwback like Din Thomas manages to find steady pay in the sport after retirement. Photo by Sherdog.

Personally, I’m happy whenever an MMA throwback like Din Thomas manages to find steady pay in the sport after retirement. Photo by Sherdog.

Here’s the abridged version of what Serra had to say (as transcribed by Bloody Elbow). We didn’t want to post the whole thing because he goes on lots of random tangents:

“You know what, it’s weird with the Tooth, man. We had such a great chemistry on the show, I know that. He’s a little bit of a wacky guy… I don’t know if you watch the show, but there’s an episode where we had a little jiu-jitsu match…We went to a jiu-jitsu school, and we had a little match. What happened was what I expected to happen. Of course I’m gonna tap the guy like a typewriter. Who expected anything different…I go home afterwards, and I get a long-winded text saying, ‘I just want you to know it was a pleasure and this and that, it was an honor…but, I have to let you know, I cannot let that air.’”

According to Serra, that was the start of a series of complaints by Nick, who took issue with being portrayed as a chump on numerous occasions during the filming (my words, not his).

Nick doesn't generally seem like a completely on-the-ball dude and seems childish like Dana, but he was portrayed badly on the show. Screen by us.

Nick doesn’t generally seem like a completely on-the-ball dude and seems childish like Dana, but he was portrayed badly on the show. Screen by us.

Dana White apparently didn’t like him trying to call the shots with producers, but things got worse from there, according to Serra:

“Joe Silva asked him, ‘Hey man, how was it to roll with Matt?’ He was asking him nicely, like ‘How did that feel?’ That guy went right off, ‘Oh that fat motherf*cker! He set me up! That guy attacked me!’ Not only that, he went to Dana, ‘I want you to admit that you guys didn’t really get tased, but I did, or else I’m walking off the show.’”

That, as they say, was that.

In fairness, Nick was shown to be something of a stooge during the show and I certainly can’t blame him for not liking that (assuming that he was the victim of reality TV editing). On the other hand, he basically seems like a less-self-important Dana White himself, meaning he’s overly sensitive and basically a prime example of “toxic masculinity.”

Din Thomas, a fighter-turned-stand-up-comic should be a good addition to the show. We’ll see how long it keeps going for.


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