Dana White, the sometimes seemingly insensitive President of the UFC, reminded the MMA world that he cares about the sport recently, when he barred Anderson Silva from using a new walkout song performed by his close friend Usher. Usher, a confident judge on the mass-marketed television show The Voice, had been working with Brazilian gospel rapper Pregador Luo on what would have no doubt been a completely unfamiliar and horribly misconceived pop/rap/gospel mash-up of sorts. More importantly, the pompous in-studio venture might have ruined the air surrounding the highly-anticipated main event at UFC 183.
“Ask Dana,” Silva explained. “Every time that I talk about changing my song, he says no. Pregador Luo (Preacher Luo, in the translation) was working with Usher, who is my personal friend, in a new song but it seems that Dana doesn’t want me to change, so we won’t change.”
Thankfully, Silva will be forced to use “Ain’t No Sunshine,” a classic song performed by DMX, who is a talented musician. The song has come to define Anderson’s career. And unless Usher intended to dance a bit in the Spider’s corner, it is difficult to imagine how he expected his weird collaboration to function as an improvement. Even for a televised judge of elite karaoke singers, his lack of foresight is surprising.
