Former UFC PR chief Wenk: If I was there, Jones/Cormier scuffle wouldn’t have happened

Former UFC director of public relations Jen Wenk had one very good insurance policy to keep fighters in line, something she calls the “Dana bat.”

Presumably, that meant if you messed with her, you’d be messing with the boss: UFC President Dana White.

Wenk wasn’t shy about using her insurance policy, once coming in-between Rashad Evans and Quinton Jackson at the height of their feud.

“We were over at Red Rock, and I’m doing a photo shoot for a UFC catalogue, and ‘Rampage’ and Rashad got into it,” she told MMAjunkie Radio. “They were almost going to square off. I slid in between the two of them, with my back to ‘Rampage’ and my face to Rashad, and they’re literally squishing me, and I said to Rashad, ‘We are in (UFC Chairman) Lorenzo (Fertitta’s) house – you are not going to do this.’

“I’m telling you: Guys don’t mess with a girl with a big stick.”

Wenk left the UFC in 2011 to start her own PR firm, Star PR, but maintains a good relationship with the promotion. That said, she thinks the “Dana bat” could still be of good use, particularly when it comes to keeping unruly fighters in line.

It might have even prevented one of the most notorious PR gaffes in UFC history when Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier fought in the lobby of Las Vegas’ MGM Grand Garden Arena.

“No discredit whatsoever to (Senior Director of Public Relations Dave) Sholler; he’s doing a great job,” Wenk said. “But if I had been at that press conference that day, there would not have been a scuffle.”

Sholler made headlines (and generated a few memes) when he attempted to prevent trouble by standing in between Jones and Cormier. Of course, he was little match for two light heavyweights and professional fighters, and he was tossed aside, along with a UFC head of security. It took several men to separate the two, who spilled to the floor with Jones on top throwing punches. Cormier ended the fracas with a thrown shoe that wound up hitting a photographer.

The out-of-cage fight hyped the real one more than anyone could have imagined despite the bad look it gave the sport of MMA. Injury would stand between Jones and Cormier and deflate some of the air built up. Still, their showdown at UFC 182 would still go down as an epic fight.

It’s hard to say whether a Dana bat would have changed anything, but it might have made the road there a little different.

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.

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