Following a historic night at UFC 157 in California, UFC President Dana White sat down to answer the media’s questions about the big talking points resulting from the event.
Read our keynotes below and scroll down to watch the full video for yourselves.
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– White’s keen to remind people that everyone wanted Machida Vs Hendo to be the main event, but says that fans would have “left here pissed” if that tepid fight had actually been the headliner.
– With the women headlining UFC 157 was a sell-out, drew more people than Dos Santos Vs Velasquez in the same arena, and is going to be the biggest woman’s PPV event of all-time in any sport.
– White says Ronda Rousey will probably earn the biggest salary for a women’s fight ever as well.
– ‘Cyborg’ Santos’s manager Tito Ortiz was at last night’s fight and claimed that he hopes to put together a New Years non-title fight at 140lbs with Rousey in the UFC after she fulfills her three fight deal in Bellator. White is dismissive of that though and says ‘Cyborg’ isn’t a part of what they are doing here.
While he’s playing hard to get he admits that if Rousey at any point asks him for that fight then he’ll put it together.
– White’s convinced that this ground-breaking event will cause a chain reaction and result in a lot more talented female fighters emerging in the future.
– Apparently featherweight champion Jose Aldo is refusing to fight Anthony Pettis, saying he doesn’t deserve the title shot.
That doesn’t sit well with White though and he’s adamant that Aldo Vs Pettis will still happen next regardless of what the champ thinks.
“He’s going to fight Pettis or he’s not going to like how this turns out,” White warns.
– White’s not sure what will happen with Josh Koscheck after his defeat, but says that unlike a lot of people he actually likes him.
– He didn’t feel that the Machida Vs Hendo decision was controversial, but feels it could have gone either way.
– Machida will get the next shot at the title against the winner of Jon Jones Vs Chael Sonnen.
– White’s not going to push to get Gina Carano back into the sport, but if she was interested in returning – and he’s heard that she might be – then he would be happy to make a deal to bring her to the UFC. However, he points out that she’s a movie star now and he’s glad that she’s doing well with that.
– This was one of the craziest weeks in the history of the UFC according to White and he says he’s been working extremely long hours.
– White’s being asked about the PPV numbers again, but he’s still playing his cards close to his chest, focusing on the fact that it’s the biggest female PPV of all time (even although the previous record only did 125,000 PPV buys – considerably lower than the UFC’s usual average). He says they knew for sure they were going to beat that mark as early as Thursday.
– Brenan Schaub Vs Lavar Johnson wasn’t the fight he was expecting, but he can understand why Schaub went the wrestling route given that he’s been KO’d in his last two fights.
– Dana’s feeling “really good” about the chances of the UFC hosting a fight in New York after a recent victory in the courts, but he doesn’t want to say too much publicly at the moment.
– He didn’t like the way some hardcore fans treated the woman’s fight in the build-up to the event, but he was very pleased with the way the media handled it, with lots of mainstream attention and no ‘bad’ stories.
– The UFC’s regular cut-team of ‘Stitch’ and ‘House’ weren’t at this event again – the second in a row – and while they haven’t been released from the promotion White’s clearly unhappy with them over their attitude recently, claiming themselves to be ‘The A-Team’ when it comes to working fighter’s corners. He says that’s disrespectful to the UFC’s other employees.
– The UFC president is still annoyed that between Nick And Nate Diaz it’s cost the UFC over $50,000 in production costs due to interviews they’ve missed for their upcoming fights. They have fulfilled their obligations now, but he’s had words with their manager and lawyer about the situation.
– White was happy to see Robbie Lawler win and says he’s known him for a long time – back to 1996-1997 before he owned the UFC when they were all boxing together.
He believes Lawler looks like his old self at 170lbs, whereas he felt he was lethargic at 185lbs.
– Anderson Silva looks like he is going to fight Chris Weidman, but the deal isn’t done yet.
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