Following last night’s UFC 154 post-fight press conference Dana White sat down to speak to the media about all of the big talking points resulting from the show.
Read the keynotes below and scroll down to watch the full video for yourselves.
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– Dana hails GSP for being able to come back from a serious knee injury and a long absence from fighting yet still be able to put on a performance like he did against a top fighter like Condit.
– He acknowledges that GSP might not seem too enthusiastic about fighting Anderson Silva right now, but he thinks he’ll feel differently once he’s had some time to recover from tonight’s exertions. He doesn’t plan on speaking to him about the potential superfight until about 10 days time.
– The UFC are looking for bantamweight champion Renan Barao to defend his title soon, potentially against Michael McDonald.
– White is pleased that Anderson Silva is entertaining the thought of a fight with Jon Jones – though not right away.
He feels that the right course of events would be GSP fighting Silva and then perhaps defending his title a couple of times, though he acknowledges it could be that he defends his belt again and then takes on the superfight.
– White reveals that he hasn’t been answering Stephan Bonnar’s phone calls since he tested positive for steroids after UFC 153. He doesn’t hate him, but he’s disappointed in him and just doesn’t want to speak to him right now.
– Dana is keeping tight-lipped about which day TUF 17 will air next year, though assures everyone that it won’t be a Friday.
– He jokes that he’d like to see Ronda Rousey make her UFC debut next Saturday, but admits he’s not sure when it will be.
– Cheick Kongo is reportedly not happy that White told the media that he turned down a fight with Roy Nelson next month, pointing out that it was a short-notice request. White says that’s the second fight in a row that he’s turned down though, and says it’s becoming more common for fighters to turn down bouts when they are worried that they can’t afford another loss on their record. White feels that’s the business that they are in though, and that they should do their job.
– White is “bummed out” that Shane Carwin picked up an injury that forced him to withdraw from the Nelson fight. He feels it would have been a good fight and says Carwin is a good guy.
– Toronto, Canada, Dallas Texas Stadium in the US and a stadium in Brazil are all being actively considered as venues if GSP Vs Silva does happen in May. Of those three White believes that Dallas would be the best for both fighters since it’s a neutral venue, and hopes he would be able to pack in 100,000 fans there.
– Despite their last minute cancelation both Nick Ring and Costa Philippou received their show money tonight.
– White believes Alessio Sakara and Patrick Cote should have an immediate rematch after the unfortunate DQ finish.
– The UFC president says he hasn’t been resting on his laurels during the past few weeks despite a lack of big events, and has been planning a lot of “crazy sh!t” for 2013.
– He’s excited for ‘UFC On FOX 6’ and thinks fans are too, noting that the event sold out very fast which was “amazing” for an event that’ll air on free-TV.
– Interestingly White drops into the conversation that their current TV deal with FOX might even extend beyond it’s current seven year stint, but when asked to expand upon that he just shrugs his shoulders, smiles and says, “we’ll see what happens.”
– White won’t be drawn on what he’s thinking about Rich Franklin’s future after his loss recently, saying he wants to speak to the fighter first and see what he wants to do.
– He feels that Cris ‘Cyborg’ Santos isn’t keen to fight Ronda Rousey and that’s why she’s saying she can’t make 135lbs. White doesn’t appear to be willing to meet her half-way on that, saying that he’s only planning on bringing in a 135lb woman’s division to the UFC at the moment.
– White is open to an all-female edition of TUF, but seems keener on having female coaches and it doesn’t take a genius to figure out that Ronda Rousey would be one of them.
– White envisages that Rousey’s UFC debut would be a pay-per-view headlining title fight, though if there was another title fight on the card that might take precedence.
– He’s excited for the upcoming BJ Penn Vs Rory MacDonald fight. He’s hearing that Penn is in great shape and wants to get back to the top, and White thinks a win over MacDonald would certainly do that.
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