Dana White’s UFC 167 post-fight interview with the media was even more interesting than normal as it came around as the UFC president was still trying to digest the news that GSP might be retiring and a whole host of other big talking points following their 20th anniversary show.
Read full keynotes from White’s conversation below and scroll down to watch the full video for yourselves.
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– After speaking to GSP backstage White feels better about the situation regarding the fighter’s talk of retirement.
He says that St.Pierre’s issues aren’t as bad as he thinks they are and that they can work through this. He notes that GSP needs time to recover from the fight first – he was beat up pretty badly and doesn’t even remember certain parts of the fight.
He seems to think that things will continue as normal and that there will be a rematch between GSP and Hendricks in the future. He doesn’t think Hendricks will need to take another fight first.
It’s possible GSP’s issues affected his performance last night, but either way White believes Hendricks should have won the fight.
– White’s furious with the Nevada State Athletic Commission for their judging and says he has a real problem with them in general and that they need to get their house in order.
– Rashad Evans is another fighter who’s had issues before that’s affected his performances inside the Octagon, but White was impressed with him last night saying that he looked in great shape and took care of business quickly. He just wants to see him continue to maintain that form in his upcoming fights.
– As for Chael Sonnen, White admits that in reality the fight looked like a mismatch even though it made sense on paper. What’s next for him is really up to Sonnen, White says he’s in a position where he can do whatever he wants.
– White received a text from Josh Koscheck after his KO loss that seemed to indicate he was going to retire. Despite having lost his last three fights, White thinks that retirement might be a little premature for him so it sounds like they still want to keep him around.
He says he like Koscheck a lot and has a soft spot for all the guys who fought on TUF Season 1.
– White is adamant that GSP isn’t thinking about retiring, it seems like it was more of an extended leave of absence he had in mind.
– White’s really happy for Robbie Lawler and impressed with his performance. He says that when he was first in the UFC, Lawler was all about getting paid and wanted to fight wherever someone would pay him the most money. Now that he’s back in the UFC years later White says Lawler doesn’t even talk about money and is only focused on winning the 170lb title.
– White claims that the only person who’s face he’s seen more busted up than GSP after last night’s fight was Junior Dos Santos after his fight with Cain Velasquez. Given how beat up he was, White was impressed with how GSP continued pushing forward and managed to earn a victory.
– He does think that Rory MacDonald was hesitant in his fight, but he can’t tell if that was due to nerves or if it’s just his style of fighting and he can’t step up a gear when neccessary. He says this was the perfect opportunity for MacDonald to rise to the occasion, but he didn’t.
– There’s no timetable for the woman’s 115lb division yet, but they are definitely working on it.
– White doesn’t want to buy up the all-female Invicta FC promotion so that he can take on their roster. He would rather they continued to give female fighters an outlet to come up through the ranks and get paid.
– It’s possible that one day they’ll do an all-female edition of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, but there’s not enough fighters to do it right now.
– White admits he was “miserable” after GSP’s announcement, but after speaking to him he’s in a much better mood.
It’s not about fighting, it’s about a personal problem and he’s very confident he’ll fight again.
– White believes that the NSAC have it in for the UFC and deliberately do things to annoy them.
– Moving on to why Jon Jones asked to delay his fight with Glover Teixeira again past UFC 170, White says that the champion went into the gym and felt like his legs weren’t quite right and his eye is bothering him.
– Anthony Pettis will have surgery on his knee in December.
– White says that the thing he’s most relieved about now that he doesn’t have to deal with Tito Ortiz is that he doesn’t have to listen to his long, rambling, incoherent answers at press conferences!
– He doesn’t want to talk about why he doesn’t want free-agent Ben Askren, only saying that the big story is why Bellator decided they no longer wanted their current champion.
– They held a big party for the UFC legends of the past tonight to celebrate the promotion’s 20th anniversary. They had a big dinner and their own bartender and DJ while mingling with the celebrities in attendance before going to the arena to watch the event live.
– He says that in the past there had been some animosity and hard feelings between the old and new owners of the UFC, but the 20th anniversary seemed like the perfect time to bury the hatchet. He says the old owners have often been portrayed in a bad light, but that’s unwarranted.
– Mark Coleman’s one of the assistant coaches on the next season of TUF and apparently the UFC legend is having a blast. White even asked Coleman to help out by dealing with a situation on the set that normally he himself would have to get involved with.
– White’s not against the idea of a couple of legends coaching a future edition of TUF even thought they aren’t going to fight at the end of it.
– They’d like to have Cain Velasquez fight in Mexico next.
– He thought Hendricks had opportunities to finish GSP, but for whatever reason didn’t go all out and do so which ended up costing him dearly.
– White doesn’t want to see Donald Cerrone cut down to 145lbs. He’s seen him have tough cuts down to 155lbs, and isn’t keen to see him go any further down than that.
– He says he genuinely can’t wait for Anderson Silva Vs Chris Weidman II in December – he claims he’s never been so excited to see a fight.
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