Following last night’s UFC 185 event in Texas, Dana White spoke to Ariel Helwani about the night’s big fights.
– Dana White was “shocked” that Rafael dos Anjos won, but was very impressed with how dominant he was against Anthony Pettis, particularly after learning post-fight that dos Anjos had a knee injury going into the fight.
– He confirms that Pettis did have an eye injury that required seven stitches backstage. Pettis had a concussion and says he never felt right after getting caught with a big shot very early in the first round.
– The upcoming fight between Donald Cerrone and Khabib Nurmagomedov will establish who gets the first shot at the new lightweight champion. Dos Anjos’ knee injury could play a part in determining how long we’ll have to wait until that title fight takes place though.
– White describes Joanna Jedrzejczyk as “a killer” and admits that’s exactly the type of fighter he likes to watch. He was impressed with her takedown defense and some of the elbows she was throwing.
– He was happy for Johny Hendricks to get the win under his belt against Matt Brown, but confessed he didn’t like the fight and seemed hesitant to confirm that he’d now get a shot at the title again.
– White paid respect to Roy Nelson’s toughness after taking a lot of punishment against Alistair Overeem. As for Overeem, he thought he looked better than ever, though he felt he lacked the killer instinct last night and could have finished Nelson.
– White likes the idea of Overeeem Vs Junior dos Santos next.
– Dana’s son Aiden was in attendance at last night’s show as he’s “a huge Anthony Pettis” fan. Needless to say young Aiden was devastated watching his hero get taken apart in the main event and was crying backstage afterwards. No doubt he’ll also be thrilled that his dad decided to share that info with the world!
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