As always, Dana White found time to speak to the assembled media following last night’s UFC Fight Night 27 event and you can see what he had to say for himself below.
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– Debuting prelim fighter Brandon Thatch who earned ‘Knockout Of The Night’ is someone that White could see fans taking to because he’s a proven finisher.
– White cuts down talk of Condit potentially fighting Matt Brown next, saying that they already have a fight in mind for Brown that’s not been announced yet.
– He thinks WWE star CM Punk is ‘a cool guy’. He drove from Chicago to watch the event live last night.
– Aside from PPV events and the occasional one-off event, all the UFC’s other live events are going to be airing on Wednesdays now.
– Despite watching the replay several times White still thinks that Trujillo’s knees to Roger Bowling weren’t to his head and so should have been legal. Dana paid Trujillo his win bonus despite the fact the fight was declared a no contest.
– White says it was his idea that the UFC prelims should air on FOX Sports 1, instead of putting them on to FS2 and FOX agreed.
– While White is still interested in bringing an event to Russia, he doesn’t have any concrete plans as to when that will be. He and Lorenzo Fertitta are planning to head over there to meet some people soon though.
– Dana claims that he’s now 100% cured from his Meneires Disease condition, saying that he’s not had another attack since having a revolutionary treatment in Germany several months ago.
– A TUF edition in the philippines is no longer in the works, but they are going to do a fight there.
– Yahoo! Sports reporter Kevin Iole recently stated on Twitter that it was “shady” that Vitor Belfort was fighting in Brazil again given his current TRT use. At the time both White and Fertitta were furious that he was calling them shady, but it appears the situation has been resolved after a phone chat in which Iole clarified that he though Belfort was being shady rather than the UFC.
To clarify, White says that the reason Belfort is again fighting in Brazil is because Globo are very important TV partners for the UFC and they wanted ‘The Phenom’ to fight there. It was their call and Belfort didn’t have a say in the matter. While White admits he doesn’t have a good personal relationship with Belfort he’s adamant that the fighter isn’t doing anything wrong and that he’d never allow a fighter to cheat the system by fighting in a different country to avoid being tested.
– White calls Tito Ortiz a “f*ckin’ buffoon” for a recent comment he made claiming that being in the UFC was a form of slavery. “He’s a slave to stupidity” White quips, claiming that Ortiz is “one of the dumbest M-Fer’s you’ll ever meet.”
– He points out that even big stars who’ve turned against the UFC like Ortiz and ‘Rampage’ never claim that the UFC are ‘shady’ or ‘dirty’, because it’s simply not true. They only complain about things that people like White have said about them. He points to that as evidence that any suggestions that they may be allowing someone like Belfort to cheat are unfounded. If things like that did go on then it would come out at some stage.
– White claims that Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney is “a scumbag” after his latest statement that current Bellator champ Ben Askren can go to the UFC if he wants. White says that just isn’t true because Bellator have the contractual right to match the UFC’s offer if they want to so it’s a bluff on his part.
– Interestingly, White confirms that if Eddie Alvarez loses to Michael Chandler on Bellator’s PPV event then even though he’ll be a free agent the UFC won’t sign him. “We don’t sign their rejects,” he says.
– White’s not mad at Wanderlei Silva despite an apparent rift between them regarding PPV money for a potential fight with Chael Sonnen. According to White, Silva’s not going to even be healthy enough to start training until January next year so the fight’s not going to happen anyway.
– Chael Sonnen really wants to co-main event the UFC’s 20th Anniversary show in November. A potential match-up with Phil Davis has been suggested and White says that could happen.
– White appears to be highly doubtful that the Bellator PPV will be a success, claiming that “no-one over there knows what they’re doing.” If people don’t want to watch their free shows he thinks it’s fair to assume they’re not going to watch a PPV.
He has no intention of watching the show himself. He says that you need a very good reason to stay at home on a Saturday night to pay for a fight, and Rampage Vs Ortiz isn’t it given that they are both on losing streaks. He points out that Rampage has even said himself he’s not good enough to fight the best in the world any more, and that Ortiz had retired planning to start an acting career.
– Dana thinks that Ronda Rousey is being too critical of the way she acted on TUF. He says that while she’s not saying it publicly, Miesha Tate will be worried about how she’s going to be portrayed too.
White admits that he actually didn’t watch TUF season 1 because he was cringing at some of the things that went on, including his now famous “do you want to be a f*ckin’ fighter” speech. He says it seems bad at the time, but when it’s edited into the show it works out alright.
– White says that Wednesday’s are actually a great night to be on TV, noting that’s when TUF used to run. It’s better than a Saturday because a lot of their target demographic are out at the weekends. He admits that there is a lot of competition mid-week though and it’s trickier to sell tickets.
– Dana feels very bad for Dominick Cruz and his current injury situation. He was supposed to fight Urijah Faber on the Sonnen Vs Silva 2 card and he’d have been entitled to a cut of PPV money as they champion. Dana describes it as Cruz’s “lottery ticket” that never happened.
Despite that, Cruz won’t get a “tune-up fight” if and when he returns after over 2 years out, he’ll go straight into a title defense. If he isn’t ready by the start of next year it sounds that could be the end for him though.
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