Dana White held his customary post-fight media scrum following ‘UFC On FOX 9’ last night and you can read our keynotes from the conversation below, plus scroll down to watch the full video for yourselves.
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– White denies he prevented GSP from coming to the UFC 167 post-fight press conference, saying that something was probably lost in translation and that he thought he should go to the hospital.
– He didn’t know about GSP’s decision to vacate the title until he spoke to him on the phone on Thursday. He claims that his initial reaction was “cool.”
– The location for UFC 172: Jones Vs Teixeira hasn’t been made official yet – they know where they want to go, but are still working on the deal.
– He thinks GSP probably won’t want to come to watch the UFC events while he’s taking time off.
– He describes St.Pierre’s extended leave as being “time to fix the zoo”. Once he’s sorted that out then he’s sure he’ll be back to fighting again. He had no idea that GSP had any personal problems until immediately after the UFC 167 event.
– White doesn’t plan to call GSP up and find out how he’s doing during his time off – he says he’ll let him do his own thing and won’t bother him.
– They wanted Carlos Condit to fight Nick Diaz in a rematch next, but he spoke to Diaz about it and he immediately turned it down saying he didn’t like the idea.
Nevertheless, White still wants Condit on the UFC 171 event, he just has to figure out who the opponent will be.
– He isn’t in to pressuring Diaz to fight if he doesn’t want to. He says there’s plenty of others who do want to, including Tyron Woodley who he claims is texting him 15 times a day asking for his next fight. Despite that, White says Woodley isn’t who they have in mind for Condit.
– Diaz indicated he might be ready to fight in May. White said he’s not going to chase Diaz for any more fights, he’ll let him do the running and he can text him when he wants to get back into the Octagon.
– They won’t do interim title fights at lightweight and heavyweight while waiting for Anthony Pettis and Cain Velasquez to return from their surgeries which will keep them out of action for most of 2014. White says they only do interim belts when they don’t know when the champion is going to return.
– The UFC never told GSP to vacate his title – that’s something he decided to do himself.
– White had a Mark Hunt Vs ‘Bigfoot’ Silva t-shirt and hoodie printed up because he loved that fight so much.
He’s heard that Hunt doesn’t want to do a rematch and he says maybe that’s the right decision. He doesn’t rule it out happening sometime in the future though and says it could happen at any time.
– White says Lorenzo Fertitta decided to raise the price of the UFC 168 PPV by $5. He’s ok with it, but confirms that the price will go back down to normal for the next event.
– Mac Danzig opted not to take on any sponsors for this fight and White had no problem with that. On the other he was far from amused that Cody McKenzie showed up in the Octagon with a pair of basketball shorts with the price tag still attached which White said was embarrassing.
– White says he respects that the Californian fight commissioner assured him that they had all the best officials lined up for last night’s show, and liked that they had Herb Dean and John McCarthy going back-to-back on the big fights.
White states that while he may have had his differences with McCarthy in the past, he likes that when he’s in the Octagon he takes full charge of what’s going on and does a good job.
– Despite his criticism of the Nevada commission the UFC will still continue to hold as many fights as ever in the state as that’s their home.
– White would really like to see rules brought into place so that replays can be used to overturn bad decisions. He also wants to see refs in the cage who have experience of fighting.
– He still feels it’s a big deal for the UFC to be fighting on FOX.
– Several editions of TUF have finished filming including versions in China and Canada Vs Australia. They are now getting ready to film versions in Brazil and Mexico.
The first episode of the China show leaked in the U.S with subtitles and White says he doesn’t know how that happened.
– TUF 19 featuring a host of female fighters who’ll form the new strawweight division doesn’t start filming until May so they are in no rush to announce the coaches just yet, but they’ll probably be men.
– They’ve talked about doing an event in Mexico without Cain Velasquez, but White doesn’t think it’s a good idea.
– Piracy is always going to be an issue for the UFC, but that won’t stop them going ahead with their plans including the new internet subscription service.
– White is really excited to see Lyoto Machida Vs Gegard Mousasi fight at UFC Fight Night 36 next year, and also wants to see Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza again who’s fighting in the co-main event against Francis Carmont.
– There will be a presentation about the new internet network at UFC 168 and it’ll then go live on January 4th in time for the UFC event in Singapore which will stream live.
White admits the new service is a risk, but it’s the sort of thing you have to do as you try to grow your business.
– He believes he’s figured out a way to make it easier for fighters to find sponsors.
– White pretty much admits he’s obsessed with the upcoming Anderson Silva Vs Chris Weidman rematch to the point where he admits he’s not even thinking about the rest of the card, he just can’t wait to see the main event.
– The ‘Primetime’ show is “on hiatus” because White admits that it’s very expensive to produce and they are not getting the right amount of viewers for it where it is currently airing (primarily FOX Sports 1) to justify it.
– Demetrious Johnson is definitely a bigger star now that he’s had a few headline fights on FOX, and he’s certain that would translate to him selling better if they decided to put him on a PPV card.
– He’s going to meet up with Rich Franklin on Monday and if he wants to fight again, White’s more than happy to accomodate him, saying, “he can do whatever he wants to do.”
– White has helped produce a new boxing show and he’s thrilled that it’s going to air on the Discovery channel as he says there’s not many networks supporting boxing these days.
While he thinks that a lot of people will just assume it’s a case of him using the TUF format for boxing, he claims it’s not like that at all. He says it’s more character driven and takes a different direction.
White doesn’t have plans to get into promoting boxing, but believes the show is for the good of the sport as a whole. He says it’s way of paying respect to the sport.
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