Dana White spoke to the media yesterday ahead of Saturday night’s ‘UFC On FOX 7’ event and you can read our keynotes of what he had to say below, or watch the full video for yourselves.
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– Good news! White underwent stem cell treatment in Germany recently which he claims has 100% cured his Meniere’s Disease problem.
White says he was talked into the procedure by baseball star A-Rod who swore by the treatment for curing a number of different ailments. The UFC president listed a number of other celebrities who’ve had success thanks to it and he says since his own experience with it he’s spoken to boxing coach Freddie Roach and recommended he try it for his Parkinson’s Disease.
– White believes Chael Sonnen has got into Jon Jones head. He says Jones told him he’s never wanted to hurt a fighter before Sonnen.
– Sonnen was attacked by a Brazilian fan at the TUF 17 Finale last weekend. Sonnen doesn’t appear to have been hurt though and the fan was roughly manhandled out of the event by security.
– White strongly emphaizes just how much FOX loves Sonnen as a TV personality. With that in mind and given the amount of money he’s made from fight’s like UFC 159, he’s not sure whether he’ll keep fighting or not after the event. He wouldn’t be shocked if he retires.
– He doesn’t believe Frank Mir was training hard enough at his own gym and believes it’s good for him that he moved to a Greg Jackson’s camp for this fight and is taking on a dangerous opponent like Daniel Cormier.
He reveals that Cormier told Mir that he’s in “big, big trouble” while during their staredown.
– White’s looking forward to the former Strikeforce fighters getting their chance to prove themselves in the UFC.
– White’s been convinced by Cormier since he beat Josh Barnett. Even though he’s had his issues with Barnett he does respect him as a fighter so that was a big deal.
– The UFC president doesn’t have an issue with the basic idea of what Matt Mitrione said regarding transgender fighter Fallon Fox fighting females in the cage, but it’s the “ignorant, bigotted” way that he put his view across that was the problem. He’s not mad at him though.
– White is committed to helping support the campaign to keep wrestling in the Olympic Games, but financially and in the media.
– White believes Dan Hardy may be in denial about the heart condition he was recently diagnosed with after The UFC have offered him the chance to have a second opinion from the leading doctor in the field and he turned them down. White’s since spoken to him personally to urge him to go ahead with it, but Hardy says he’s about to get married and doesn’t want to look into it further until after that.
– The UFC doesn’t have a main event planned for the FOX Sports 1 event just yet, but White vows that they will put together a card that will make people want to watch.
– White admits that while the FS1 channel is way better than being on Fuel TV, it’s not quite as good as being on FX. He thinks the channels reach will grow rapidly though after it’s launch.
– White is just about to talk to GSP about who he wants to fight next. It appears it’ll be either Johny Hendricks or Anderson Silva.
– He’s sadly no long optimistic about MMA’s chances of being legalized in New York this year and it seems that it’s still the Culinary Union that are the big thorn in their sides.
– They do plan to hold a huge show in November for the UFC’s 20th anniversary, but it looks like it won’t be in New York as they would have liked.
– The second season TUF: Brazil has been drawing in 11 million viewers over there. White says they have some exciting stuff planned for TUF in the future.
– UFC 161 in Winnipeg sold out very quickly.
– Some people weren’t happy with the fact that Cat Zingano was only paid a total of $14,000 for her win against Miesha Tate last weekend, but White says she earned considerably more than that overall.
– White was really impressed with the level of talent at the TUF 18 try-outs. The show starts filming at the end of May. The TUF 18 Finale will be in December and then Rousey Vs Zigano will be on PPV.
– He believes that Uriah Hall cracked under the pressure in the TUF Finale.
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