Dana White appeared on Fuel TV last night for a 30 minute interview with Ariel Helwani in which he assessed the fallout from UFC 151 being canceled and talked about some rumored superfights in the promotion.
Read the key quotes below and scroll down to watch highlights from the interview.
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On his angry rant during an announcement that UFC 151 had been scrapped:
“Yeah, I have [calmed down]. I had my moment where I was upset. One of the things that I like is our consistency. We’ve never cancelled an event. People don’t realize the collateral damage that goes on and how many people who are depending on these events to go on. Not just the fighters and the UFC. So many other people who work for, and are invested, in these shows and this is the first time we’ve ever cancelled one, so that’s a little emotional.”
Does White have any regrets about pinning the blame on Jon Jones for the show being canceled?
“I won’t speak for the UFC. On my end, no, I have no regrets whatsoever. Nothing, no. What exactly did I say about Jon Jones that was so horrible?”
Shouldn’t other people take the blame for it, not just Jones?
“You’re absolutely right. Not just his team. There is some truth too to what was said after that, that Dan Henderson knew two weeks before the fight. Two weeks before he told me he was injured he knew, and had given me that two weeks like he should’ve, this fight might have happened.”
“He’s definitely to blame too, but there’s never been a case ever in UFC history where a guy didn’t step up and take the fight.”
On his relationship with Jon Jones now:
“Jon and I haven’t talked since the incident. Do I hate Jon Jones or have any animosity towards him right now? I don’t. If I did I’d tell you, and I think you know that, but it’s just one of these things. We’ll found out as we move along in our relationship, we’ll find out where we’re at.
“Obviously this thing that just went down is a little weird. It’s never happened before. Jon Jones..all my other interactions with him have been good. He’s a young guy. Has he made some bad choices and bad decisions? Yeah. Who doesn’t when they are his age. Seriously. Imagine being…If I went back again in my life and I was 23 years old – a ton of fame, a ton of money and everything else – that’s when you make all your mistakes. The great thing about making all your mistakes in your twenties is that when you really start to establish yourself in your late twenties and early thirties, you’ve already done all the stupid stuff and you can conduct yourself in the way that you should.”
On a potential GSP Vs Anderson Silva superfight:
“I think we’re pretty close [to that fight happening]. I mean, if Georges St.Pierre beats Condit that could be the next fight.”
Why Now?
“These guys want to fight each other now. I think if you’re a fighter and you’ve dominated as long as Anderson has, and you’ve been great as long as Georges has, you finally go, ‘You know, I want to test myself, I think I can beat this guy.'”
What would the weight be?
“They’ll probably do the fight at 180lbs. At one point it sounded like Anderson wanted to go to 170lbs and he wanted to take Georges welterweight title. That was what he was talking about at one point. Then it was 180, a catchweight. Georges doesn’t want to go to 185lbs, he’s going to stay at 170. He said if I had to make the move to 185, I’d have to stay at 185. So, we figured that a 180lb catchweight makes sense.”
Where would the fight take place?
“If that fight happens, it’ll probably happen at Dallas, Texas stadium.”
Is Fedor Vs Brock Lesnar a possibility after White mentioned it in passing on the UG forum?
“There was a question that says, ‘Could Dana make this fight?’ And then I asked them, ‘Well how many people really want to see this fight?’ I was asking a question!”
“I guess a couple of people want to see that fight. I’ll tell you this…I have done so much to try to get Fedor into the UFC. I think you guys know at one point, and I think you know, especially when I say it publically – ‘This is an obsession, I gotta get this thing done,’ and tried to get it done and it was just…
“The crazy thing is people are now asking me if I can make this fight when you know Fedor’s retired. The guy retired. I couldn’t get him when he was fighting. Now we’re on such good terms I’m going to pull him out of retirement?”
