UFC 149 Post-Fight Press Conference Notes

Following tonight’s UFC 149 event some of the major stars of the evening joined Dana White to talk to the media about the event.

Check out our keynotes from the presser below.

– Before getting to the main card Dana White praises the prelim fights for being awesome.

However, White admits the PPV card didn’t deliver. He said he was pleased earlier to find out that they had shattered the Calgary arena’s gate record with $4.1 million, but given how the event went he’s now embarassed by that.

– White is furious about the Kongo Vs Jordan fight. He wasn’t happy with the fighters, but also criticises the referee for not breaking them up when they were clinching against the cage. He says that bad officiating will kill the sport.

– White praises Tim Boetsch for winning despite being a big underdog against Hector Lombard. He feels Boetsch has put himself in a very good position in the division after snapping Lombard’s 25 fight winning streak, but stops short of saying he’ll get a title shot.

– Boetsch reveals that he broke his foot in the second round. His gut feeling is that he won’t be given a title shot yet, but he’ll keep on doing what he’s doing and is sure it’ll happen eventually.

His gameplan was to keep Lombard at range and frustrate him which worked out as planned. He wanted to secure more takedowns, but said Lombard was like a brick wall.

– White claims he wasn’t coming in tonight to announce a new challenger for Anderson Silva, it was always going to be fights they were arranging that would eventually produce a new title contender.

He had originally promised that he would have answers as to who would be fighting next in the upper reaches of the 185lb division after the show, but he’s now going to wait a couple of days before making any decisions.

– The UFC president had pinned his hopes on Boetsch Vs Lombard saving what had been a poor main card up until then, and he was certain it would, so he was hugely disappointed when it didn’t live up to expectations.

– White likens tonight to the disastrous UFC 33 event back in the day several times during the presser, and that includes the fact that the PPV was threatening to run overtime which was why they didn’t interview Boetsch after his fight.

– Despite his complaints about many of the fights on the card he doesn’t understand why people would boo the main event between Barao and Faber which he thought was a good technical fight.

– Court McGee won his fight with Nick Ring according to Dana, and thinks the last round could even have been a 10-8.

– Matt Riddle says he’s not here to win a decision, he wants to finish fights and he believes if everyone else on the card had the same mentality it would have been a much better show.

– Dana thinks Ryan Jimmo would have officially got the fastest KO ever if the referee had got over to stop it a bit quicker.

– Bryan Caraway’s delighted to have won the ‘Fight Of The Night’ bonus. He didn’t feel in any real danger in the fight.

– Asked if he feels an obligation to the Calgary fans now to deliver the next time they visit, he says he always feels an obligation to bring good fights no matter where he’s going.

– Faber isn’t sure what comes for him next. He wants to regroup and see how he can improve, so it sounds like he’s not ruled out the possibility of trying to make another title push in the future.

Later on he makes it clear that 135lb will continue to be his home and that he couldn’t make 125lbs even if he wanted to.

– In reference to Lombard, White says that the problem with hype is that when you don’t deliver it goes away quick.

– Dana wasn’t happy that there was a scuffle in the crowd during the main event, but admits that the fans were “dying” for something to happen in the Octagon, and when it didn’t their anger, fueld by beer, spilled out in other ways.

– Asked about the boo’s that came after his fight, Renan Barao said he takes that as a lesson that next time he needs to do things differently.

– Faber admits he knew coming into the fight that he has problems with people who have good takedown defense and leg kicks and that proved to be the case.

He also thinks he broke a rib early in the fight which didn’t help his performance.

– Barao thinks Dominick Cruz is a great champion and a great athlete. He doesn’t say how he would do against him, saying that he’d leave the strategy to his coaches and can only promise that he’d try his hardest in training in order to get the victory.

Barao adds that it’s not up to him to decide whether he waits for Cruz to heal or not, he’ll fight whoever the UFC wants him to.

– Caraway admits he suffers from performance anxiety at times so right now he’s just trying to focus on having fun in his fights and “letting it all hang out.”

– Boetsch said that leg kicks were the key to controlling the distance and keeping Lombard from getting into close range where he’s at his most dangerous.

– Jimmo just saw his KO win being shown on ESPN’s SportsCenter and he’s naturally excited about that. He admits he’s probably going to be watching it a lot on YouTube when he gets home when nobody’s looking.

– Riddle would like to fight Dan Hardy next. It’s nothing personal, it’s just that he thinks he’s a big name opponent who would help get him noticed.

Dana White jokes that Riddle actually hates British people. That brings about a surprising response from Riddle as he says he he does hold a grudge against one particular Brit who spat at him (apparently it landed in his mouth) after he fought in Manchester for the UFC a while back.

White’s surprised and says he was only joking, but Riddle’s genuinely pissed and goes on a long rant about it. Afterwards White laughs and says they will definitely be doing the Riddle Vs Hardy fight now.

– Caraway says he got several teeth knocked back during his fight and so he had to reach into his mouth during the fight and push them back again!

Ross launched MMA Insight (previously FightOfTheNight.com) in 2009 as a way to channel his passion for the sport of mixed martial arts. He's since penned countless news stories and live fight reports along with dozens of feature articles as the lead writer for the site, reaching millions of fans in the process.