Notes and Quotes from Dana White's UFC on ESPN 52 Post-Fight Press Conference
Dana White sat down with the media following Saturday's UFC on ESPN 52 card. The Ultimate Fighting Championship frontman addressed several topics including the performances of the night, upcoming pay-per-view events and even the Professional Fighters League's recent acquisition of Bellator MMA.
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On Arman Tsarukyan's performance against top-contender Beneil Dariush and his potential: “Yeah. I mean, the co-main and main event came out and absolutely delivered and you know you don't see people do that to Bobby Green either and yeah. Yeah, incredible. I mean it's amazing.”
On the magnitude of a fight between Islam Makhachev and
Arman Tsarukyan in the Middle East: “Big. Yeah, it's a
great stylistic matchup.”
On referee Kerry Hatley's controversial late stoppage in the Bobby Green vs. Jalin Turner co-main event clash: “Yeah one of the worst I've ever seen... So the difference is, you know, we've had some refs say some dumb s—t in the past like ‘Oh, I allowed her to be a warrior tonight,’ and goofy s —t like that. He knows that he made a mistake tonight and he does not feel good about it. So... Yeah, definitely a bad stoppage.”
On Deiveson Figueiredo's performance against Rob Font in his bantamweight debut: “Tonight was a big night for him. I don't know how you guys felt, but I know a lot of people felt Rob Font was too big for him and hits too hard for him and he went in and it looked great tonight.”
On the upcoming UFC 296 welterweight title bout between Leon Edwards and Colby Covington: “Yeah, we're looking forward to it you know. It's going to be a fun fight and I mean this is one of those fights where you know when everybody's calling looking for tickets... it's going to be a big night. It's going to be fun.”
Whether the potential super fight that he's working on will feature on the highly anticipated UFC 300 card: “Just a fight that's going to happen. Could potentially happen in 2024. Everybody's blowing me up asking me who it is.”
On when he found out about the fight week altercation between Arman Tsarukyan and Bobby Green and whether he had a conversation with either fighter's team: “I've been on the road for like two weeks. I found out when I was in Boston. Happens man, this stuff. Somebody caught that on film, and it got out. You guys have no idea how much s—t goes on behind the scenes, you know. It's only the stuff that ends up leaking and getting out, but just the business we're in, we are in the tough guy business where some of the baddest human beings on earth run into each other backstage, things are said, things are done and it's our job to manage and control all this stuff to make sure that it doesn't blow up and get out of proportion and people don't get hurt. But we deal with this every Saturday on some sort of level.”
On Jamahal Hill's arrest and alleged altercation with his brother: “I literally don't know anything. Obviously, it sounds like something between him and his brother. That's some family s—t and I'm sure they'll figure that out.”
On PFL's recent acquisition of Bellator MMA and whether their roster is comparable to UFC’s: “I don't know what do you think about that? I'm asking you. No comment? You have no comment you want me to comment? It's f—ing hilarious, but yeah good for them. I wish them all the luck in the world... I've covered this before; you must not have heard it. One s—-y organization that sells no tickets and nobody watches buys another s—y organization that sells no tickets, and nobody watches. Sounds like a winner to me, boys.”
On Tom Aspinall calling for Jon Jones to be stripped of the UFC heavyweight championship: “The Stipe fight has to happen. Yeah, you know, both of those guys deserve it. You've got the greatest mixed martial artist of all time vs. the greatest heavyweight of all time. They've paid their dues; they've done their thing. These two want to fight each other and it's going to happen. Whoever wins we'll see what they decide to do after that and then we'll go from there.”
On the UFC gaining mainstream popularity and witnessing the growth of the sport as the promotion celebrates its 30th anniversary: “It's awesome I mean, I love it, you know I was talking about just the gate tonight. I mean, my team originally wanted to go somewhere else tonight and I said, ‘No we're going to Austin, Texas,’ and you know they were concerned, ‘Well, Texas is good this year you know they'll probably end up in one of these games.’ We came here anyway. We broke the record. Sellout. Biggest sporting event ever, we're one two and three at Madison Square Garden and the list goes on and on of all the records that have been broken since COVID and it's been a fun ride man. It's been awesome.”
On Jalin Turner's potential in the lightweight division moving forward: “Yeah, taking the fight on nine days’ notice so yeah, incredible night for him you know. And I guarantee, well it's up to you guys, but No.13 vs. No.12, but No. 12 beats No. 13, I'd say he moves up in the rankings in the way he finished that fight tonight. So. it was a great night for him. Rough week but a great night.”
On Clay Guida's performance and longevity: “I agree man, and I was literally saying to Rogan during the fight, ‘How about the chin on him still,’ — like the wars the guy's been in and he still has a chin and still willing to mix it up and stand in the pocket and trade and yeah he looked great tonight, especially against a young well-rounded stud like Silva.”
On Miesha Tate snapping her two-fight losing skid and and whether she could potentially compete for the bantamweight title: “I think she looked great. Very dominant win for her tonight too. Yeah, it couldn't happen to a better person, I'm happy for her...I don't know. We'll see.”
On the consecutive slam knockouts on the UFC on ESPN 52 fight card: “Yeah, we were freaking out about it. It's crazy, like when's the last time you saw that happen, and then it happened again a couple fights later so yeah, insane night. Tonight was crazy.”
Whether Donald Trump will be in attendance for UFC 296 featuring Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington in the main event: “I don't, I don't know. I wouldn't be surprised but I don't know.”
On Jalin Turner stating he felt bad witnessing the damage he had inflicted on Dan Hooker in his last fight: “No, it's true. This is a crazy business we're in. I mean, I'm sure you guys have covered the sport before and been there after a show and go 'the f—k do I do for a living?' This is madness, believe me, I've been there many times and yeah, it's part of the game. It's true, it's literally true. I mean, I've done it myself, so I can imagine being the guy that actually inflicts the damage on someone else. It's a crazy game we're in.”
On Power Slap's continued success on social media: “It's a promo for the reality show ... 34 million [views] and something like 700,000 likes and f—-g crazy amount of comments too. Power Slap dominates social media and [in] sports there isn't anything, the thing that was closest to us up until last week was like the NFL and it wasn't even football, it was Rihanna at the halftime show and by the time the end of the year happens we might triple that number. Power Slap dominates, this thing is a f—-g juggernaut. It's insane actually.”
On his recent water fast going viral: “It's probably the most viral thing I've ever done other than Power Slap, I mean it's crazy, everywhere I go people are asking me about… you know who's here tonight the founder and CEO of Kettle Fire Bone Broth came to the fight tonight… Yeah apparently, it was very good for his [business]. He said the first thing that everybody was asking him was 'How much did you pay him for that?' He said, ‘Not only did I not pay him, but I also don't even know him, never even met him.’ All the s—t that you see me do, nobody pays me for anything that I do on social media, I do stuff that I truly like or care about or think you should try or whatever, I don't get paid… it did really well for their company and they said that they were coming tonight and they wanted to meet me and I was expecting these, you know, this old guy to come in. They're young guys, they're like in their 20s, the two guys that founded and own the company and you ask any chef… Gary Brecka told me… but you ask any chef they'll tell you it's the cleanest best bone broth out there and yeah f—-g thing was insane but you should try it, you know, this isn't some hippie [shit], these are actually studies done by doctors. You do this thing twice a year and it gives you over 70% chance of not getting cancer, Alzheimer's and a bunch of other nasty s**t, so it's pretty cool.”
On UFC being a family-friendly product and whether he envisioned the sport reaching this stage: “Well, I did believe, two reasons: First ….when I was a kid I mean I grew up and became a big boxing fan because my uncles would watch it and everybody in the house would watch it when there was a big fight, and the other reason is that when you think about boxing, growing up a boxing fan you didn't just go out and do boxing. It wasn't like that growing up, but this actually ended up becoming a martial art, like when you and I grew up, the family would put you in karate or taekwondo or something. This is the new martial art that men women and children are taking all over the world, so it absolutely makes sense.”
On his stance against sponsors attempting to influence the decision-making of a company: “I don't know, but I think there's more people than just me and Elon now that feel that way. It's like just because you sponsor us doesn't mean you run this business and you're definitely not telling me what to do. That's a fact that's never going to happen, ever. So I've got this new mindset. I look at sponsorships like relationships, like being in a relationship with somebody if I got to be in a relationship with somebody for six years, we better be aligned and we better think and feel the same way or you do your thing, do whatever but don't ever f—-g call me and tell me what you want me to do because you sponsor us. That is never going to happen, so if that's the type of person that you are, don't even bother trying to sponsor the UFC.”
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