UFC President Dana White spoke with members of the media following the conclusion of UFC 293: Adesanya vs Strickland on …
what’s up gang all right the gate tonight was 10 million 753 uh 52 296. it’s the highest gate for an indoor arena in the history of the continent tenants was 18 168 total sellout bonuses the night fight of the night went to uh cap and and Dos Santos uh uh performance of the night went to taffa and Strickland and one thing that I really want to point out and somebody that I really want to thank is uh the premier who uh who got us back down here and uh it’s good to be back in Sydney thanks to him for all his hard work and uh love of the sport how crazy is this game how crazy is this game it’s one of those ones where you just sit here for like the next week going what the happened there you know 23 years when I’m looking at the internet and reading all the and all these people that think they know about fighting and I’m not sitting here acting like this is what I thought was going to happen here tonight but what do I always say never judge a fight until it happens you never know what the hell is going to happen in this batshit nutty sport would you say this is one of the biggest upsets yeah I mean if you think about Australia the two biggest upsets ever in the men’s and women’s division has happened in Australia Israel looked like he was in slow motion he looked like he couldn’t get off he looked like he was really stiff tonight um he looked very slow do you think that could be you know we always talk about his activity but maybe there’s something to be said that he may be over trained at this point and maybe need some time off or do you think it’s just hey sometimes you have a bad night only Israel knows what’s going on I’m very curious to see what he says at this press conference tonight um you know there are a million things that could go wrong uh some days you wake up and it’s just not there man you just don’t it’s it’s not there he looked bone dry when he came out tonight standing up really tall um looked very slow looked like you couldn’t get off at all um even in the fifth round when when everybody knew he needed a knockout to win the fight there was no sense of urgency to try to finish the fight so I don’t know if he’s hurt if he’s uh or he’s just you know tonight’s that night yeah did you speak to him in the cage at all what’s that did you speak yeah I said you okay he said I’ll talk to you later then go to Sean Strickland you know he did what he’s had to do right he came here he beat the champion four rounds to one came into hostile territory the whole world talking about him the whole world saying he couldn’t do it a seven to one Underdog came in almost finished him in the first round and won the championship won the world title man so everything that we’re talking about right now about how crazy this sport is when opportunities arise you jump on them and you take them and uh you know you should never turn down fights when you get the call especially if it’s for a world title yeah Sean’s an interesting character right to have it yeah I think yeah uh you know I’m sure it’s gonna get crazy in here uh in a little while yeah just you know just this week we had the thing with the fan and I know that he was kind of exaggerating as he does but do you need to say like look if you’re going to be our promotions Champion can you cut some of that out or do you just think well let’s just see what happens you know the answer to this question listen we put this guy in this in the spot and uh you know there was no holy we didn’t know this was going to happen going into this you know who the hell knows what’s going to happen in here in 15 20 30 minutes whenever he gets in here so it is what it is this is the fight business boys and girls yeah and he is one of the nuttiest in the sport yeah uh outside of that the Manel cap fight um against the newcomer who looks amazing too into Santos you know you gave it five for the night but what did you think of that great flyweight flowy matchup yeah fight of the night and uh you know wow how durable and tough that kid is um I love kids again a kid that got an opportunity and he came in he didn’t come here to just show up and get paid he came here to win tonight uh I I think that that kid has a really bright future uh I know what the answer is usually to this but uh manila’s Place fight speech he’s a homophobic words yeah I was flying around a little bit tonight I think these guys get uh you know um get a little excited um and you know you make bad mistakes uh Radke did the same thing you know and and you know me we didn’t run over to him and say you better apologize and you better he did that on his own you know when he got back stage he was embarrassed and you know got caught up in the moment and uh did you guys talk to him tonight no so he felt like he was treated like and you know all that stuff and you know got emotional and and uh whatever reason we make mistakes um I am not holier than thou either so we’ve all been in positions where we’ve made mistakes and uh like I always say it’s how you recover from it and how you uh carry yourself after you make the mistake and he came out and apologized on his own free will we didn’t tell him to do anything and uh the fact that he did that means he means it you know I don’t make anybody apologize for anything you do what you want you’re grown men and women uh uh you know you’re you’re able to say whatever you want he did it he came back he was embarrassed and he apologized so um I’m sure some people who accept this apology and some people won’t uh lost one for me just going back to The Madness of the main event you know traditionally we see dominant Champions get an immediate rematch right but Israel just had one of those with the Pereira fights so do you kind of I know this is a Tuesday question but do you sort of think well let’s just book it again because Israel looks so off or do you just sort of see how the division plays out and leave Israel on the side for a moment no I think you do the rematch absolutely I mean the rematch is is interesting um that could be the thing too you know when you think about you’re going into the Pereira fight such a big fight you know and you’ve been in there with this guy so many times and then you overlook Strickland and and you come in and and you know I don’t know I don’t know the answers to these questions but uh Israel does and I’m looking forward to hearing it thank you James there’s a any medical update on Jack Jenkins he’s on that arms his arms snapped in half in there oh yeah I know uh yeah I I think I don’t have any uh updates here medically but uh I think his elbow got dislocated um oh it just says right elbow here but it doesn’t say uh I think it was just a dislocation and I’m just curious how do you come up with a list for bonuses tonight because like obviously volkov became the third fighter ever to get a Ezekiel choke Tyson Pedro had a big performance uh to kick off this main card so how do you narrow down just two three names yeah I mean Pedro deserves something too there’s guys that these these guys we felt won the 50 000 and other guys that did really well tonight will get kick some money too and so this just kind of going off this is just me being curious have you ever thought of just doing a uh like a stoppage bonus rather than a performance bonus like a finish bonus for just anyone who gets a finish rather than selecting two or three yeah this kind of works uh the last one for me you guys announced the UFC game uh fedor’s in it uh did you have to fly to an island to get his permission we did not no yeah he’s in the game how’d you pull that one off I don’t know I guess he wants to be in the game we paid in a much obscene amount of money I don’t know one or the other hey Diana just a quick quote on Sydney I mean uh it was pretty remarkable with cckb with six fights and one card what’s your reaction to sort of what the Gym’s been able to do in the region and just the card overall yeah it’s incredible it’s incredible what that team has done and uh you know if you saw some of the footage leading up to the fight you know how many people are in that Gym training at one time and they treat Izzy just like they treat everybody else and um and Vulcan it’s it’s impressive it’s impressive what they built here for rematch like uh Strickland and Addison if that it does happen do you do this in this region yet again because the fan base because of the support potentially maybe even New Zealand or is that something that you think happens overseas now I don’t even know it you know when you start looking at uh the rest of the year and laying out the card uh and then getting it we’re already into like uh we’re into like March of next year so as far as fights go so we I don’t know I don’t know how that’ll play out but it depends on how fast uh these guys want us to come back here thank you yep Dana you mentioned uh fights booked up to March is UFC 300 going to be in April is that what it’s looking like I don’t know off the top of my head yeah have you started thinking about that one at all no because we had like volcanovsky back here he said if him and Islam both win their next fights he would love to headline as you said earlier in the week he wants to be on that card people haven’t started coming to you yet there’s a lot of stuff that’s going to happen between uh now and then yeah um Laura sanco joined the commentary booth for pay-per-view debut tonight uh did he get to listen to much and what did you think yeah yeah the commentary team tonight was awesome they killed it yeah I do think she’ll get more opportunities on pay-per-view for sure yeah she’s listening she’s a rock star man she’s very good at what she does yeah and uh earlier this week uh Tyson Fury and Francis inganu did a press conference ahead of their fight and Tyson was saying after this one he wants to revisit the Jon Jones fight potentially that you guys were working on is that something that would appeal to you at all depending on how that goes I don’t know we’ll see how it plays out what do you think of Francis that he was able to get that fight we haven’t heard you really speak on that no good for him thank you yeah Dana just over here yep um the last time the UFC came back to Brisbane um was 2016 and I know you have the deal with Sydney for the next couple years but does the UFC have any plans to come back to Brisbane at all plans to go back to where Brisbane yeah yeah yeah yes listen we’re gonna go everywhere now that uh hopefully the world is back and heading in the right direction again uh hope that stays that way and yeah we’re going to be traveling everywhere again still so many places that we haven’t been since covid uh the beginning of covet so still a lot of traveling to do um and just another one Tom Nolan is um just up the road from me so I thought I’d ask a question of do you have any timeline of when we can see him debut Tom Nolan the Dan Owens Contender series what about him if you have any timeline of when he’ll be debuting no um and then just lastly the Eternal featherweight Champion Justin van heden made weight on Saturday as a backup I’m just just curious if you happen to know him at all and if so what are your thoughts no foreign hey Dana just over here I was wondering did this card surpass your expectations because we had a ton of finishes a ton of great fights and then obviously you know an absolutely amazing title fight in the middleweight division how did this card match up to your expectations no uh I I I I uh this card absolutely met my expectations obviously I expected a completely different uh you know Main Event um whether whether Izzy won or Strickland one I expected that I didn’t you know nobody saw that coming that that Izzy would come in flat and slow and you know whatever’s going on with him um I don’t think anybody expected to see that but no the card lived up to my expectations and I was speaking on Thai to avasa obviously a tough loss tonight but I think Tai really falls into that category of fan favorite Fighters whose stock never drops too much with a loss do you kind of see Thai fitting into that category as well as a fan favorite fighter that we’re always going to tune in to see yeah and to be honest with you when you talk about it exceeding expectations that fight did I mean when you look at the monster he’s fighting the reach Advantage the power that guy has that you know the size difference everything Thai fought a hell of a fight tonight and last one for me uh Gabriel Miranda had a very very dominant submission victory over Shane Young tonight I was just wondering where you sort of see the ceiling for him and what’s next for Shane Young listen when you get these opportunities to come in and and take these fights and and uh you know it’s like when we talk about the contender series on Tuesday nights when you get these these opportunities you come in and you shine like you did in the Big Show yeah it’s it’s a big deal it’s it’s a it’s a very very good thing hey Dana uh there’s been a lot of questions this week to the fighters about if they’d be interested in fighting on an Auckland card and Dan hooker admitted this week that the rumors were made up by him are there any truths to the rumors are you potentially coming back to Auckland in the next six months well I don’t know we’ll see I mean I was just at a press conference on Tuesday and they were talking about you know oh we heard you’re doing a fight in Minnesota and all nothing is done until we announce it there’s lots of uh you know when we get together on Tuesdays for matchmaking you know we kick a lot of ideas around possible matchups possible places but until we announce it it’s never true yeah the other day uh Sean Strickland during the open workouts uh Sean Strickland during the open workouts brought a fan on stage and had a had a bit of a box in sparring session with that fan um what goes through your mind when a situation like that happens and we noticed that fan was sitting with the Fighters next to Justin gaichi tonight funny enough so just wondering what your thoughts around that I don’t know what I think of that um you know he’s he’s definitely different he’s very different and uh yeah I don’t know he’s a different guy he got me on that one I don’t even know how to answer that question yeah you guys good yes sir um Dan hooker said at a q a on Friday night that volkanovsky’s next fight was planned to be around February next year can you confirm that until we confirm it fair enough and uh just final question do you see uh Alex paheda potentially finding his way back into this middleweight title picture if he doesn’t succeed at light heavyweight I don’t think so I think he’ll stay at light heavyweight you know um it’ll be I don’t know but I don’t think so I don’t I don’t see him cutting back down again it’s a lot of weight to cut the guy’s a monster thank you thank you have a great night you guys thank you