Harsh words for Colby Covington, and a retirement deal with Joe Lauzon were among the eye-openers delivered by Dana White following UFC Boston.
Boston, MA — UFC President Dana White had plenty of ground to cover following UFC Boston. White was at home in Beantown, on a night with major developments, including another breakout performance from Maycee Barber, and a big return win for Joe Lauzon.
“She’s a gangster, this girl. I love everything about this girl,” he told reporters including Cageside Press at the post-fight press conference when Barber was brought up. “You should see the crazy texts she sends me all the time. Including tonight, as soon as the fight was over she started texting me. She wants to fight everybody, and she wants to do this, and ‘I told you, I told you I was going to do this!'”
Barber has long promised to become the youngest champion in UFC history, and at 21-years old, she still has a couple of years to do it.
“I love her attitude, I love how bad she wants to be a world champion. I love how she finishes fights,” White remarked. “She fought a very tough girl tonight, and she stopped her. She looked incredible. She’s fought, and it’s going to be fun for all of us and the fans to watch her grow over the next couple of years.”
On the opposite trajectory is former middleweight champ Chris Weidman. ‘The All-American’ was knocked out early on in the main event by Dominick Reyes. The retirement question immediately arose.
“What he said tonight didn’t sound to me like he’s considering retirement,” White said on the subject. “So it’s a conversation that he and I definitely need to have. This was his move up to light heavyweight, which obviously didn’t go well for him. So maybe he goes back down to middleweight, or he thinks about maybe retirement.”
Also brought to White’s attention were comments made by Colby Covington, who claimed he would slap White with the belt if the UFC President tried to put it on him in his upcoming fight with Kamaru Usman. If, over course, Covington wins.
“Good luck with that. Good luck with that. He’s a big mouth f*cking idiot,” White responded.
Finally, on the subject of Joe Lauzon, White revealed that he and the veteran lightweight had an agreement ahead of UFC Boston. “Me and Joe Lauzon had a deal that he would retire, win lose or draw. And he didn’t do it,” said White.
Asked if he would force Lauzon to step away, White said “Yeah. What better way to go out then tonight. And he beat a real guy tonight. He beat a real tough guy that I bet a lot of people didn’t think he was going to beat. And he made it look easy.”
Watch the full UFC Boston post-fight press conference with Dana White above!
