Las Vegas — UFC President and CEO Dana White was as surprised as everyone else when Alexandre Pantoja called out Demetrious “Mighty Mouse” Johnson following the flyweight champ’s win at UFC 310.
Pantoja had just choked out RIZIN champ Kai Asakura to close out the show in Las Vegas when he opted to shoot his shot at the man considered the flyweight GOAT— a fighter who had recently retired, after competing for a rival promotion in ONE Championship.
“I don’t know. That’s interesting,” White said when asked about Pantoja’s desire to fight the former UFC star. “Listen, I was the one beating the drum about Demetrious Johnson a long time ago.”
Perhaps the arrival of Asakura, though unsuccessful in his UFC debut, has signaled a shift in the UFC’s approach to rival promotions. For years, fighters in the UFC heard their accomplishments summed up as “champion in another organization,” with UFC broadcasts loathe to speak positively of other outfits. Yet at UFC 310, RIZIN’s name, and M-1 as well during Movsar Evloev’s fight, was plastered on screen. Asakura was welcomed into the UFC with open arms. Could Johnson come back? Anything is possible. He was, after all, “traded” to ONE Championship for Ben Askren.
As for Saturday’s UFC 310 main event, it wasn’t a great night for Asakura, but White seemed satisfied with how the fight played out.
“There’s two sides to this story. You take a guy like Asakura who came in— in the UFC your first time, we talk about the jitters, all the things that happen. First time fighting in a cage, etcetera, etcetera,” he noted. “He came in guns a’blazing, flying knee right out of the gate. Who in this room didn’t want to see three more rounds of that? It would have been amazing. It was a great fight. And Pantoja went out and dominated.”
White addressed a number of other topics following UFC 310, including star Conor McGregor being found civilly liable in a sexual assault lawsuit back in his native Ireland. McGregor has vowed to appeal the judgment, with longtime partner Dee Devlin, mother to his children, standing by his side.
White wasn’t about to say much about the McGregor case, however. “If I had a comment, I would have put it out already,” he said in a response to the case being brought up. “He hasn’t been fighting here in I don’t know how long.”
When it was pointed out that McGregor had been announced as headlining UFC 303 before a broken toe took him out of his fight with Michael Chandler, White said only that “if he does fight, it will be sometime next year.”
Then there was the Merab Dvalishvili situation. One fight that wasn’t scheduled for UFC 310 was Dvalishvili versus a random fan. Yet coming out with Aljamain Sterling, the bantamweight champ managed to get into a minor altercation with a fan in attendance.
“Merab’s that guy. He’s that guy. This isn’t his first altercation,” observed White. “I don’t know if you guys noticed at the press conference yesterday too. To the right, somebody yelled something, he’s in the middle of conversation. He looked like he’s trying to see who said that, like what, you’re going to run over there and fight him too? It’s the way he is, he’s built that way.”
The UFC even opted to keep Dvalishvili sequestered from the rest of the fighters at UFC 310, putting him in a separate section. “I didn’t think he’d get in a fight walking out with Aljamain,” White admitted.
On the suggestion that Umar Nurmagomedov might be in the bantamweight champ’s head, Dana White was somewhat dismissive. “Listen, I don’t think that any of these guys are afraid of anybody. I’m sure there’s certain guys they’re rather wait to fight, and they all have their reasons or whatever. To say that Merab— Merab’s getting in fights in the f*cking stands. Merab would get in a fight in the middle of the fighters section, that’s why we moved him over to the left.”
“I wouldn’t say that any of these guys are afraid of anybody or of any fight. But fighters are a paranoid bunch. There’s always some conspiracy against them, whether it’s us or other people. We make fights that people want to see, they win or lose the fights on their own, but they are conspiracy theorists. They always think that somebody is against them. And maybe that’s what they need to do to have that mental thing to go out and do what they do.”
Dana White is nothing if not quotable, and later he’d sum up Merab rather humorously.
“He’s my mini-Strickland, without the mouth. What do you do? Let him buy the Pay-Per-View, I guess. I don’t know. You can’t keep fighting with the f*cking fans. It’s going to cost you a lot. You can do it, but it’s going to cost you a lot of money. I don’t know. Listen man, I say it all the time, we’re in the f*cking fight business. This happens. We’ve got to deal with it.”
If nothing else, Merab’s heat with Nurmagomedov — the pair had heated words prior to and during Friday’s UFC 311 press conference — have convinced White to attend the Pay-Per-View in Los Angeles next month, cancelling a prior engagement the UFC exec had committed to.
Watch the full UFC 310 post-fight press conference with Dan White above.
