Following UFC 311, Dana White Gives Islam P4P Nod, No Title Shot for Tsarukyan

Los Angeles — The UFC endured a little bit of chaos in the 24 hours preceding Saturday’s UFC 311 in Los Angeles, but despite the card losing its main event on weigh-in day, the gate actually went up, closing out at 10.2 million USD per Dana White.

“Every day is chaos in this business. Every day there’s something going on,” White exclaimed following the event, speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press. “Nobody pulls it off better than we do.”

Well, Islam Makhachev might have pulled it off better than anyone. The UFC lightweight champion saw his opponent shift from Arman Tsarukyan to Renato Moicano on barely 24 hours notice. That didn’t seem to faze Makhachev, who locked up a D’arce choke on Moicano in the opening round.

That forced White to acquiesce on the pound-for-pound rankings debate. White had steadfastly refused to accept Makhachev as number one over Jon Jones, until Saturday.  “He’s already the pound-for-pound number one ranking,” White offered when the subject was broached. Still, asked if he would give Makhachev the number one ranking personally, “Yeah, yeah I’ll give it to him,” replied White. “Is everybody happy now?”

Arman Tsarukyan almost certainly won’t be happy. After pulling out of the event due to a back injury on weigh-in day, it seems he won’t be getting the next title shot at lightweight. Instead, White said it’s back to the drawing board for the would-be challenger.

“No, no. He’s going back to the drawing board,” White said, asked whether Tsarukyan was up next for the belt. “I don’t want anybody to ever fight hurt, ever. We’ve been in these positions before. Went down there with the doctor, went down there with Heather [Linden] from the PI [UFC Performance Institute], who is, you can ask any fighter or anybody else, she’s the best in the world.”

White didn’t specify what Linden, who is the Senior Director of Physical Therapy at the UFC PI, determined. Instead, he added “you miss opportunities sometimes, and he did. So we’ll see how he plays out for him next year.”

Asked if he felt Tsarukyan could have competed, “I have no idea. I don’t know that, only he knows that.”

White, who had a flight to catch to make the Donald Trump inauguration on Monday, kept his answers short and sweet during the post-fight press conference. Asked by Cageside Press about Reinier de Ridder, the former ONE double champ who earned a submission win over Kevin Holland at UFC 311, White said simply “he looked good.” As to where RDR fits into a strong 185lb division, “I have no clue. We’ll figure that out on Tuesday,” finished White.

Two names well-known to Bellator MMA fans were brought to White’s attention on Saturday. One was featherweight champ (and former lightweight champion) Patricio Pitbull, who recently requested and obtained his release from the PFL. Asked about interest in the Brazilian, “I don’t know,” said White. “I’ll talk to the boys about that, and we’ll see where we’re at.”

When Aron Pico’s name was brought up, White had a more positive response. “I definitely know the boys are interested in him.”

Watch the full UFC 311 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.