New Orleans — UFC 318 has come and gone, Dustin Poirier retired off a loss to “BMF” champ Max Holloway, and the promotion’s return to New Orleans was a highly entertaining affair.
UFC CEO and President Dana White addressed all that following the event at the Smoothie King Center on Saturday, then tackled another topic — next year’s proposed UFC event at the White House.
On the topic of Holloway vs. Poirier 3, which saw Hawaii’s “Blessed” rain on the Poirier retirement parade, White noted that “I thought going into the last round it was closer than the judges had it. It lived up to what it was supposed to be. The card did. The card was great.”
Speaking with media outlets including Cageside Press following the event, White also touched on Holloway’s tradition of pointing to the floor and standing his ground for a firefight in the final seconds of his fights. White’s reaction? “I go ‘oh hell yeah,'” he admitted. But as he discussed with his own staff earlier in the night, Holloway is a rare breed. “Everybody acts like they want to do that sh*t — they don’t want to do it. Max is like the only guy that actually wants to do that. It’s one of the million reasons why people love him.”
When it comes to Holloway, White went on to add, “I think he’s in a great position right now. He just defended that BMF title, he’s ranked #4 in the world now. Anything is possible for Max right now.”
That includes fighting for both the BMF title, and Ilia Topuria’s lightweight championship, at the same time. “Yes, I do,” said White, asked whether he thought Holloway deserved the opportunity.
As for Poirier, White admitted that both he and Holloway are at the top of their game still. The UFC CEO is never one to talk a fighter out of retiring, however. “They way tonight went, retiring seems the right thing to do.”
It’s a year away, but the UFC has a proposed show at the White House in conjunction with the Fourth of July next year. Still in the early planning stages, the concept has set the combat sports world ablaze. Dana White has long been an associate of U.S. President Donald Trump, who provided the UFC with a venue to host events at a time when the promotion struggled to make inroads, the sport still viewed as barbaric.
Everyone from Conor McGregor to Jon Jones to Nate Diaz, not currently with the UFC, has expressed interest in fighting on the card. For Diaz, it would potentially bring about the rubber match in his trilogy with McGregor.
“I love Nate. I love Nate,” White said in response to the idea. While he didn’t sound opposed to the notion, it’s still a long way’s off, he noted. “That fight’s a year away, so I’m not even thinking about anything right now. The landscape will change so much by next Fourth of July. Who knows what will happen, who knows who’s going to be on the card, or what the main event will be or who will hold all the titles. Everything will be completely different, so it’s not even worth thinking of it right now.”
What Dana White is concerned with right now is the logistics of the show, though he doubts they’ll be any more difficult than hosting Noche UFC at The Sphere last year. “We fly out there in about ten days, two weeks and we’ll have all the renderings done, sit down with him [Donald Trump] and see what he wants to do and what he doesn’t want to do,” revealed White.
Asked about Jon Jones returning to the testing pool and wanting to fight whoever is heavyweight champ at the White House next year, White expressed reservations. And not just about Jones tying up the heavyweight division yet again.
“It’s not even about him winning the belt. You know how I feel about him. I can’t risk putting him in big positions, in a big spot and have something go wrong. Especially the White House card.”
Watch the full UFC 318 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.
