UFC 329: Dana White post-event press conference

Alright guys, the attendance tonight was 20,076. Obviously sold out. Gate was 26.4 million. Highest gate in history. Fight of the night, not a shocker. Roy Ball, Cavanaugh, and performance went to Bobby Green and Patty Pimlett. Dana, can you, I think we're all trying to process everything, I guess, can we get your immediate thoughts? It felt like, honestly, one of the best fight cards of all time and then we get to this weird main event ending. So I guess your immediate thoughts as you sit there right now. Yeah, listen, everybody who knows anything about the fight business and it's been a big topic of discussion leading up to this fight, five years off and this sport is rough. And like you said, great card, unbelievable. I mean the Patty Pimlett thing right before, you just feel it all in the air, here we go. I mean, I was expecting at least a one round war, you know, who knew what Conor was capable of as far as cardio or whatever else after a five year layoff and there you go. I mean, we're assuming blown ACL. I'm no doctor, but that's what I figured when I saw it and doctors think the same thing too. I was going to ask you, have you had a chance to talk to Conor? It sounds like you've talked to the medical team. Have you talked to Conor? Do we know exactly the extent of what happened? I haven't. Is he coming out here? We'll see. I don't know. Yeah. I don't know. I think he left the arena. Then the answer is no. We'll find out when he gets an MRI. Max said right away, like, hey man, well now we got to set this thing up for a trilogy, right? I mean, is there any desire from that, from your point of view? You know promoting better than anyone. Does that even make sense to do a trilogy right now or the way that ended, do you have to go a different direction? I don't even know. I don't know. You know, you got to take some time. And I don't, I don't know if you know this or not, but I don't like talking about making fights the night of the fight, but definitely not in this scenario. You touched on the co-main event on a much different note, like Patty's been building to this for a long time, but I don't know, the entrance felt special, the performance felt special. I just, can you talk about, kind of feel like he ascended even to a different level tonight? Yeah. I think I don't know the way you guys, but you gained so much respect in that last fight. Like my social team was telling me after that last loss, he gained like 2 million followers on social media, like from that night to the next morning. And the way he came in tonight, it felt like he was the world champion. And if you break this fight down, I felt like St. Denis' chance to win this fight was to keep it on his feet and strike. And then he shoots right in for a takedown, very, very crazy and what a nasty choke he put on him. It was incredible. Incredible performance for as short as it was. Obviously we're not going to matchmake, but do you think about his next step? Because he just lost to the champ, right? But he also feels like one of the biggest stars on the roster right now, so is it a number one contender fight? Do you look outside the division? What kind of ideas do you have for what to do with him? I have none right now. I have none. Yeah, I don't know. Think about it over the weekend, and again, Tuesday we get in a room and we'll talk about it. See what's next. Fair enough. Last question I have for you. Fans have been asking about this. We're about six months into this Paramount Plus partnership we've completed. I think everybody's loving the partnership. The one thing I keep hearing about is fans can't watch full replays on Paramount Plus. I wonder if you've been made aware of this and if this is a strategic choice on their part or why they can't watch full events. Made aware of it. My kids were torturing me that they couldn't watch the White House fight over again, you know? Not wrong, but the problem is the music, you know, the music and you've got to take the walkouts out. We're working on it. You're not wrong, and I've been getting tortured over this in my own house. So yes. Who's next? Yeah. Dana, fancy flying high kick, not to say the least. Yesterday we saw Conor putting sneakers on. He looked like he had a hard time putting out his sneakers. Could he have been injured before the fight? I have no idea. I mean, that I don't know. I mean, the day of the press conference, he came running out of the back and ran right up to him and stopped abruptly and, you know, squared off of them. They were pushing foreheads. I'm just wondering if something happened within the last 24 hours. I don't see it on the landing, the actual landing of that flight. I wouldn't know that, but I didn't see, you know, the doctors checked him out before they fight and he looked damn good at the press conference and he looked fine at the weigh-ins. It's just a question of getting paid if you step in the cages. What's that? The question of getting paid as you step in the cage was. Well, listen, if anybody saw anything that could have possibly made him look weak or injured leading up to this fight, I mean, what would the ******* face off do? 44 million and 24 hours more, more than 44 million views. Somebody would have saw something. Anybody see something? No. If they did, they didn't say it, which is impossible. Nobody would do that. Dana, there were a lot of big storylines heading into this fight, including Gable Steveson making his UFC debut. He's been a highly touted prospect, Olympic gold medalist, and he went out there and just had a rumble with Elijah Ellison. I want to get your thoughts on his performance and just that fight in general. It was incredible. So normally what happens is, and especially for as long as I've been in this business, you sign a big, bad-ass, high-level wrestler like that, they come in and stink the place up and, you know, lay on the ground. That dude did the exact opposite. He looked like a mixed martial artist. He didn't look like a wrestler to me. And he's fun, you know, throwing kicks, punches, willing to stand in the pocket and bang. A lot of wrestlers don't like to get punched in the face either. So yeah, he's fun. It's going to be interesting. A lot of similarities, especially the striking to Jon Jones, who was obviously in his corner, and obviously they have a great relationship. Did you have a chance to talk to Jon? I know you guys spoke for like 10 seconds at the ceremonial weigh-ins, but did you and Jon have a chance to talk? No, we haven't. He said, hey, best friends here at the weigh-ins when I saw him. That was the extent of our conversation. And last question for me, because people have been asking me about this and I figured I'd get the chance to ask you. You probably saw what happened with Dustin Poirier, and you don't really have to react to that, but a lot of people have been asking, WWE has a wellness program where if there are ex-wrestlers or current that are running into issues, even post-retirement, they can get the help that they need. Have you talked to Dustin? We do the same. You guys do the same thing? Can you explain how that works? We don't talk about that stuff. Okay, fair enough. But yeah, we do the same. Any guys that have problems, believe me, a lot do, and we take care of them. Can we get any information about Sean Strickland's next opponent, if it will be Hamzat Shimaev or Nasroddin Imamov? I'm so glad the plane flew over during that, because you know I don't want to answer this question. Next opponent for Nasroddin Imamov, is it going to be Sean Strickland or Hamzat Shimaev? Would you like to reply to my friend back there for me? I understand, Scott. Go ahead and let him know. Oh, thank you, sir. All right. Do you have any other questions? That I could possibly answer this evening? How much time should Nasroddin wait for his shots? How much time should Imamov wait for his chance? Sir, I have no idea. That's the last ******* thing on earth that I am thinking about right now, though. But thank you. I apologize. I can't answer your question. I understand. Hi, Dana. Over here to your left. Conor spoke during the week about wanting to bring the UFC back to Ireland. I was speaking to Ian Gary just a couple of weeks ago at the press conference he did with Matchroom in Dublin, and he said the same thing, both guys showing an appetite to bring a show back to Ireland. We haven't had one there in a decade now, obviously. Conor's not going to be fighting there anytime soon, judging by what happened tonight. But is there any potential in the near future for the UFC to return to Dublin? Absolutely. Well, I'll be there for Zufa Boxing, you know, this summer. But the answer is yes. Love Ireland, and I'm actually looking forward to the fight there. The issue that Dave Shaw had mentioned before was that you guys, he had told my compatriot Ian O'Neill that you guys maybe thought that the Three Arena, you had outgrown it as the UFC. I know it's a fit for Zufa, but is it too small a venue for the UFC? Is that a factor? Well, it's too small of a venue to do something like tonight, but we could definitely bring a fight night there. I've just one more to squeeze in for you. I listened to your good buddy Eddie Hearn speak on an interview yesterday, and he said after speaking with Nick Cann at the Turkey Alley Shake quote-unquote peace talks, his line was, since that meeting, there's more of an open line of communication. Are you guys going to be a little smoother with each other going forward? Is the entertainment going to end? Well, listen, I've said many times, I don't hate Eddie Hearn, you know. Eddie came out and started saying crazy ---- as soon as we got involved in the sport, which I didn't see that coming. But I mean, listen, all these guys have been covering MMA all this time. They know what I do. You know how I am. I'm just going to keep running my business. I don't care what they do. I will say it again. I've said it before. We are not the same. Dana, just one while you're on that topic, Ryan Garcia and Conor Benn were on stage at the weigh-ins, and it seemed like we were going to get an announcement or something of that sort. So basically, what happened and how close are we to something coming into fruition? What happened? They started talking ---- to each other, and I had fights going on behind me, and I was worried more about the fights in front of me. But yeah, it happens. I mean, that happens. When you put three guys up on stage and two guys are going to fight, it can happen. Can we expect something soon to be material? Is it trending in the right direction? Absolutely. Dana. I mean, they were here, right? They're on stage. Read in between the line, boys. Who's got, yeah? Over here to your right. Now historically, you've always said you've never encouraged a fighter to retire unless they're really taking a lot of punishment. But when you see Conor, who has suffered injury after injury, obviously the leg break and then the broken toe, and now what looks to be a potential ACL one, at what point do you think that maybe you should listen to your body and call it a day? Yeah. I mean, I do feel that way, but it's the guys that start saying, ah, I've been thinking about retiring. And the minute you start talking or thinking about retiring, you absolutely positively should. I haven't heard that from him yet, but he hasn't spoke publicly yet. We'll see what he has to say. And if he comes out and says, look, I want to run it back, will you guys be open to that? Yeah. I don't know. We'll see how this whole thing plays out. There's a lot of unanswered questions right now that will play out over the next several days. And that's why I don't come into these things and start talking about the future. I don't know. I don't know what's going to happen tonight, tomorrow, and Monday, and then we'll get back in the office on Tuesday. It's not even worth talking about right now. I don't know enough. Thank you. Dana, when did you hire Sophie Cunningham as a ring card girl? Why did I do it? When did you hire her? About eight minutes before she did it. I love Sophie Cunningham. We've created a relationship and she was here tonight. And when she walked in, she goes, oh, I want to walk around that. I said, then you're going to walk around it. Yeah. Dana, all the way in the back, Barry. Yep. Hi. Hi there. When people think about Conor McGregor's legacy, a lot of it's going to be around wins and losses. But with three of the top four grossing gates belonging to him, how much do you attribute the growth of UFC and maybe the growth of MMA globally to Conor McGregor? Well, I give credit for the growth of the sport and the UFC to all the guys that have come up during every era. We had the Chuck Liddell era. We had Matt Hughes. We had Anderson Silva, Ronda Rousey, Conor McGregor, George St. Pierre. The list goes on and on. I'm always trying to figure out how to beat last year, and we always do. And everybody has played a huge role in that. But Conor is obviously the biggest superstar, not just in this sport, but in any sport. One question related to Zufa Boxing. So this year you had the event at Allegiant, and then with UFC you had the White House and then the Sphere. How much are you looking to have these great big events for either Zufa Boxing or UFC annually? What's the question? I don't understand. Yeah, yeah. Each year, whether it's Zufa Boxing or UFC, you have these great events. So whether it's going to be the White House or Allegiant Stadium or the Sphere, they're always these marquee events. How much going forward will you be having these marquee events for either Zufa or UFC? I still don't understand the question. Do you understand the question? Are you looking to keep topping yourself? You had the Sphere, you had the White House. Yeah, that's my job. My job is to keep topping myself. I mean, I did Canelo Crawford. That was, you know, that didn't suck. It was pretty good. So we're going to continue to put on the biggest events that we possibly can. You know, listen, I tell you all this, I can't believe nobody's hit me with this one yet. I'm going to beat you to it. So I tell you all the time, my production team, we just did the White House. We built a ******* arena on the South Lawn of the White House, and it was the greatest ******* thing in the world to be there live and to watch it on TV. I just paid Shakur Stevenson a shitload of money, and for some reason we can't figure this celebrity ---- out. They put him up as a ******* OKC NBA player. Are you ******* kidding me? I mean, it's just, it's absolutely crazy, but we are the absolute worst to ever do the celebrity thing. When we put celebrities up, we are the worst. I just had this ******* debate in the back with my guys while I was screaming at everybody back there, and they said, no, soccer's worse. Soccer shows the people and they don't, they don't put up any graphics. Oh, no. We put up ******* graphics and put the wrong guy's name on it. We win. We're the worst ever to ******* do it. Dana, way back here, just a couple of, wait. What's the question? Sorry, no, I'm just showing you I'm back here. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so a couple of things just regarding the boxers. So first off, what is the, like, in terms of Ryan Garcia, obviously he's a Golden Boy fighter, but he seemed pretty pally with him yesterday at the weigh-in and at Power Slap. Like, what is the status there? Are you going to be co-promoting with Golden Boy for this fight? Judge me at the end of this year by all the things. I'm not going to get into all this bullshit with all these guys. I know it's great, and you want to hear it, and you want me to say some ---- about them. Listen, we've talked about this in Bournemouth. Have I said anything that didn't come true? Just sit back and watch, and that'll all play out in the next couple weeks. It'll play out this week, actually. The whole thing about, like, you know, Jota's at the end of the year, it's like, this is just like, is Oscar going to be involved, and is DeZone going to be involved? I know you've said some disparity stuff about DeZone, and then, you know, like, it was talked about maybe being on Netflix, where, like, do we have, like, a broadcaster set, those kinds of things? I mean, I'm just asking, basically, are you and Oscar going to be on the dais together at this fight? You're going to have to wait and see, my friend. Also, just regarding the boxing as well, there's Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua fighters. Do you have any update? And, of course, the mayor of London has been speaking about it, and of course, Turk Yellowshake as well, about maybe doing it at Wembley in the middle of the night. What's your thoughts, and what's the latest from you? Tyson Fury, his fight, Anthony Joshua, is there any update on what's happening? Is it happening in the middle of the night in London, or when is it happening? Do you have any update about that fight? Yeah, as soon as, listen, if I was ready to go with it, I'd tell you. Again, in Bournemouth, I said, I know where the fight is. Where is it? I know. Also, just on that as well, what is your message to the mayor of London, I guess, because Turk Yellowshake has been speaking. What's your message to Mayor Cownie? What's my message to the mayor of London? About giving the Fury and AJ fight this kind of exemption to go so late. I don't know anything about that. Listen, I have my own plans. I know what I'm doing. I have nothing to say to the mayor of London, negatively or positively. Every event I've ever done in London has been incredible, and I'm not in the middle of that. I'm in my own little ******* world over here, and I do my thing. So you're not in the middle of Fury and AJ? I know where the fight is. Thank you. Dana, right over here. Dana, question about the production, positive one. The tunnel walkouts for the main event, I noticed you really revamped them. I was just wondering, did you feel like they came out the way that you had planned in terms of the execution and how they showed up on the broadcast? Because I think a lot of bands really enjoyed it. It made it feel even more special, and I think they really want to see even more of those things. Well, thank you, sir. Yeah, I think the entire show was flawless. It looked incredible on television. Apparently, we just need to stop showing ******* celebrities, because we can't figure that out after 25 years. We just can't ******* do it. It's unbelievable. We can't do it. Do you feel like the special tunnel walkouts will be a thing going forward, or was it just because Conor Mack's such a big fight? I don't know, man. I don't know. I'm glad everybody liked it. Dana? Yeah. Dana, just down here. Sorry to go back on the Titan Fury and AJ line again, but you were saying you know where the fight is. Turkey Alashak recently posted that he hasn't decided where the fight is, and he is in the midst of speaking to the London Mayor. You were saying you were not involved with that, so it doesn't seem like there's quite an alignment between you two. Turkey said that he has not announced where the fight is going to be. You're saying you know where the fight is going to be. Turkey said he is talking to the mayor. He said you have nothing to say to the mayor, so things are not aligning to what you're saying. Yes, sir. Dana, just here. There's 25 million Australians currently eagerly awaiting Alex Volkanovsky fight news. Is there any chance you can give us some ... Is it going to be a booking any time soon? Volkanovsky? Yeah. No. I'm not even thinking about that right now. Goddamn. Thank you. Yeah. I am absolutely ******* useless to you people tonight. Anything else that is relevant that I could talk about right now? Hey, Dana. Yeah. Eric Richter, New York Post. I don't know if you heard, but Herb Dean, every time that he got announced, he heard it a little bit from the fans, getting booed a little bit. Do you have any thoughts on that and kind of exactly what he could do to maybe win back the fans? Hmm. I mean, that's a commission issue. It's not mine. We have nothing to do with that. Herb's a nice guy, and I think in any sport, like I always say, a lot of mistakes are made. I don't know anything about soccer, but I heard that there were like 30-something mistakes that helped the team win a bit. You know, this ---- always happens in every sport, so I don't know. Yeah. Herb's got to get it right. I'm sure people will turn around and cheer him again. I don't know. Yeah, absolutely. Last one for me. At the ceremonial weigh-ins, I saw you talking to Jon Jones a little bit, maybe joking around or whatever. Just wanted to know if you guys have talked at all or maybe what was said. Who is it? Jon Jones. What about it? At the ceremonial weigh-ins, it looked like you guys were, you know, chopping it up a He said, hey, your best friend's here. That's what he said to me. I said, good to see you. Have a good night. What do you mean, my best friend? He's joking. He thinks I hate him. Oh, okay. Understood. Yeah. I don't hate him. You done with me? Dana, back here. Okay. Sorry about that. Quick question. Cody Garbrandt, he had his gloves off in the cage, but he didn't put them down. Do you have any update, and what do you think he should do with his career? Yeah, I know that he had talked to Sean Shelby after the fight backstage, and, you know, I'm obviously not going to talk publicly about what he's, that's up to him. It's his career. He's a grown man. He can respond to that on his own, but, yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to get into that. Gotcha. Thank you, Dana. Thank you, sir. Dana? Any other questions I can't answer? Right over here. Yeah. I just wanted your thoughts on Robert Whitaker moving up to light heavyweight on his performance, and also, there have been a few fighters that have decided to move up in weight. Do you like that for them? Yeah. I think that, you know, especially a guy like Whitaker, who's been around, you know, came off the ultimate fighter, and has done incredible things, and, you know, won titles, defended titles, you know, done it all, and if he feels like he wants to move up, he knows his body better than I do, and he looked damn good tonight against a very tough, durable guy. Thank you. And I think, you know, I think when the fight ended, we thought he broke his jaw. His jaw is not broken. He was transported, and his jaw is not broken. I don't know if you guys thought that, but we didn't. Yes, sir? Dana, question for you. Twenty years ago, we talked about the Hawaiian fighters, and guys like Kendall Grove, BJ Penn, and looking at Max Holloway, what is the impact that not only Max, but Native Hawaiian and Hawaiian living fighters have made on the UFC over the years? Yeah. It's funny, because I always talk about Australia, right? When we first went over to Australia, we think about how small it is, and nobody over there could do mixed martial arts. Now it's, you know, it's like a hotbed of top ten world champions and Hall of Fame fighters, and same when you think about how small Hawaii is and how many incredibly talented people have come off Hawaii, and literally legends. I mean, like two of the biggest legends in the history of the sport. It's very impressive. Thank you. Yep. Good night. So, we were talking about the guy over here earlier asking about there being a pre-injury. Just on my accounts, the face-off that day is at 80 million views, right? So, if there was a pre-existing injury, somebody would have noticed it. He was limping, put his shoes on, he ran right at him. I don't think there was anything as possible, but he sure didn't look like it. And for 80 million just on my accounts, you know, that number's got to be massive. And nobody noticed anything. So, there you go.