Dana White sat down for a conversation with the media following the conclusion of UFC 296 the promotion's final event of the year. The Ultimate Fighting Championship head honcho announced new fight bookings, discussed his take on the fights on the card and even confirmed locations and dates for some of the most stacked cards in the coming year.
On Bryce Mitchell's health following his knockout loss against Josh Emmett: “Yeah, he's been released he's good. Sure, he's not great but he's good yeah, he's good. He's healthy, he passed all his tests and he's okay. He's been released from the hospital, like halfway through the show. So, it wasn't like, just now.”
On Colby Covington’s performance in the main event: “Well, I guess my take on it is, and you guys can let me know what you think, but when you're 35 years old or any age in this sport you're like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to wait,’ waiting is never a good idea in this sport. This sport doesn't wait for anybody, and I think he looked slow tonight, he got outwrestled you know. Leon looked good. Leon looked fast and looked like he had trouble dealing with his speed and then getting outwrestled and not to mention the fact that Leon absolutely destroyed that leg too.”
On the UFC holding out on Covington to give him the title shot: “I don't ever have anybody wait in this business, man. This is not a business that waits for you, yeah. Your windows are very short, and you never know once you start getting up into your mid-30s, when you're going to show up and just not look like you anymore.”
On Belal Muhammad being next in line for a welterweight title shot: “I'm not even thinking about that right now.”
On Alexandre Pantoja’s performance against Brandon Royval: “Yeah, I mean he looked great tonight you know; he looked great. Shavkat threw me off in the beginning when the way he was grappling instead of striking then he ends up submitting ‘Wonderboy,’ who's never been submitted so. Josh Emmett holy s--t, I mean that punch was so loud and devastating and you know and then the whole undercard. I mean the undercard was incredible.”
On the skirmish between Sean Strickland and Dricus Du Plessis during UFC 296: “So, what kind of an ass sits Strickland next to Du Plessis? This a--hole, that's who, yeah. I do every seating assignment every week yeah all right so that’s on me. I mean seriously well I don't know what humans you can sit Strickland next to but definitely not Du Plessis, you know. It was what it was. I don't even know how I missed that. This is the business we're in, I say it all the time. Jumped in there, and told Strickland to relax, and go in the back he decided to leave so he left the arena, and you know Dricus is good, we were just literally talking to him right outside the door there. So, gentlemen, we are in the fight business and ladies we're in the fight business and these are the things that happen.”
On Tony Ferguson’s performance against Paddy Pimblett: “I would love to see Tony retire.”
On Cody Garbrandt’s performance against Brian Kelleher: “Cody looked damn good tonight. Yeah, he looked good.”
Whether the trash talk leading up to the UFC 296 bothered him: “Absolutely. It bothered everybody, I think. Listen, what I say is true, we're in the fight game, lots of mean things are said and one of the things that I really don't like is family. When you start going after family and whether it's the kids the wife the parents the whatever, it's just such a nasty thing to do but again this is one of those sports where you say horrible things and then 24 hours later it goes down, you know what I mean? And that's why tonight you saw Leon's corners going crazy and I went over and said guys listen you won! You won in the most dominant possible way to win. You outwrestled, you outstruck, you completely dominated tonight. If this turns into what it could possibly turn into, he's going to get fined and it's not worth it. You won the fight.”
On reprimanding Covington for crossing the line with Edwards in the buildup to the event: “No, I don't ever tell anybody what to say you know. What we will say is, ‘Guys when you go out on that stage do not touch each other.’ You know everybody thinks that I love these types of things. No! I don't love it and more importantly the commission doesn't love it and the commission is the government. So no, we don't like this stuff and we do everything in our power to make sure that it doesn't happen.”
Whether the pressure got to Covington against Edwards: “Yeah I think pressure gets to everybody I'm sure Leon had a ton of pressure I mean he was just talking about what he said about his father and uh you know the last thing you want to do is now go out and lose to that guy all these guys deal with pressure but Colby's been in big fights before this. Colby just looked slow and old tonight, in my opinion.”
On former Bellator MMA star Michael “Venom” Page signing with the UFC and facing Kevin Holland in his promotional debut: “I think it's going to be great I mean that's why we made that first match up. That's a fun fight between two guys who let it all go. It's a good one.”
On what's next for Stephen Thompson: “Yeah, I don't know. I mean that's something he and his team are going to have to talk about. He's not in the same situation that I feel Tony Ferguson is in.”
On the reasons behind booking Holland vs. Page as the Englishman's first UFC bout: “I think it's a lot of things. I think it's his age and his experience and you know it's the right fight to make.”
On his plans for UFC 300: “Well think about tonight the buzz and energy around tonight's card and look at the stuff that I'm telling you guys Miami. So we got to beat you know this Miami and a bunch of other great cards that are going to happen this year. I don't remember who I was talking to but the way I see UFC 300 is when it comes out people are going to be going ‘Holy s**t, that's the first prelim of the night?’ that's what UFC 300's going to be.”
On the chances of lightweight champ Islam Makhachev taking on Edwards for the welterweight title in the future: “Yeah, I had lunch with him a couple days ago and we didn't really talk about fights we talked about family and all kinds of other stuff, so I don't know. I'd like to see him stay at 155 pounds.”
On the lack of options for fighters following Professional Fighters League's acquisition of Bellator: “Yes. It's a bad thing. It's not a good thing for there to be less options not only for fighters but guys who are coming up to have less options, so yes it's definitely not a good thing.”
On the possibility of Shavkat Rakhmonov leap-frogging Belal Muhammad for a welterweight title shot: “Yeah, I mean yeah, the guy's undefeated and everything you said is on point yeah and you know right here right now I have no idea. We've got to get back in the room and talk and you know we're dark here for the next few weeks, so we'll get a lot of s**t done here through the holidays.”
On former president Donald Trump's reaction to Covington's loss in the main event: “I mean, like I said I think he felt the way everybody felt. I mean I don't know what your guys's opinion was but mine was that he looked really slow, he had a hard time handling the speed, could never really get off because of the speed, and even got outwrestled. So, you know he didn't voice anything. He waited till Colby spoke after the fight and wanted to hear his you know his interview but no, he didn't really have much to say."
Whether Trump would have wrapped the belt around Covington's waist had he emerged victorious: “No. You think the Secret Service is going to let him get up there in the middle of the Octagon?”
On the most memorable UFC event of the year: “You know what's funny man? I feel like every one of our events is always awesome. I mean every time we go to MSG, the last Miami show was incredible, but I love the Contender Series man. I like that we're sitting in the office and literally everybody gets up to leave to go to the contender series and I love those fights, I love that show and I love those fights. That’s like my highlight of the year, are those fights and I like what's at stake and that it's live and it's right here right now. Who are you and what do you got? It's just everything about the contender series I love."
On the financial success of the UFC in 2023: " Yeah! So, what continues to happen is and when you think about it, think about COVID-19, right? When we came out of COVID-19, think about all the places that we still haven't been in years now that are still, you know, like we roll into Toronto, Canada again, we haven't been there in years, I haven't been there in years, that's for sure, and Toronto is always a fun spot always great fans up there, you know, the energy and the buzz up there and I love the city of Toronto. So, as we start to go into these other... Let me give you an example, [Kevin] Iole hits me up tonight and he's like, 'Hey, you know what's the gate? what's it going to be?' And all this and I told him 9.3 million. He's like 'Wow I didn't realize the gate was that big or whatever, 'where does that rank all time?' Ranks number 15. So, if you look at what's happened over the last couple of years coming out of COVID-19, these Gates continue to go like this [points upwards]. I think you're going to see that in 24' too. So we go into these new territories, call them fresh territories that we haven't been in a while.”
His expectations for the first UFC event to be held in Saudi Arabia: “It's a great question. It's the first time we've ever been to Saudi Arabia. Obviously, those guys operate at a very high level and we will bring a not-typical fight night to Saudi Arabia.”
On the possibility of a UFC Africa event in 2024: “So here's the thing when we talk about UFC Africa, right? Dricus! He's South African, so there's this whole thing about well, 'if you go to South Africa you're not really going to Africa.' You know what I mean? But if the guy who ends up being the guy is from South Africa then we would probably start in South Africa and then you know that my long-term goal is to really plant some roots there like we're doing in Mexico like we did in China like we're going to do in other spots too and start pumping out young talent from that country.”
Other countries as potential locations for UFC Africa: “Well we've talked about Nigeria. What was the two? It was Nigeria [and] Rwanda, were the two places that we're we're talking. So, the three places South Africa, Nigeria and Rwanda.”
Whether he'd be open to fighters walking out with other entertainers: “Yeah, I'm always cool with that, long as nobody's singing or you know any of that s**t, we're good.”
His goals for the UFC going into 2024: “We're going to be opening the [UFC] Performance Institute in Mexico. We're going to do a live event down in Mexico, I'm really going to start grinding down there and all the plans that I've had over the years. Then like she was saying before, Mexican Independence Day at The Sphere and I'm working on that thing now. I guess as I get my s**t together I will let you know more about how that thing's going because I got all these plans for it but I'm working on it right now. So, Mexico is huge for us next year, like I was saying to this gentleman earlier on, Edwards winning and beating Usman twice and beating Colby, you know, the UK is big. I also was saying the other day I want to start hitting places like Manchester and other places in the UK other than just London again. And first fight in Saudi Arabia, like we were talking about, we got to deliver on that one. Talking about bringing a boxing match to Ireland, a lot of new stuff going on next year. Fun stuff.”