At the UFC Vegas 74 post-fight press conference, the UFC President, Dana White discussed Tyson Fury’s recent comments, Jon Jones’ return, and the difficulties in getting high-earning athletes such as Conor McGregor to fight again.
Alex Caceres and Daniel Pineda took home the fight of the night bonus, each earning themselves $50 thousand extra on top of their fight purse.
Two performance of the night bonuses were given following the card at the UFC Apex. The first went to Jim Miller for his impressive knockout victory inside the first thirty seconds against Jesse Butler. The second performance bonus went to Muhammad Naimov for his second-round TKO victory over Jamie Mullarkey.
John Morgan from MMA Junkie then asked the UFC president for his thoughts on the main event between Amir Albazi and Kai Kara-France, which the former took via a split decision victory. ”I thought it was a super close fight. Both guys needed to win the fifth round, and I was right. It was very, very close.”
White was impressed with the performances of both men, complimenting them both on the high-level grappling on display throughout the five rounds. Although wanting to see more aggression from each fighter, White said that he understood the approach taken by both men, given the fact they are both high-level fighters.
Morgan asked White for information regarding the policy for fighters getting tickets for their families. The question came after Tim Elliott’s tweet, which was subsequently deleted before UFC Vegas 74. Elliott was unhappy that he had flown his family out to Vegas, only to be told he could not have any complimentary tickets for his loved ones.
”When we’re here at the Apex, the main event gets tickets. It’s absolutely consistent with every fight that we have here” said Dana White. The news would have been hard for Elliott when he found out, as it seemed as though his family were already on their flight to Vegas before he had published the tweet.
Focus then went to the UFC Heavyweight Champion and arguably the GOAT of MMA, Jon Jones. White was asked when we could expect to see him back in action and whether it would be against Stipe Miocic or another opponent such as Sergei Pavlovich.
”People keep asking us about fights that are happening in the fall. We’re still making fights for the summer. You know what I mean? Obviously, we have plans and targets of what we would like to happen, and you guys [the media] are already aware that I would like November, Jon Jones, to fight somebody in Madison Square Garden”.
Before taking any more questions, Dana White gave his thoughts on the recent furor regarding the ‘baddest man on the planet debate.’ We will have to become accustomed to these kinds of debates due to the rise of MMA over the past few years and the fact we have now seen more crossover fights, particularly over the past few years, and particularly in the boxing world. The UFC President was clear about who he thought the title belonged to:
”I like Tyson Fury; I have a great relationship with Tyson Fury. Jon Jones is the baddest man on the planet. There’s no doubt about it. When you talk about ‘who the baddest man on the planet is’ when two guys fought, in a fight, who would win? We all know if Jon Jones boxed, Tyson Fury wins. All these boxing guys wanna talk about this and keep it in their ring”.
Dana White then had a proposition for the boxing heavyweight champion of the world, Tyson Fury:
”I’m telling Tyson Fury, who I respect very much… If you really want to find out who the baddest man on the planet is, I will make that fight. I will make Jon Jones versus Tyson Fury in the Octagon. We figured out how to pay Floyd [Mayweather], so we’ll figure out how to pay you too, Tyson. The offer is out there. If you want to do it in the UFC, let’s do it. Let’s answer the question”.
Dana White seems to have changed his mind about doing crossover fights, and it’s hard to blame him as Jon Jones versus Tyson Fury in the UFC would be two of the highest caliber fighters going toe-to-toe in what would surely be one of the biggest pay-per-views of all time.
With the UFC returning to Canada for the first time in three years next weekend for the women’s Bantamweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Irene Aldana, Dana White said he was looking forward to returning to the country as Canada is very important to the UFC and because it’s ‘such a fun and great market for us.’
Previewing the event, White said it would be interesting to see whether Amanda Nunes still has the same hunger as when she first won the title, given the fact she has made a lot of money and has had so much success – the same question also posed of Conor McGregor a lot. White then stopped short of confirming that the winner of Oliveira and Dariush would become the number one contender for the Lightweight title.
Before wrapping up the post-fight presser, Dana White discussed Conor McGregor and when we could expect to see him fight his fellow coach on The Ultimate Fighter, Season 31, Michael Chandler.
”First of all, Conor called me a couple of days ago and loved the first episode of The Ultimate Fighter, and saying how happy he was to be a part of it. I think him being here, and in the environment and everything else, he felt it again [the desire]; he felt like he wants to get back and fight. One thing you guys [the media] have to understand is this guy [McGregor] has so much money. It’s hard to reel these guys back in and get them fired up to fight”.
Judging by these comments, don’t be surprised if we see a response from Conor McGregor on his Twitter account soon.
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