- Dana White reacted to Conor McGregor vs. Dan Hooker buzz and Donald Cerrone’s plan to return
- The UFC president is committed to fixing the media’s alleged biased UFC rankings
UFC president Dana White talked about the Conor McGregor vs. Dan Hooker talks, Donald Cerrone wanting to make a UFC return and the changes that he likes to implement to stop the biased UFC rankings by the media.
McGregor vs. Hooker sounds good
Speaking to the media following a Dana White’s Contender Series event, the UFC boss was quizzed to shed light on McGregor’s unofficial announcement of a February 1st showdown with Hooker in Saudi Arabia. As per White, the matchup sounds good but the UFC has not discussed it with either of the fighters.
“That would be a great fight. I like that fight. [But] I did not announce the fight,” White told the media.
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Donald should stay retired
White was also asked to share his thoughts on Cerrone’s interest in coming out of retirement. For Dana, “Cowboy” should stay retired as he got nothing else to prove.
“I hate it. Love him, hate that,” White pointed out. “He retired, it’s just for what, what’s left to prove? If you want to make money, let’s figure something else out. When guys retire, they retire for a reason. They retire because they know it’s over. You know it is. So, not just this sport but any professional sport, it’s hard to walk away from.”
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The biased UFC rankings will stop
White has already voiced his disdain for the media’s way of running the UFC rankings. Once again, the UFC chief lashed out at the media’s “biased” rankings and vowed to have it changed when he discusses the matter with the parties involved.
White added that though the UFC cannot and will never interfere with the rankings, he will do everything at his disposal to prevent the ongoing bias in it.
“If you look at who Pereira has beat, and how he has beat him, leading up to this fight. He was winning on the scorecards when he got stopped. He was ahead on the scorecards, stayed in the pocket, put on one of the greatest fights anybody’s ever seen, and he stays at No. 8,” White exclaimed. “I can’t handle incompetence. I can’t take it anymore. It’s driving me crazy. I can’t let people that I don’t believe know what the f**k they’re talking about deal with the rankings any more. I just can’t do it. I have to figure out a solution.”
“Tomorrow I have a meeting with a group of people that are coming to me saying they have the solution to this problem. And God I hope they’re right, because I’m gonna change it. The media will no longer control the rankings in the UFC,” he continued.
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“We can’t do it,” he added. “I don’t think that it’s right that we would do the rankings. No matter how unbiased you try to be, it’s impossible. And I’ll be honest with you, there are some fighters I don’t like. There’s fighters that I really like. And there’s things that are good for the business. There’s things that you might think, I don’t want in our hands at all. Not mine, not Sean [Shelby]’s, not Mick [Maynard]’s, not Hunter [Campbell]’s, nobody’s. There has to be a third party or A.I. or something that does the rankings. It’s impossible not to be biased. There’s biased with the media too.”
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White has often tried to stay true to his words everytime he speaks to the media. That said, it’s safe to say that for now, the issues mentioned above have already been addressed.
