Nothing has changed as far as the relationship between UFC president Dana White and Fedor Emelianenko.
Leading up to his knockout win over Tim Johnson at Bellator 269 earlier this month, Emelianenko said the following about White:
“Money means everything to him,” Emelianenko told Russian outlet TASS. “He has no respect towards fighters, no respect for any human being. Only money and that’s all.”
White — who has long been outspoken about his opinion of Emelianenko as a fighter — got a chance to respond to those comments when asked if his opinion changed on “The Last Emperor” following the win over Johnson.
“Should I not see him as overrated because he knocked out Tim Johnson?” White responded at the UFC 267 post-fight press conference on Saturday. “I don’t think one way or another about it.”
“I saw last week or a couple weeks ago where Fedor said, ‘this guy is all about money’ or whatever. First of all, I don’t even know Fedor. Fedor doesn’t know me. We met one time. His statement was I was all about money — he should have been more about money when we made you that offer wherever the f*ck we were, whatever island that we were on, and he still wouldn’t be fighting at 45 years old.”
RARE: Ariel Helwani and Dana White get into heated debate about whether Fedor or Anderson Silva is #1 P4P (2010) pic.twitter.com/y0R248sZkv
— AD Christian (@ADchristiann) October 29, 2021
White Doesn’t See Fedor Competing In The UFC
As for the prospect of one fight in the UFC before Emelianenko calls it a day? White sees it as highly unlikely for a number of reasons.
But that’s not because he hasn’t tried to make it happen. After all, he tried to make Brock Lesnar vs. Emelianenko a thing.
“You know I offered him a deal that he still must lay in bed everything and bum out about,” White said. “We offered him a deal. We tried to do a deal with Fedor.
“Apparently Fedor doesn’t like me. So I don’t see it happening.”
You can watch the full press conference below:
