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Dana White on UFC 118: “People wanted to see this James Toney/Couture fight”
By Zach Arnold | August 29, 2010
A few takeaways from this MMAFighting.com interview:
He really, really is not happy with BJ Penn. You can always tell when he gets into that ‘this guy is evil’ mode when his voice lowers in volume. He used the same tone of voice here when talking about Penn angering him as he did when he talked about the Ken Pavia/Bellator lawsuit.
Dana also tried his best to deflect the ‘boring’ label on both Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar but it’s not going to work.
Transcript of a rather interesting interview is available in full-page mode.
ARIEL HELWANI: “Dana, this James Toney saga has lasted 8 months for you. Can you finally breathe a sigh of relief now that it’s over?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah. And listen, just to make it clear, I don’t know, you know, how it came off through this whole thing or here in the press conference. No disrespect at all towards James Toney or to boxing. Boxing is a sport that I love and I have a lot of respect for James, you know, what he’s accomplished in boxing and everything else.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “At the presser you said this morning you got a little nervous. At any point did the thought come to the back of your mind that said, ‘man, what will I do if James Toney knocks this guy out?’ ”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, of course it does, you know. I was nervous going into the fight. I think, but you know what though? That’s part of the fun of doing big fights and fights like that. When those two guys get in there, first of all the crowd’s going crazy, your heart’s beating, your stomach’s turning, that’s the way you should feel when a fight’s going on.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I know you said you expected Couture to go and take him down and pretty much grind out a win pretty quickly. But, you know, honestly, did you think Toney would look a little better out there?”
DANA WHITE: “Listen, let me tell you what. What is it now, like 12 years ago, I met a guy named John Lewis, OK? And I had been in boxing since I was 17 years old. He came over to my gym and what guy was able to do to me blew my mind, you know? I know what can happen when you get in there with a Mixed Martial Artist. It’s the day that I took the pill in the matrix and it opened my eyes to a whole new world of fighting and tonight it happened to James Toney. It doesn’t matter how great you are on your feet, it’s the thing that makes this sport so great. It’s why all the kids right now are getting into Mixed Martial Arts. Why would you want to learn one thing when you can learn everything?”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you regret putting on this match?”
DANA WHITE: “No, not at all. The way I look at it is. Like I said, James Toney picked a fight and he got one and as this thing, as James Toney got out there and started chasing me around and all this stuff started happening, I got my finger on the pulse and I get to feel if people want to see a fight or not. People wanted to see this James Toney/Couture fight. People were intrigued by it. People were interested in it. I made sure and built a great card around it because he could have clipped Couture early or Couture could have done what he did tonight and I don’t ever want the fans to turn the TV off and go, I should have never bought this.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Will we ever see James Toney fight in the UFC again?”
DANA WHITE: “No. James Toney is the IBA and NABO Heavyweight champion. He’s got an incredible career as a professional boxer and that’s where he should be.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you have any interest in ever seeing, let’s say Floyd Mayweather tomorrow says, you know, I’d like to get in there. Or Andre Ward, a young boxer in his prime, would you ever do this fight again?”
DANA WHITE: ‘THE SAME EXACT THING will happen, you know? I don’t think Floyd Mayweather’s going to chase me around calling me names and doing the things that Toney did. The best way that I can explain it to you and to everybody out there, James Toney picked a fight and he got one. We answered this question back in 1993 and we answered it again here in 2010.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Is this the defining moment of Randy Couture’s career or just kind of a side note?”
DANA WHITE: “No, this is just another, the way that I looked at this thing and the thing that I really love and respect about Randy Couture is this was just another challenge for him, you know, and Randy Couture’s one of those guys that, believe me, there’s a lot of guys that would take a fight like this and go, I know what I’m going to do to this guy and blah blah blah. Randy Couture trained hard, he worked on this thing, he had a game plan, you know what I mean? He’s a true professional. I’ll tell you right now, one of the things that I love, when I was sitting down with Mike Tyson last week in my office, here’s what Mike Tyson said to me — man, Randy Couture’s like one of those old-school fighters, man, he’s one of these guys that if you beat him and the next time you fight him he’ll come out and start trying to knock you out like he beat you the first time and that’s the way Couture is and that’s why, you know, Couture is who he is.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Safe to assume that his next fight will be at Light Heavyweight, that he’ll go back down to 205?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah. His next fight will be at Light Heavyweight against one of the top guys in that division.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “He’s in the mix, right?”
DANA WHITE: “He’s in the mix.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, let’s talk about Frankie Edgar/BJ Penn. A lot of fans giving Frankie his props but saying that it wasn’t all that exciting. What did you think of his performance?”
DANA WHITE: “You’re a complete jackass if you did not appreciate what you saw there tonight. Give this kid his respect. He just fought BJ Penn for the second time and people doubted whether he won the first time. Nobody can doubt whether he won this time. It was an absolute domination. He hit BJ Penn with big shots… beat him on his feet, beat him on the ground, was able to take him down with big slams and then BJ Penn would get that top position, almost had the mount, Frankie got out of it. Frankie absolutely 100% dominated and destroyed BJ Penn. That means something.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Absolutely. Why don’t you think people give him enough respect?”
DANA WHITE: “Well, I don’t know that, yet. I haven’t heard anybody say that, so I don’t know…”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Going into this fight, no one gave him any respect. Going into the first fight, no one gave him respect, and just people saying, you know, it wasn’t all that flashy, exciting, not like what BJ was doing to guys when he was beating them as a champion.”
DANA WHITE: “I thought it was incredible, you know. I thought what he did tonight. You got to look at who they’re doing it to. He just did it to BJ PENN! It’s not like he just did it to some guy you’ve never heard of, he just did that to BJ Penn for five rounds. I think that’s pretty spectacular.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And let’s just put it on the record, Maynard/Edgar next, the rematch?”
DANA WHITE: “Right.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “And, you know, a lot of people because of Gray Maynard, he’s never, well he hasn’t finished a fight in his last 8 or 7, and then with Frankie tonight just saying what the people are saying, any reservations about that fight not, um, living up to expectations?”
DANA WHITE: “No reservations whatsoever. Again, you know, listen, when you say people say that, I say the media say that. I, uh, I don’t buy into the media [expletive]. We’re going to put on a fight and when Maynard and Frankie fight, people are going to want to see it.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Do you think the next time we see BJ will be at Welterweight or Lightweight?”
DANA WHITE: “Um… I don’t know. I don’t know what’s next for BJ.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “OK. Prior to the fight, BJ said that he wishes his relationship with you was a little better. Are you going to look to maybe smooth it over? He wouldn’t go into details as to why there was an issue but are you looking to maybe mend the fences sort of speak?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah. Well, the problems with BJ and I, I didn’t create. So that’s up to BJ.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Are you able to talk on what is the issue?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t want to drag it out into the public. It’s not important.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “Kenny Florian… you said he chokes in big fights. Why do you think that is? Do you think it’s a mental thing for him?”
DANA WHITE: “I don’t know, it’s got to be, man. Kenny Florian is so well-rounded and so gifted and so nasty, man, you didn’t see any leg kicks tonight, you didn’t see him kick to the body, you didn’t even see him letting his hands go even in the last round when I had him down 2-0 and his corner had to have him down 2-0, he didn’t come out, you would have thought that there would have been a sense of urgency where he would have felt like I have to pull off a knockout or submission to win this fight and he didn’t go for it at all.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “A lot of media members were here for the first time. Old, veteran media members. I saw you sitting with Bob Ryan, who has not been a very big MMA supporter in the past. What’s your take on how they received this event?”
DANA WHITE: “Yeah, well, it goes to what I was saying earlier about Boston coming out and doing this. Bob Ryan hates MMA. He doesn’t like it at all, yet he was here tonight. He came here tonight in the city of Boston and was open-minded enough to sit through some fights, watch the fight with me, asked a lot of questions, talked to Shaq, you know. Listen, this isn’t going to be everybody’s cup of tea, man, not everybody’s going to love Mixed Martial Arts but I have so much respect for the people like Bob Ryan and many other journalists who were here tonight who came out and gave it a shot and at least, you know… put everything aside and came out. Dude, it’s Saturday night, you know what I mean? It’s Saturday night, there’s a lot of other things they could be doing. They came here and gave it a shot.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “We pretty much know what the rest of the year looks like for you and the UFC, but there are two events that we don’t know where they will take place. Rampage/Machida, you haven’t officially announced that, but they have talked about it. And GSP/Koscheck. Anything you can break for us here tonight?”
DANA WHITE: “Dude, by the time that I’m here at this point after the fight, my brain is like scrambled eggs.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I thought maybe you just knew the answer already.”
DANA WHITE: “No, I don’t.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “All right, well thank you so much for the time, Dana, welcome home.”
DANA WHITE: “Thank you.”
ARIEL HELWANI: “I hope it was a successful event for you.”
DANA WHITE: “It was awesome. Thank you.”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 14 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thats interesting.
So he’s just flat out gone.
(Until Toney shows up on a ladder yelling through Dana’s second floor windows I presume).
Well, I wouldn’t mind not having to watch an aging ego driven man crushed again to be honest.
(I truly considered just not watching the fight when I saw him start his walkout.)
I wanted to see Toney vs. a kickboxer or striker at first.
Still Out of his comfort zone but having a better chance for us to see him bring into play and compare his skill.
But that would have necessitated at least one more fight to prove the obvious little point for Toney and the portion of the boxing community who have continued to either dismiss or proactively attack MMA’s validity.
(Dana was also guilty of instigating that, but most MMA fans seemed to be more reasonable).
Of course this wont suddenly halt that already groundless (zing) rhetoric, but euphemistically throws a somewhat deserved glass of water in their face.
And if that was really the most to be gained, which at a mil a pop probably was, then it was smarter to just get it out of the way and save a million bucks.
A millions bucks that could be going towards MMA fighters instead.
Drug testing was all anyone could talk about before and after Alistair Overeem’s most recent fight. But in the wake of James Toney’s (embarrassing) fight this weekend, has anyone even asked the question of whether this steroid cheat (who has tested positive for steroids after two different fights) was subjected to any drug testing? I’m not asking that question sarcastically; I really want to know.
It wouldn’t have mattered if Toney had a needle in his ass, Ivan. Everyone knew Toney was coming to lose and not to legitimately compete. He laid down and took that big check, laughing all the way.
Dude, did you see Toney? The only thing he’ll test positive for is Pringles.
Massachusetts requires random testing for fighters. We know that Edgar was tested(from the post-fight presser), but that’s all we know for now. Perhaps in the days to come the names will be released.
People can call Maynard boring all they want that’s fine but to even suggest that Edgar is boring is beyond idiotic. This guy always brings it and he made the supposed greatest LW ever look pathetic and out of his league.
People need to stop acting like butthurt fanboys because a guy went out and used his wrestling to dominated the so called superior fighter. Frankie dominated BJ worse than GSP did there was no question about who won the fight, if you can’t appreciate and respect that and enjoy that find another sport to follow.
He dominated BJ worse than GSP did?? GSP made BJ throw in the towel. GSP took him down repeatedly and kept him down for entire rounds at a time whilst doing more dmg; whereas Edgar took him down (albeit repeatedly), didn’t do as much damage there, and wasn’t able to keep BJ down all that long.
Striking wise…he did dominate BJ worse than GSP did (though GSP could have done better if he wanted to keep it standing), but you seemed to be referring to the ground aspect of the fight. Don’t get me wrong, Edgar fought a great fight, but don’t make him out to be some sort of Superman in this fight. GSP had BJ huffing and puffing nearly into a coma.
Yes, GSP dominated Penn way more than Edgar did. Granted, he had a huge size advantage (and of course the vaseline conspiracy), but he made Penn look like a C-level fighter who gave up on his stool, where as Edgar had to work for his win. Not taking anything away from Edgar, since like I said GSP did have the size advantage to out-grapple Penn with ease, but there’s a big difference between the two fights.
Hey Zach, any idea why all of fight magazine’s videos got taken down? There’s a message that says it was due to a copyright claim by zuffa. I’m just wondering how interviews can make a journalist liable for a lawsuit?
see this http://www.fightmagazine.com/videos/joe-rogan:-toney-took-fight-for-money;-penn-needs-new-camp-330.htm
I saw that as well tonight, that their Youtube acct. got suspended.
I see now on the acct. that they are posting old videos.
Seriously, Zuffa is now filing a copyright claim against them for having a Joe Rogan interview?
I doubt Zuffa has filed a claim.
Youtube rarely handles copyright stuff with a case-by-case scalpel after UFC events. They usually just bust out the chainsaw and cut down anything with the letters ‘UFC’ in it. Looks to me like Fight magazine just had the misfortune of being collateral damage. I suspect those interviews will be back up in a couple of days.
I agree with EJ.
Edgar is not a boring fighter. He keeps a strong pace and does not stall, unlike Maynard, who really does lay and pray. Frankie had some boring fights but I will defedn him on each of those–the Fischer fight and the Franca fight– because it is clear that the other guy was the one stalling. Fischer clamped down in the guard and tried nothing, while Frankie worked his ass off to pass and do damage. Hermes just layed there the whole fight and Edgar put effort into his ground and pound.
One thing about Edgar is he has improved so fast and is going to get better. I always was honest in assesment of him. I said he needed more power and he needed a submissions game. I think he has those now, even if BJ was not the best guy to show them off against. I think you will see him finish at a higher than average rate from now on.
I don’t get bored watching either fighter, my two favourite LW fighters for a few years now.
Edgar, despite the lack of devestating power, is probably the UFC’s most active fighter. He is constantly moving and engaging, never really disengaging unlike Machida. He continually pushes the pace with his wrestling, and has some of the best scrambling ability.
On the other hand, I do see how Maynard can suck the energy out of a room. His biggest strengths (physicality and wrestling) serve largely to diminish his opponents’ aggressiveness, without him actively having to do anything. I like him mainly because he’s a hard worker, and has ridden his bread and butter skillset all the way to the top. Every time he’s in a fight, it’s a game of chess to see if this style can be stopped – Maynard with a scorecard lead is a tough nut to crack. I was actually wanting 2 more rounds on Saturday.
Long live the wrestleboxers!!!
Who wanted to see this fight? I don’t recall one single person saying “Dude, it would be so awesome if James Toney signed with the UFC! And you know what would be even better? If he fought Randy Couture, who nobody has cared about for 2 years!”
This was so awful for the sport. ESPN ran this disaster nearly as much as Lesnar/Mir II clips, so lots of people who look down on MMA but could come around see two old farts having a fight that was one step above YAMMA, and are told this was a huge deal for MMA. I wanted to wear a paper bag over my head like old Saints fans used to on Monday.
They did not promote the show well. First of all, people aren’t stupid, they looked and saw a 47 year old fighting a 42 year old and thought it was a joke. And while Toney is a good trash talker, all I saw was people saying they needed subtitles to understand him, so how well did that work? I do not believe this will be close to being among the top UFC PPVs, especially if they did back-to-back million sellers like 116 and 117 (which is rumored to have done a million or close to it.) And they paid that fat clown almost a million bucks, while Chael Sonnen worked his ass off to sell 117, had a fight nobody imagined was possible, and they won’t change his contract to give him some real money. Welcome to the UFC.
That’s funny. That’s exactly what I said after the show was over. Well, okay, I said it several times during the Maynard fight and once actually turning the Toney fight for the record. And I love MMA and excuse lots of debacles, so I cannot begin to think what a casual fan would have had to say about this awfulness. This was certainly the biggest dud “huge show” since UFC 61.