Dana White liked everything he saw at UFC 164, except the eyesore of a fight between heavyweights Soa Palelei and Nikita Krylov in preliminary action. The fighters gassed themselves out in a furious first round in which Palelei worked ground and pound while Krylov attempted numerous submissions from the bottom.
Because of the early exertion, both men fought exhausted from that point on until Palelei finished Krylov at the 1:34 mark of the third round.
“Mercifully” finished, to hear Dana White say it.
“You don’t want to hear my thoughts on that fight,” he said in the post-fight scrum. “That was fight was embarrassing. That looked like a Toughman fight.”
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When asked later about the night as a whole, White then proceeded to give his thoughts on that fight particularly.
“It was a great night, and all the fights were great except, well, you know the one I’m talking about,” he said. “The thing about that fight is it was sloppy. They both looked sloppy. They’re exhausted, and they’re laying on each other and stuff. You shouldn’t see that s— in the UFC. You shouldn’t see that. Guys should be in shape.
“But again, it was an entertaining fight, and it ended in a knockout, the guy took big shots. But it was just an embarrassing fight. You shouldn’t fight like that in the UFC.”
For Palelei it was a successful homecoming to the UFC on the same night that fellow heavyweight Josh Barnett returned to the Octagon after a decade away. The last time Palelei fought under the Zuffa banner was back at UFC 79 when he lost to Eddie Sanchez (TKO, punches). Since then he has gone 11-1, with his only loss coming to contender Daniel Cormier in Strikeforce.