UFC president Dana White was red hot last Saturday night.
Not only did the head honcho believe Johny Hendricks had done enough to dethrone long-reigning champion Georges St-Pierre in the main event tilt and was upset about the decision, but because of GSP’s strange pseudo-retirement talk in his post-fight interview, White was enraged by the time the post-fight press conference rolled around.
White told the media in attendance that St-Pierre’s proposed “time off’ wasn’t going to fly and that the welterweight king not only owed Hendricks an immediate rematch but owed the UFC as well. His comments created a backlash on Twitter and sparked a slew of pointed op-eds throughout the MMA media universe, including a solid offering from Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden.
The UFC figurehead appeared on Wednesday’s edition of UFC Tonight and didn’t back down from his earlier comments when asked about the situation by co-host Chael Sonnen:
There will be a rematch. Georges St-Pierre did not retire on Saturday night. Georges St-Pierre is unhappy with how he handled that on Saturday night. First of all, leading up to the fight, the media were hearing rumors of his retirement and I literally asked Georges if he was retiring. He said, “No way…I’m not retiring. That’s not happening. You’ll see what I’m going to say on Saturday.” Then he comes out and nobody really understood what he said on Saturday. He’s not retiring. Then what I said…people are coming out and saying, “Dana doesn’t care about him.”
First of all, I’m the guy who talks about Georges St-Pierre all the time. I talk about what an amazing champion he’s been. What an amazing human being he is. How he’s represented the sport, the title, his brand, his country, and the list goes on and on. But he made a big mistake on Saturday night when he went up there and said what he said. He shouldn’t have said it…it didn’t make sense, and it left everybody wondering what was going on, including me. He did not retire and he’s coming back.
People are saying Georges St-Pierre doesn’t owe you anything and they’re wrong. OK…because here’s the reality. Georges St-Pierre took almost a year-and-a-half off and he’s had two fights since then because he blew his ACL out. When you fight in this sport, there is a small window of opportunity for people, and there is a line of people right now of people who want a shot at that 170-pound title. You can’t just say you’re going to take off and put this on hold because you have personal problems. You can’t do that.
Duane Finley is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. All quotes are obtained firsthand unless noted otherwise.
Read more MMA news on BleacherReport.com