Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC
“He had the balls to come here and fight and take a short notice fight in the UFC. Period.”
UFC newcomer Max Rohskopf quit on his stool after the second round of his lightweight bout with Austin Hubbard at UFC on ESPN 11 this past Saturday, and Dana White believes the 25-year-old made the right decision.
White knows firsthand how tough the sport is and credited Rohskopf for taking the fight on short notice and being honest with himself in between the second and third rounds.
“Let me tell you what, in this f**king sport, if you’re done, you’re done,” White said at the UFC on ESPN 11 post-fight press conference (h/t MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin). “You should absolutely be able to quit. I know that it’s frowned upon but guess what? Anybody that would talk sh*t about you quitting, isn’t in there fighting. It’s real easy to be a critic. What these kids do is a whole other level.
“As the guy who runs this organization, as the guy who’s involved in the matchmaking and everything else, you see these kids, we deal with managers from all over the world, they’re like ‘this guy’s the guy, this guy’s the guy!’ When you get here, this is a whole different level and that guy’s not ready and he might not ever be ready.”
“I’ve told you guys this many times before, I believed back in the day that I was a fighter and I wanted to do this and that and one day I found out that I wasn’t,” White said. “The realization was that I wasn’t. When you find out, you need to walk away. I’m not saying that’s the case with this kid, but if that kid felt like he needed to quit tonight, who the f**k is anybody to judge him on that?
“He had the balls to come here and fight and take a short notice fight in the UFC. Period.”
White went on to state that MMA might not be the career for Rohskopf and said there is absolutely ‘no shame’ in quitting.
“He’s got to get up tomorrow morning and look at himself in the mirror and figure out who he is and what he wants to do,” White said. “There is no shame in getting here and finding out you’re not it. There’s no shame in that at all.
“You gave it a shot, it didn’t work out. Anybody who would try to ridicule a kid like that, f*ck you. Come try it. Come try and do what he did tonight. Very few people can do it.”
Rohskopf’s cornerman Robert Drysdale could face disciplinary action from the Nevada State Athletic Commission for his conduct in between rounds. Drysdale refused to throw in the towel despite Rohskopf repeatedly asking to stop the fight. The bout was eventually stopped after Rohskopf consulted an official.