Tag: Dana White

Dana White: Mayhem Miller Has ‘The Worst Standup I’ve Ever Seen’

Filed under: UFC, NewsCHICAGO — With a few days to reflect on it, UFC President Dana White remains baffled by how easily Michael Bisping beat Jason “Mayhem” Miller at Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale.

“I still don’t know,” White said of Mill…

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Mayhem MillerCHICAGO — With a few days to reflect on it, UFC President Dana White remains baffled by how easily Michael Bisping beat Jason “Mayhem” Miller at Saturday night’s Ultimate Fighter Finale.

“I still don’t know,” White said of Miller’s performance. “It was bad. To be honest, believe me, my Twitter has been blowing up with all the Mayhem fans blasting me, but facts are facts. It was the worst standup I’ve ever seen in my life. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen worse standup. The guy’s been in the business for over 10 years. It looked like it was his first fight ever. It was the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.”

White said Miller’s issues in his third-round technical knockout loss go beyond ring rust or nerves and seem much more fundamental.

“Some of the punches that were thrown by Mayhem Miller in this fight, you could go to a girls’ Tae Bo class and see better form, better stand-up. It was embarrassing,” White said.

Miller was the fan favorite against Bisping, who has long been promoted by the UFC as a valuable fighter for the U.K. market but hasn’t caught on with American fans. White said he’s become accustomed to fans booing Bisping, but he maintains that Bisping has proven himself as an elite middleweight and a legitimate future title contender.

“Michael Bisping is easy to hate so people want to discredit him because they don’t like him, but Bisping is the real deal. He’s a tough guy,” White said.

White has resigned himself, however, to the fact that Bisping will never be as popular in the United States as he is in England. And he says he’s not bothered by the fact that Bisping got confrontational with the fans who booed him at the Ultimate Fighter Finale weigh-ins.

“Bisping is who he is,” White said. “There are certain people, there’s something about them that you’re not going to like. Michael Bisping is one of them and so is Josh Koscheck. These guys could try to go out there, make everything better, say nice things, and you’re still not going to like them.”

As for the weigh-in incident, White said fans have to expect fighters to react that way when they’re taunted the day before the fight.

“The day of the weigh-ins, these guys have been away from their families for eight weeks, they’re cutting weight for the last two days, they’re miserable and nasty, and if you say something to him, he’s a fighter, what do you think he’s going to say?” White said. “This isn’t the NFL, this isn’t the NBA, this is the fight business.”

 

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Fedor Emelianenko: "I Have a Desire to Compete in the UFC"

Fedor Emelianenko’s management team M-1 might not be able to bring the former PRIDE star into the UFC; however, Emelianenko still envisions himself competing inside the Octagon at some point.The 34-year-old has been long wanted by UFC fans and, more im…

Fedor Emelianenko‘s management team M-1 might not be able to bring the former PRIDE star into the UFC; however, Emelianenko still envisions himself competing inside the Octagon at some point.

The 34-year-old has been long wanted by UFC fans and, more importantly, by UFC President Dana White, to test his skills against some the heavyweight division’s top competitors. At one point, a heavily-rumored bout between Emelianenko and Brock Lesnar had surfaced, but it never materialized as “The Last Emperor” opted to sign for then-rival Strikeforce. 

However, after going 1-3 in Strikeforce, Emelianenko was released from Strikeforce and now wants the opportunity to compete in the top organization in mixed martial arts. Emelianenko exclusively told news.sportbox.ru (translated by MMAMania.com) he has a desire to fight in the UFC, despite the ongoing negotiations.

“Of course I would like in UFC too, but to this day, all the times we had negotiations with them.. possibly they have allergy on me (laughs), and for some reason we can’t make an agreement now,” Emelianenko said. “Vadim (Finkelstein) met them, but for example if we had some agreement in talk, the contract that they sent then were different. But I have a desire to compete in UFC.”

When PRIDE FC disbanded in 2007, Emelianenko was the most sought-after free agent in MMA at the time. While popular fighters like Wanderlei Silva, Maurcio “Shogun” Rua and Mirko Cro Cop made their way to the UFC, it was the Russian heavyweight who White actively pursued more than anyone. 

While Emelianenko might have the UFC high on his priority list, he isn’t necessarily on the UFC’s radar any longer.

The constant rift between M-1 and the UFC/Zuffa LLC had reached it’s climax in 2009 after the Russian’s management team tried to negotiate co-promotion on all UFC events featuring Emelianenko. The UFC immediately declined. 

While Emelianenko continues to fight internationally, his transition to the UFC will likely never happen, and it might be the only detriment to his legendary career. It will ultimately leave UFC fans pondering on what could of been of the Russian’s UFC career.

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UFC: 15 Contenders Who Could Rule Their Divisions in 2012

The UFC is more stacked than it’s ever been.With the emergence of Jon Jones, Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz as perennial champions, a lot of fighters are being overlooked heading into 2012.But along with the UFC’s dynamic capitalization of the WEC’s B…

The UFC is more stacked than it’s ever been.

With the emergence of Jon Jones, Frankie Edgar and Dominick Cruz as perennial champions, a lot of fighters are being overlooked heading into 2012.

But along with the UFC’s dynamic capitalization of the WEC’s Bantamweight and Featherweight divisions, the sheer evolution of the modern day mixed martial artist has given fans and experts the privilege in witnessing top-notch bouts on an event-to-event basis.

With that said, beyond the explosive knockouts, come-from-behind victories, unprecedented upsets and toe-to-toe battles of 2011, it’s time to reign in the new year.

Wily veterans, top prospects and near-contenders are continuously fighting for their chances to revenge a championships loss, or spark a new era of excellence in their respective divisions.

Here are 15 fighters who have the opportunities to shock the UFC community and capture 2012 gold.

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5 UFC Fighters You Should Not Expect to See on FOX This Year

The UFC agreed a landmark deal with Fox on August 18th, 2011. They will get to show four events for free every year. The deal is looking to bring a lot of new fans to the UFC.As a kind of preview for the deal, the UFC put on UFC on Fox 1. The fight’s h…

The UFC agreed a landmark deal with Fox on August 18th, 2011. They will get to show four events for free every year. The deal is looking to bring a lot of new fans to the UFC.

As a kind of preview for the deal, the UFC put on UFC on Fox 1. The fight’s headline was Cain Velasquez facing Junior Dos Santos for the heavyweight title. The fight would only last just over a minute.

Just one week later, UFC 139 would take place and the main event—Shogun vs. Henderson—was viewed by many as the best fight ever! Many people asked Dana whether he regretted not putting this fight on Fox.

Dana stated that he was happy as it would have led to complaints, and that they needed to ease fans into UFC. This suggests Dana will keep certain fighters off the Fox channel for while. This slideshow will look at the fighters I don’t expect to see on Fox. 

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TUF 14 Finale: Dana White Hints That Jason "Mayhem" Miller May Get Cut

Anyone who saw the main event of “The Ultimate Fighter Finale” seems to agree that it was the worse performance of Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s career. UFC President Dana White was certainly among those disappointed with the way Miller looked in the Oc…

Anyone who saw the main event of “The Ultimate Fighter Finale” seems to agree that it was the worse performance of Jason “Mayhem” Miller’s career. 

UFC President Dana White was certainly among those disappointed with the way Miller looked in the Octagon. 

“It’s one of the most lopsided fights I’ve ever seen,” White told Heavy MMA‘s Megan Olivi after the event (transcription by MMA Mania).

Apparently, White did not even think that Mayhem won the first round, despite scoring a takedown and maintaining top position for a couple minutes. 

“It’s one of the most lopsided fights I’ve ever seen. I’m disagreeing with people.  I didn’t give ‘Mayhem’ Miller the first round. He had a quarter of a mount and didn’t do a thing and actually, Bisping was landing punches. I think Bisping landed more shots, did more damage,” White said. 

“I go for damage and I think Bisping did more damage in the first round than Mayhem did,” he explained. 

White then stated point blank that he is not sure if Miller deserves another fight in the UFC.  

“I don’t know (if we’ll see Mayhem back in the UFC). We’ll see. He didn’t have a good performance against Georges St-Pierre and he definitely didn’t have a good performance against Michael Bisping,” White said. 

Miller is just 1-3 under the Zuffa banner, with losses to Bisping and St-Pierre in the UFC, as well as being defeated in a Strikeforce middleweight title bout against Jake Shields in November of 2009. 

Mayhem’s sole Zuffa win came when he scored a first round TKO over Tim Stout in April of last year. The fight was under the Strikeforce banner. 

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TUF 14 Finale Results: Does Jason "Mayhem" Miller Have a Future in the UFC?

Once again, Jason “Mayhem” Miller got another chance to prove his worth in the UFC, and once again he failed to deliver. The big question now is what will Miller’s future hold for him in the UFC.Or to get even more specific: Will Miller have a future w…

Once again, Jason “Mayhem” Miller got another chance to prove his worth in the UFC, and once again he failed to deliver. The big question now is what will Miller’s future hold for him in the UFC.

Or to get even more specific: Will Miller have a future with the UFC?

In a post-fight interview with Heavy.com, UFC president Dana White stated, “I don’t know. We’ll see.” when asked if we would see Miller inside the Octagon again. White also stated that Miller’s loss to Michael Bisping was “one of the most lopsided fights I’ve ever seen”

For those of you who don’t remember, Miller made his Octagon debut at UFC 52 in 2005 against current UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre. In that fight, Miller was handled by St-Pierre both standing and on the ground en route to losing a unanimous decision.

After the bout against St-Pierre, Miller went on to have success in various promotions including Icon Sport and DREAM. In his most recent bout before his fight Saturday night against Michael Bisping, Miller handily submitted a past-his-prime Kazushi Sakuraba in just over two minutes at DREAM 16.

Fast forward 15 months and Miller was given the opportunity to redeem himself inside the Octagon against Bisping. Many people believe that Miller won the first round, but then Miller completely gassed out. Until the referee finally stopped the beating in the third round, Miller did nothing but become a glorified punching bag for Bisping, and sprinkled in a takedown attempt here and there.

While Miller has a cult-like following and can draw in lots of fans, his recent performances have left much to be desired. When it comes to entertaining the fans, there aren’t many fighters out there who can do it better than Miller, but his in-cage performances have not been so good as of late.

Combine that with the fact that White isn’t sure about Mayhem’s future in the UFC and you shouldn’t be surprised if Miller’s second go in the UFC is just as short as his first.

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