Tag: Dana White

UFC 118 News and Notes: It’s ‘Lights Out’ for James Toney’s UFC Career

(Please princess, let me up!!   photo credit: USA Today)
It appears that the James Toney experiment has gone the way of the Kimbo Slice experiment, as UFC president Dana White announced at the UFC 118 post-fight press conference that the promotion…


(Please princess, let me up!!   photo credit: USA Today)

It appears that the James Toney experiment has gone the way of the Kimbo Slice experiment, as UFC president Dana White announced at the UFC 118 post-fight press conference that the promotion is done with boxer crossover fights.

"It’s been a fun ride with James," White said as if delivering a eulogy about Toney’s dead UFC career. "It’s been very interesting. He’s a nutty guy." 

White pointed out that he didn’t go out looking for the fight, but when it came knocking on his door, he figured, "Why not?" 

"Listen, I didn’t try to sell this thing as, ‘Tune in on Saturday night, and you’re going to see the most spectacular battle and a war…I basically said what I was hoping would happen. Anything can happen in a fight. James Toney picked this fight. We’re not after boxing," White explained. "We’re not trying to attack boxing. I love boxing, and I thought this question was answered back in 1993, but I’ve got to be honest, as we got closer to the fight, my stomach hurt, and I was a little dizzy and I was nervous."

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Dana White Heaps Praise on Frankie Edgar

Frankie Edgar might as well had walked out to the Octagon last night with a Rodney Dangerfield bit playing, as despite being the UFC Lightweight Champion, it wasn’t like the guy was receiving a ton of respect heading into his rematch with BJ Penn. Of course, Penn has long been widely regarded as the world’s […]

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Frankie Edgar might as well had walked out to the Octagon last night with a Rodney Dangerfield bit playing, as despite being the UFC Lightweight Champion, it wasn’t like the guy was receiving a ton of respect heading into his rematch with BJ Penn. Of course, Penn has long been widely regarded as the world’s best lightweight, as well as one of the sport’s best P4P fighters, so something must have been wrong with him in their first meeting right? Wrong.

Now it wasn’t like Edgar beat the holy living hell out of Penn last night in Boston, but it was a pretty damn convincing win, as the Jersey fighter once again outscored the Hawaiian on his feet and threw in a couple of takedowns for good measure. Speaking afterwards at the post-fight presser, Dana White took the opportunity to heap praise on the promotion’s lightweight champ, saying (thanks to MMA Bay for the quote):

“This kid just beat the s— out of BJ Penn for five rounds. Dominated him in every facet of the fight: on the ground, on top, on bottom, stand-up, everything. The kid’s got a heart as big as this room. He comes from wrestling, but his boxing is unbelievable, his jiu-jitsu was great tonight, his wrestling was sick. He picked BJ up and power slammed him. I guarantee you BJ Penn is banged up right now.”

You don’t have to sell this on us Dana; Frankie’s got our complete and total respect. Now it just remains to be seen whether or not Joe and Jane ’UFC’s kind of cool’ embrace the new champ, or get pumped for his first bout with Gray Maynard.

Dana White Looks Back on UFC 118, Says James Toney’s UFC Career Done

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, FanHouse Exclusive, VideosBOSTON — MMA Fighting caught up with Dana White following Saturday’s UFC 118 event.

White talked about Randy Couture’s dominant win over James Toney and why this is the end of Toney’s career, wh…

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BOSTON — MMA Fighting caught up with Dana White following Saturday’s UFC 118 event.

White talked about Randy Couture’s dominant win over James Toney and why this is the end of Toney’s career, why Frankie Edgar deserves more respect and why he believes Kenny Florian doesn’t perform well under pressure.

Check out the video interview below.

Dana White on Kenny Florian: ‘He Chokes in the Big Fights’

Filed under: UFC, NewsBOSTON — After a three-round drubbing with a lightweight title opportunity on the line, Kenny Florian dejectedly walked out of the octagon.

By all rights, Florian should have at least felt soothed by the embrace of his city. The…

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BOSTON — After a three-round drubbing with a lightweight title opportunity on the line, Kenny Florian dejectedly walked out of the octagon.

By all rights, Florian should have at least felt soothed by the embrace of his city. The 34-year-old lightweight graduated from Boston College and he owns an academy in neighboring Brookline. Instead, he heard a chorus of disappointment, led by his boss.

“I hate to say this because I don’t want to take anything away from Gray Maynard, but I think Kenny is just one of those guys who chokes in big fights,” UFC president Dana White said. “I’m not bad-mouthing him or trying to disrespect him; I’m just being honest. Every time it’s a big fight and there’s a lot of things on the line, Kenny just … Kenny’s hands are unbelievable. Kenny’s ground is unbelievable. Kenny usually kicks guys to the body and legs so hard that he busts guys up. You didn’t see any of that tonight. He stood there and stared at Gray Maynard for three rounds.”

Dana White Confirms Arianny Celeste to Be Featured in Playboy

If you’ve had a long and sh-tty week, dont despair, as things are about to get a whole hell of a lot better. While speaking with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani yesterday in Boston, Dana White confirmed that drop dead gorgeous UFC ring girl, Arianny Celeste, will be featured in the upcoming November edition of Playboy. […]

_tArianny4

If you’ve had a long and sh-tty week, dont despair, as things are about to get a whole hell of a lot better. While speaking with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani yesterday in Boston, Dana White confirmed that drop dead gorgeous UFC ring girl, Arianny Celeste, will be featured in the upcoming November edition of Playboy. Now Dana didn’t get into specifics regarding the ‘extent’ of the shoot (or the extent of her clothing), but let’s just keep our hopes running high shall we? Will you ever doubt that the Universe is a great and wondrous place again?

While we’re all celebrating (and completely side tracked from what else Dana said) check out some pics of Arianny here.