Tag: Dana White

Dana White On Benson Henderson: “He’s A Former World Champion Who’s Ranked No. 15 Now”

While Benson Henderson announced on Monday that he is Bellator-bound, UFC President Dana White — surprisingly enough — has nothing but kind words for the former UFC Lightweight Champion. Well, sort of.

White spoke with the folks at MMAJunkie.com a…

benson-henderson-dana-white

While Benson Henderson announced on Monday that he is Bellator-bound, UFC President Dana White — surprisingly enough — has nothing but kind words for the former UFC Lightweight Champion. Well, sort of.

White spoke with the folks at MMAJunkie.com about Benson Henderson’s decision not to re-sign with the UFC, opting instead to accept an offer from rival MMA promotion Bellator. According to White, “Smooth” Henderson turned down an offer that would have paid him “substantially more” than he was making previously, but only if he were to become UFC Champion again.

“The truth is we made him an offer that would have paid him substantially more – like not even in the same ballpark – than he’s getting now if he were to become world champion again,” White said. “But he chose [Bellator’s] deal, which offered more up front.”

The UFC boss continued, revealing his belief that despite being 2-0 in his last two fights since making the move up to the 170-pound welterweight division, Henderson is on his way down the rankings, not the other way around.

“He’s a former world champion who’s ranked number 15 now,” said White. “We’re looking for top five guys, guys that are going from 15 to one, not the other way around.”

Benson Henderson (23-5, 11-3 UFC) last fought at UFC Fight Night 79 in November of 2015, defeating Jorge Masvidal by way of split decision in a five round main event.

Dana On Bendo: We’re Looking For Guys Who Go From 15 To 1, Not Other Way Around

Earlier today (February 1, 2016), former UFC lightweight champion “Smooth” Benson Henderson announced that he would be taking his talents over to Scott Coker run Bellator MMA. Riding a two fight win streak, Henderson fought out his contract with the UFC, ending it off with a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal last November. After

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Earlier today (February 1, 2016), former UFC lightweight champion “Smooth” Benson Henderson announced that he would be taking his talents over to Scott Coker run Bellator MMA.

Riding a two fight win streak, Henderson fought out his contract with the UFC, ending it off with a split decision win over Jorge Masvidal last November.

After the fight with Masvidal, it was very clear that “Smooth” was a free agent, and with the Reebok sponsorship deal limiting UFC fighters, many had expected him to jump ship and he did just that.

Henderson was quick to thank the UFC, and President Dana White even commented on the news soon after it was announced.

White, speaking with MMAJunkie, claimed that the UFC had actually offered a substantially larger deal than Bellator, but that Bellator had offered Bendo more money up front.

The UFC president also seemed to take a shot at the former champion, seemingly implying that he has declined over time:

“The truth is we made him an offer that would have paid him substantially more – like not even in the same ballpark – than he’s getting now if he were to become world champion again, but he chose their deal, which offered more up front,” White said. “He’s a former world champion who’s ranked No. 15 now. We’re looking for top-5 guys, guys that are going from 15 to 1, not the other way around.”

At the end of the day, White admitted that he was happy for Henderson, wishing him all the best:

“But I’m honestly happy for Benson. I’m not angry. Who knows? This could be the last contract he ever signs. He got the right deal for him. He’s a great guy, and we wish him all the best.”

Did Henderson make the right decision in joining Bellator?

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Sage Northcutt Blames Strep Throat For Loss: I Couldn’t Breathe

Heavily promoted 19 year old UFC hype train “Super” Sage Northcutt ran into the first speed bump in his young UFC career at this past weekend’s (January 30, 2016) UFC on FOX 18 from Newark, New Jersey. Usually competing at lightweight, Northcutt jumped up to 170 pounds to take on late replacement opponent Bryan Barberena,

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Heavily promoted 19 year old UFC hype train “Super” Sage Northcutt ran into the first speed bump in his young UFC career at this past weekend’s (January 30, 2016) UFC on FOX 18 from Newark, New Jersey.

Usually competing at lightweight, Northcutt jumped up to 170 pounds to take on late replacement opponent Bryan Barberena, a move that would prove to backfire, as “Super” Sage would end up suffering a second round submission loss.

Appearing on today’s (February 1, 2016) edition of the MMA Hour, Northcutt admitted that he had been struck with a bad case of strep throat just days before the fight, even saying that the UFC doctor had prescribed him with antibiotics:

“Well, first off, sorry if my voice sounds a little bit funny. I don’t want to make excuses for my poor performance out there, but I actually had strep throat three times in the last four months. And then when I actually got down to New Jersey, I had been on multiple antibiotics. Then in New Jersey, two days before my fight, I had a real bad relapse of the strep throat and I had to go to the emergency clinic, or UFC had to take me. And then, Dr. D with the UFC had to write a prescription for me for more antibiotics and stuff like that.”

It was the sickness, according to Northcutt, that hindered his breathing and ultimately his performance overall:

“So really, I really couldn’t explain how I felt out there. I felt really horrible. I obviously don’t want to pull out of a fight, that’s not good. I just had a hard time breathing out there. I really wasn’t myself, so that wasn’t the Sage you would normally see out there in the Octagon. Even after the first 30 seconds, a minute out there, I couldn’t breath. I felt like my legs were cement. It just wasn’t me out there. So, I know I’ll be coming back better than ever and I’m still healing up from feeling sick. In a few days I’m going back to the doctor again to try and heal up from all of this.”

While many have criticized the submission defense and training strategies of Northcutt in the wake of the loss, it seems as if the lack of air and trouble breathing is what led to the early tap:

“I was so congested that I couldn’t even breathe standing up. That’s why I wasn’t able to move the same, kick the same. What I wanted to do, I wasn’t able to actually act it out and do it because my body wasn’t able to keep up. And it was like my heart was racing. It felt like breathing through a straw. So, even if it wasn’t the best lock, I was having such a hard time breathing that it was just as tight as it might have been if I was in that position if I wasn’t sick. If that makes sense.”

Do you feel as if this is a reasonable excuse from the young star, or does he need to make some major improvements regardless of whether or not he was sick on fight night?

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Quote: McGregor ‘Crazy’ To Challenge Rafael dos Anjos

Notorious knockout artist and UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has run through a murderer’s row of contenders on his quest to securing 145 pound gold, which he did with a spectacular 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo at December 12, 2015’s UFC 194. The Irishman appears to be hungry for the toughest of challenges, however,

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Notorious knockout artist and UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor has run through a murderer’s row of contenders on his quest to securing 145 pound gold, which he did with a spectacular 13 second knockout of Jose Aldo at December 12, 2015’s UFC 194.

The Irishman appears to be hungry for the toughest of challenges, however, as he’s set to take on reigning lightweight king Rafael dos Anjos at March 5’s UFC 196 in an attempt to become the first man in promotional history to simultaneously hold two titles.

Getting that second title will be no easy task for McGregor, as dos Anjos has been a force to be reckoned with as of late.

The Brazilian champion has won five straight including three finishes over the cream of the crop at 155 pounds, leading UFC president to call McGregor crazy for taking on RDA:

“Conor wants to be a two-belt champion, so he wants to fight dos Anjos, which is crazy,” the UFC president said on “Opie with Jim Norton” on Thursday. “If you look at that guy, look what he did to ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone, look what he did to Ben Henderson, look what he did to Anthony Pettis. And now Conor wants to fight this guy. It’s gonna be awesome.”

While many feel as if he may have problems with dos Anjos inside of the Octagon, McGregor has already begun to unleash his relentless trash talk in hopes of playing mind games with the Brazilian.

White feels as if it’s more than just trash talk, however, noting that the “Notorious” is very calculated and intelligent with mental warfare:

“It’s not even about shit talk with this guy,” White said. “His mental warfare game is better than anything I’ve ever seen in how he gets in guys’ heads immediately. Very intelligent, calculated. Conor McGregor is a very interesting guy.”

At the end of the day, McGregor has combined his mic skills with his world class fighting abilities to become one of the promotion’s biggest draws. White wasn’t afraid to admit that the “Notorious” one is the “money fight”, claiming that there aren’t many fighters who don’t want a piece of him:

“From flyweight to heavyweight, they all want to fight Conor McGregor,” White said. “It’s the money fight.”

Can the Irishman add another title to his resume?

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Cain Velasquez Needs Surgery, Sidelined for Another Month

Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez pulled out of his rematch with Fabricio Werdum for the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 196 with a back injury. Once this happened, things really started to fall apart for the promotion as they booked Stipe Miocic vs. Werdum at the event, but then Werdum pulled out of the

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Former UFC heavyweight champion Cain Velasquez pulled out of his rematch with Fabricio Werdum for the UFC heavyweight championship at UFC 196 with a back injury. Once this happened, things really started to fall apart for the promotion as they booked Stipe Miocic vs. Werdum at the event, but then Werdum pulled out of the fight the next day. The UFC was forced to rename the show and pull it from pay-per-view to FOX Sports 1. UFC 197 is now being called UFC 196 after the original UFC 196 was changed to UFC Fight Night 82.

UFC President Dana White recently appeared on Sirus XM’s “Opie with Jim Norton” radio show and revealed that Velasquez will undergo back surgery following his most recent injury. The surgery is to fix bulging discs in his back. The former champion will be out action for four weeks at least.

“Cain has got problems with a disc in his back, and he’s actually going to have surgery,” White said. “The good part is it’s not going to be long. He’s going to have the surgery and will probably need four weeks to recover. So that’s good news.”

The UFC has a few options here. One, they could book the rematch between Velasquez and Werdum for an upcoming PPV event or they could book Werdum vs. Miocic for the title then have the winner of that bout fight Velasquez.

Either way, for the first time in a long time the UFC has options in the heavyweight division, which is good for the promotion and fight fans. What should the UFC do? Let us know.

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Dana White Discusses Floyd Mayweather After Conor McGregor Racism Comments

Retired, undefeated boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. has expressed his displeasure with top UFC fighter Conor McGregor in recent weeks, but UFC president Dana White believes the 49-0 fighter is off base.
According to Ben Thompson of FightHype.com, Ma…

Retired, undefeated boxer Floyd “Money” Mayweather Jr. has expressed his displeasure with top UFC fighter Conor McGregor in recent weeks, but UFC president Dana White believes the 49-0 fighter is off base.

According to Ben Thompson of FightHype.com, Mayweather believes racism has played a role in the notion that he is hated and McGregor is beloved, despite both athletes being brash and outspoken.

“They say he talk a lot of trash and people praise him for it, but when I did it, they say I’m cocky and arrogant,” Mayweather said. “So biased! Like I said before, all I’m saying is this, I ain’t racist at all, but I’m telling you racism still exists.”

In response to Mayweather’s comments during an interview with the Huffington Post (h/t David St. Martin of MMAFighting.com), White questioned the 38-year-old’s view of the situation:

I think Floyd’s way off there. I think that Floyd, because he’s Floyd, he feels more hate than love. I think what Floyd doesn’t realize is that I meet tons of people who hate Floyd and I meet tons of people who love Floyd. Floyd has fans and he has people who dislike him. McGregor has the same thing. Forget about race and all that other stuff. McGregor has a ton of fans and lots of people who don’t like him. It’s no different.

White also called Mayweather “delusional,” and chalked up his status as a polarizing figure to attitude rather than race:

Me and Floyd go back and forth with each other all the time talking smack I guess. Whatever you want to call it. Floyd is a little delusional sometimes. When Floyd was ‘Pretty Boy Lloyd’ nobody really cared. When he became ‘Money Mayweather’ it created a lot of attention for himself. You’re going to have people who love you and people that hate you, whether you’re black or white.

Prior to White’s response, McGregor took great issue with Mayweather’s comments earlier in the month, and the Irishman shot back via a Facebook post:

Floyd Mayweather, don’t ever bring race into my success again. I am an Irishman. My people have been oppressed our entire existence. And still very much are. I understand the feeling of prejudice. It is a feeling that is deep in my blood.

In my family’s long history of warfare there was a time where just having the name ‘McGregor’ was punishable by death.

Do not ever put me in a bracket like this again.

If you want we can organise a fight no problem.

I will give you a fair 80/20 split purse in my favour seen as your last fight bombed at every area of revenue.

At 27 years of age I now hold the key to this game.

The game answers to me now.

A physical clash between Mayweather and McGregor seems unlikely with “Money” now retired and focused on Mayweather Promotions, but the war of words may be far from over considering their penchant for talking trash.

Mayweather may be out of the spotlight from an athletic standpoint, but he continues to find ways to make headlines and elicit reactions from others.  

 

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