Dana White Interview With No Mention Of His Rant About Loretta Hunt
April 15, 2009 – 7:30 am by Will Brinson
I’ll be honest — I’m not a huge MMA guy. But the whole idea of people jumping in the OCTAGON and rumbling against one another is still pretty fascinating.
You know what else is fascinating? Dana White and the way he’s built and subsequently promoted MMA and the UFC. You can listen to the guy on the radio — and he was on recently with 590 the Fan in Toronto– and tell immediately just how fantastic a promoter he is and how he’s been able to build his brand. During the following interview, he talks about how big MMA is in Canada, Chuck Liddell’s age, a little bit of controversy in the George St. Pierre fight and who is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world.
(Editor’s note: There was no mention whatsoever during this interview about Dana White’s controversial and misogynistic rant against Sherdog writer Loretta Hunt. Here’s the video. My guess is the PR person for UFC instructed the hosts not to ask about the video and the fallout from it. There’s a good chance UFC spent money on the station promoting the PPV and the Fan 590 didn’t want to jeopardize future ad buys from them. Either that or the hosts just suck and they don’t like to ask tough questions in Canada, but I’m leaning towards the former)
On Anderson Silva being the best:
“Absolutely, no doubt about it. He’s the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world in the world, in any sport … the guy hasn’t lost in 2 1/2 years in the UFC and the guy’s basically annihilated everyone he’s fought. He’s basically cleaned out the 185 pound division, and he’s even gone up to the 205 and won in that weight division too.”
On the controversy in the St. Pierre fight:
“Well, George St. Pierre and his camp went before the Nevada State Gaming Commission and he was innocent; they said they found no wrong doing so that’s the end for that controversy.”
On St. Pierre getting to fight Silva:
“Well, I truly believe Anderson Silva is the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world. And George St. Pierre is definitely in the running, but you got to remember St. Pierre not too long ago, lost to Matt Serra and Anderson Silva hasn’t lost in 2 1/2 years and has bounced up and down between two weight divisions.”
Dana White on Chuck Liddell, the economics of sports, and the full interview after the jump.
On Chuck Liddell’s presence in UFC:
“You know, he’s still the biggest superstar in MMA. Everyone knows who he is, everywhere he goes he gets mobbed. And he’s coming up on 40 years old and I asked him before this fight: “Why? You’ve got more money than you could ever spend, you’ve already been a champion, you’re the most famous guy in MMA.” And he tells me that he still wants to fight, he still wants to compete and he wants to take a run for the title and go out on top.”
On the big event in Montreal and the economics of sports:
“Well, we sold out Montreal faster than the first time we went there … we just put UFC 100 in Las Vegas on sale and the top ticket price was $1000. It sold out before we actually went on sale. We have this thing called the “Fight Club” where people pay and they get first crack at tickets – the “Fight Club” sold out 12,000 seats at Mandalay Bay for our July 11th fight.”
Listen to Dana White on 590 the Fan in Toronto
Tags: Anderson Silva, Canada, Chuck Liddell, Dana White, George St. Pierre, Loretta Hunt, Matt Cerra, MMA, UFC
