MMA and UFC News

Dana White Apologizes For UFC 97 Main Event, Plans To Talk With Anderson Silva

UFC President Dana White showed a great deal of disappointment immediately after the UFC 97 main event fight between Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Thales Leites.  Althoughdana-white-upset Silva won all 5 rounds and retained the UFC middleweight title, White admitted that he was “unhappy with the whole fight.”  He now plans to sit down with Silva to discuss the lackluster performances. 

Not only was White upset, but so was the Centre Bell crowd in Montreal, Canada.  They showed a great deal of boredom during the main event, chanting “boring” and “GSP” at different points during the match.  The “GSP” chant was specifically aimed for Dana White who plans make a Super Fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre (GSP).  White has stated several times that he would love to see a fight between both UFC champions, but GSP would have to first get past the hard-hitting Thiago Alves at UFC 100. 

Despite the snooze fest main event, White believes that Silva is still the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world even over current WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko.  

Here’s a snip from UFC President Dana White:

“I personally apologize for what happened tonight…You guys know this is not what the UFC was built on. This is not the way fights usually go…I’m personally unhappy with the whole fight…I did not like the fight at all, period, on either side…I’ve never not wanted to come to a press conference, and I didn’t want to come to this one…I’m in the business of selling fights, and I think I’m pretty good at it. But I’m going to have a hard time letting people know that, ‘I promise, his next one is going to be good.’ I need to talk to him (Anderson Silva) and figure out what’s going on and why this is happening…In Chicago (after the Patrick Cote fight at UFC 90), it was like, ‘Listen, everybody has a bad night…You name all the greats that have ever played any game in the history of playing games, every guy has an off night.’ That night, how upset [Silva] was and all the flak he got, I honestly thought he was going to come back strong…We run a fight company, and when guys don’t fight, we sit down (with them) and have a conversation on why they’re not fighting…This is what I do. It’s like having any other business and the guy doesn’t come out and perform at work…Anderson Silva has the talent and the skill, in my opinion – this is just my opinion – to stop anybody in the 185-pound division. When he’s on and lets his hands and feet go, there [aren’t] too many things people can do about it…When he leg-kicks people, people spin around in circles. When he hits people, people don’t want to get hit again. When he lets these things go, people don’t like it. Again, I just don’t feel he has let them go like he can. You know me. You ask me a question, you’re going to get the answer whether you like it or not. That’s how I feel about it…He’s still the champ…There’s still no way you can deny that this guy is the best fighter in the world. I can honestly say I didn’t like his fight tonight. I was unhappy with it, whatever it is. But I’ll tell you right now, he’s the best…Fedor (Emelianenko) is not the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. These guys continue to fight the best. Fedor’s at a buffet somewhere in Russia. So until this guy decides to get in shape, take it serious and consistently fight the best in the world, for you guys to even think about calling him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is insane.”

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