Having finally returned from a much deserved vacation, UFC President Dana White finally spoke about a number of current UFC-related topics. First up, the UFC boss spoke about Alexander Gustafsson being upset that he’s not back in the title fight with UFC Light Heavyweight Jon Jones, now that Jones and Daniel Cormier has been postponed due to the champ suffering an injury in training.
“Gustafsson is upset, but it’s not like we took Gustafsson out of the fight. Gustafsson got hurt and he’s out,” White said. “Cormier stepped in and accepted the fight and this is the fight that is going to happen now.”
White continued, “The reality is we had Gustafsson versus Jones, he was the number one contender, that was the fight. He got hurt,” White said. “He fell out of the fight. Well, people can say, ‘Now Jones is hurt.’ Well yeah, but this is the fight that’s happening now.”
Wrapping up the Gustafsson portion of the discussion, Dana said, “Gustafsson will probably fight again. We’ll probably do another fight for him,” White said. “He’ll probably fight again to stay active, stay top of mind and the guy has to make money.”
The UFC President noted that top-ranked contender Anthony “Rumble” Johnson may be next for Gustafsson.
Having been on vacation, White has yet to really comment on what took place between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier at the UFC 178 Media Day in Las Vegas a few weeks ago. The UFC President finally broke his silence regarding that subject.
“As soon as Jones went up and their bodies touched, I would have separated them,” White said. “Sometimes you’ll see me put a hand in, or sometimes you’ll see me do something else. I would have separated them. It was the head butt, Jones headbutted Cormier – that’s what upset [Daniel] and made him push him back. I would have got my arm in there before that contact was even made. I would have seen the contact coming and I would have stopped it. Then I would have been right in the middle. Would I have stopped that whole thing from going down, who the f**k knows? I wasn’t here.”
White also spoke about UFC’s Senior Director of Public Relations, Dave Sholler, not being able to separate the two.
“Dave Sholler doesn’t really have any experience out there between the guys,” White said. “There’s times when you know something is going on and you’re ready and you jump in there and get that thing defused. That’s why I stand there. I don’t stand there because I want to be in f**king pictures, I’m there to make sure that kind of sh*t doesn’t happen. You got two guys, who are going to fight, and there is definitely a ton of mind warfare going on between [Cormier and Jones], no doubt about it.”
To read the rest of the interview, visit UFC.com.
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