The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) took to Brooklyn, New York on Feb. 11 for UFC 208. The pay-per-view event featured a fight card full of highly anticipated match ups. However, many fights fans ultimately left the event feeling underwhelmed. The UFC president was perhaps the least impressed from the night’s octagon performances. Dana White has now issued his thoughts on the big event.
Only one fight from the card ended in a finish, with every other match up going the distance. Germaine de Randamie faced off against former UFC bantamweight champion Holly Holm for the inaugural UFC women’s featherweight title in the night’s main event. But, the fight would become shrouded in controversy as de Randamie landed multiple late blows throughout the fight but still walked away with a title earning decision victory over her opponent.
Speaking to MMA reporter Megan Olivi after the event, UFC President Dana White decided to offer his thoughts on UFC 208. When asked what his favorite part of the night was, White responded “plane ride home.”
Olivi quickly changed the subject, bringing up Dustin Poirier and Jim Miller’s brutal three round war.
“Poirier vs. Miller was awesome.” White responded. “Those guys gave it everything they had. Miller ate big shots, huge shots, and kept coming forward. He ended up busting up that leg of Poirier and almost stopping the fight. From what I heard earlier, Poirier’s leg might be broken. So, if that is the case, mad props to him for hanging in there and finishing that fight. And soon as the fight was over, he couldn’t even walk.”
The conversation then changed gears to the only finish of the night, Tim Boetsch’s first round submission loss to Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza.
“Well, the thing is for Jacare.” White stated. “He came in tonight against a very dangerous fight who is ranked like number 13. Jacare is in title position and he treated him like he was ranked number 13.”
White continued, “Props to him. He won $50,000 tonight.”
“Jacare will fight anybody. The problem is right now is that everybody has a fight or is injured, that is why he hasn’t been able to get a fight. But, yeah, mad respect to him taking that fight and finishing it the way that he did.”
In the night’s co-main event Anderson Silva pulled out a close decision victory over Derek Brunson, though some fight fans did not agree with the decision.
Speaking on the matter, White added “I agree. I had them 1-1 going into the third round and they gave the third round to Brunson. But, one of the things I say all of the time and I’ll say it again, You have got to beat the judges too. You can not leave it in the hands of the judges. You can’t be upset after if they give you a bad decision. You have to get in there and either make a statement that you won the fight or finish them.”
The conversation then shifted to the night’s controversial main event title fight.
“I feel like the referee from New York shouldn’t be reffing a main event fight. They don’t have enough experience. He should not have been in there. But, again, we don’t make those decisions. The commission does. It was a bad position by them. If that guy takes a point for hitting after the belt, then it was a draw. The only possible way this night could be any (expletive).”
“Everybody is blowing me up on the phone. ‘What’s wrong with this ref?’ What is wrong with this ref is that he doesn’t have big fighting experience like that. None of these guys in this state have it. They should have had one of the more experienced MMA refs in their reffing that main event.”
When asked if the UFC president was satisfied with the night’s main event, Dana White answered with a terse “no.”
Check out the full interview in the video down below:
