UFC President Dana White has been very quite of late. Just last week one of the most talked about moments in UFC history happened, Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier squared up at a media day and a brawl ensued.
White was not present for it but UFC head of PR, Dave Sholler, was the man in the middle. White has been silent about the whole situation until now. He told the following to UFC.com:
“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.”
“[UFC Sr. Director of Public Relations] 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.”
You can check out the brawl below:
Other topics include the whole Jones, Cormier, and Gustafsson triangle, Anthony Johnson and Bader vs. St. Pruex. You can read the full lot here.
Alan’s Angle: I wouldn’t be too rough on Sholler, it is not his fault and as Dana said, who know what would have happened if even he was there. What strikes me as interesting is that White did not display any displeasure in what went down. He didn’t slam it as unprofessional or give any hint that this is a negative thing. Don’t get me wrong, it is amazing for publicity and gaining interest for when Jones and DC finally meet but White can’t admit that. He should have said something publicly about how they shouldn’t do that etc and in private it would be ok for him to rub his two hands together in anticipation of how the PPV buys will do as a result.