At the UFC on ESPN 18 post-fight press conference, league president Dana White talked about the COVID-19 global pandemic, Mike Tyson vs. Roy Jones Jr, and a boxing match the recently released GOAT candidate Anderson Silva has long wanted vs. RJJ. White had three screens on Saturday night, one for his own show, one for this friend Mike Tyson’s fight, and one for a college football game. Despite his interest in Tyson vs. RJJ, he’s not interested in getting involved with RJJ vs. Silva.
To my core, I am a f***ing fight fan,” said White, as transcribed by Simon Head and John Morgan for MMA Junkie. “What I truly believe is that the fight business is for young guys. It’s not for old guys. Listen, I get there’s still some name value out there and you can go out and you can make some money.
When you’re a fight fan, I want to see the best in the world, the best up-and-coming kids, the best in the world. I want to see these guys fight and I want to know who is the baddest motherf***er in the world in every division. As a fight fan, that’s who I am and that kind of stuff doesn’t interest me.
Anderson Silva had his day. Roy Jones Jr. had his day. Today is not their day. It’s just not. These young guys that you saw fight tonight are the future. These are the guys that are up and coming, and this is what I’m interested in. This is what I love to do. I could sit here all f***ing night and watch kids that fought tonight fight. It’s what I love to do. It’s just not what I really love to do. There’s plenty of people out there that do that. Plenty of people that do the ‘old guy’ stuff. I don’t do the ‘old guy’ stuff.
However, White was impressed with Tyson.
You guys have been asking me questions leading up to this thing, and I didn’t want to say anything negative, because I love Tyson and he’s a good friend of mine, said White, as transcribed by Steven Marrocco for MMA Fighting. He’s 56 years old. Time is undefeated. Time takes us all down, and one of the things that I was worried for Mike is he has this incredible aura still, and 56 years old, fighting is a young man’s game. All that being said, he looked f*cking awesome tonight. I was blown away by how good he looked.
I was worried about Roy – Roy is 51 years old, but Roy has been way more active than Tyson has been, but Roy actually got more tired than Mike tonight, which was shocking. I’m happy for them. I hope they both made a zillion f***ing dollars, and it exceeded my expectations.
“Good for [Tyson]. It was actually a good fight, it was an entertaining fight to watch, and I thought he looked really good. I’m happy for him.
Tyson vs. Jones was an exhibition so there were no judges, but for entertainment purposes the WBC had three former fighters turned judges score the contest, and they called it a draw. Like anyone who watched the exhibition, White had another opinion.
Tyson won that fight, he said.
White also discussed COVID-19, which over the weekend canceled the main event on Saturday night, and forced out half the main event on next Saturday’s event.
We got three fights left this year. And we’ll get through it,” said White, as transcribed by Milan Ordoñez for BE. “It is part of doing business these days. If you look back to the old days, we used to have to worry about injuries. Now, it’s injuries and COVID.
But for me, COVID’s one of these things we’re all gonna get. We’re all gonna get it. I haven’t got it yet, I’ve been traveling, I’ve been living a pretty normal life.
I haven’t got it yet, but it’s like the flu, it’s like the cold, we’re eventually gonna get it.
