Cesar Gracie: Why is Dana White punishing the fans?
“I know how Nick is, how he reacts and stuff. He likes to have a disdain for his opponent, he…
“I know how Nick is, how he reacts and stuff. He likes to have a disdain for his opponent, he wants to not like them. So he can put a little hate on them, beat them up, you know?:
“I could see a good fight for him being Fitch, because Fitch has been tallking a lot, and Nick’s never talked about him really. … He wants to fight GSP just because, you know, he wants to beat that guy up.
“BJ Penn’s a different story, it’s like he has more of a respect for BJ. BJ’s not a juice head. BJ actually tried technique in a fight. They’ve hung out together, they’ve trained together, so it’s kind of tough in that sense. But it is what it is.
“This is much tougher. (BJ Penn) is the better fighter of the two. Georges St. Pierre is the bigger fighter of the two. He can beat people on being bigger or whatever. But this is the better fighter of the two. He’s more technical. He’s got a better ground game. He’s got a better stand up game.”
“I tried to pull for the GSP fight even after they pulled it. I talked to Dana after he pulled the fight. I explained to him why it was a mistake to pull the fight. I understood. I was as mad at Nick as anybody.
“When I calmed down a little bit and looked at the situation, I said not only am I Nick’s trainer, manager…whatever, but I’m a fan of the sport. And I’m thinking “why is Dana punishing the fans of the sport?”
Punish Nick. Fine him a nice fat hefty fine. Do whatever you’re gonna do and punish him. All he did was miss a press conference. Imean Seriously? Did one fan in this world even care? It did not make sense to me. I told them this afterwards. Why?
Ultimately, he runs the company. I know he is a competent CEO. He knows what he is doing a lot better than we do. But I’ve looked at it from a fan’s perspective, and this is the fight the fans wanted, and the fans do not care if he went to the press conference.
“So why take that away from the fans? Why not just punish Nick, and not the fans?
I don’t understand. I don’t to this day.
