Dana White: Chael avoiding Brazil is his smartest move in months
Ariel Helwani: Now, you said a couple of months ago that you were a little surprised at how the mainstream…
Ariel Helwani: Now, you said a couple of months ago that you were a little surprised at how the mainstream media in Brazil didn’t know that much about MMA. But being here the last couple of days, in terms of the number of media here, very impressive — a lot more than the United States and it seems as though they’re kind of well-versed. So, what about their knowledge of the sport surprised you?
Dana White: It’s turned around real quick, you know, let me tell you. Listen, the American media needs to take notes here how fast these guys have turned around and how much media there is and how they’ve educated themselves on the sport. You know, obviously what they’ve looked at here in Brazil is this thing is getting big and, you know, obviously a lot of people that are into it, it’s very popular, maybe we should learn about this sport, all right? Maybe we should dive in and learn about it and figure out who the fighters are and what’s going to happen, you know. I wish the American media would do the same!
AH: You’ve been banging the ‘Anderson Silva is the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world’ drum for a long time. It feels at least to me that the MMA community has finally accepted this, the mainstream media has accepted this. Why do you think that is only now?
DFW: Because they’re dummies, man, it always takes them a little while to catch on. You know, I don’t know how many guys he has to beat in incredible ways for people to realize it. You know, I think to be honest with you, too, I think that the Abu Dhabi fight didn’t help. That Abu Dhabi fight was weird because everybody was on the Anderson bandwagon and when that thing happened I think he lost a lot of fans and people are coming back around. I mean, after his last fight, the Chael Sonnen fight and then the Vitor Belfort fight… And if you look at this guy’s career and what he’s done and all the records he’s broken, you know, you just got to be a hater or out of your mind not to believe that this guy is not the pound-for-pound or the best ever.
AH: Are you really considering a fight in a 100,000 seat stadium?
DFW: We should have done this one, we should have done this one in a bigger stadium.
AH: So, is that sort of on the calendar for next year?
DFW: Yeah, we’ll be back down here and we’ll do a soccer stadium.
AH: Chael Sonnen isn’t coming after all, after all he’s said about Brazil. Does that surprise you?
DFW: I think that’s a great idea, it’s actually the most sensible thing I’ve heard him say in the last two months! I mean, I don’t event know how the guy gets into Brazil. I don’t even know how he can walk around and, you know, he was part of Yushin’s camp down here… he’s nuts, man, he’s crazy.
AH: Do you enjoy the talk or do you think he’s crossed the line a bit?
DFW: He is who he is, you know? Listen, I don’t tell guys who to be and how to talk and what to do. If you do cross the line and you get crazy, yes, then I will but, you know, Chael Sonnen… some of the stuff he says is nutty as hell but… he is who he is, it is what it is.
