Miletich: Neither Dana nor I take any s—
Last Friday’s Challengers event in Stockton, Calif. marked the first time a Strikeforce show had been run under the Zuffa…
Last Friday’s Challengers event in Stockton, Calif. marked the first time a Strikeforce show had been run under the Zuffa banner since the organization was purchased by the UFC’s parent company in March, and as a result Miletich was back in the same arena with his former employers, this time in a very different role.
“You’ve got mixed feelings. Obviously you wonder what’s going to happen. Nobody’s quite sure how things are going to go. The UFC obviously runs a very tight ship. They’re going to do things better overall because of experience, and so that’s a good thing. You worry for some of the athletes…if things don’t go well and they’re not able to keep Strikeforce going – Strikeforce, obviously, was purchased because they were hurting for money – so hopefully the UFC can turn that around and make it profitable. Then there’ll be a lot of kids that still have jobs. But if they can’t and they have to close the doors and take the fighters in that they think are very valuable assets to the rest of the organization, then they’ll do that and the rest will have to look for jobs. So you worry for those folks.”
“Dana White and I) have no problems. It was just that he and I are both bull-headed and he’s probably pretty stubborn, I guess, like me. Neither one of us will take any s— off anybody, and so we butt heads. My main thing was just to say, number one, I’m not going to say anything negative in the media about you, and he appreciated that and said he’d likewise do the same. That was the main thing. I don’t like having enemies. I would rather get along with people and I guess that comes with age. You learn a little bit, not so ornery all the time, and just learn to get along with people.”
“My job, no matter what, is to sell to the fans the fighters that I think are very marketable and very good athletes and very good fighters. It wouldn’t matter what organization I’m doing commentary for – whether it was the UFC, Strikeforce, M-1, Dream – the guys that catch my attention, I’m going to sell to the public and help them to understand how good these kids are. That’s really what it came down to is the kids that I believe in, that really could go to the top of the sport, were the guys that I was going to throw praise on and help market those kids so that their careers could be successful.”
As for his own fighting career, well, it might not be completely over just yet, but talk of a fight with boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. was more of an April Fool’s Day joke than anything else.
“Roy and I actually do talk, and it would be a fun fight and he and I had joked around about it, but he’s got a fight coming up in Russia, a boxing match, so he’s busy doing the boxing thing. Would I fight him? Yeah, I’d love to. Would he fight me? That remains to be seen, but we’ve discussed it.”
