White: I didn’t love it [Hendricks’ win]
Dana White: “I’m happy for Johny. Johny has come off a rough, I guess we’ll call it a couple years. But I didn’t love the fight. Didn’t love it.”
Prior to UFC 185, Dana White had said that Johnny Hendricks versus Matt Brown could potentially be fight of the night. He might have jinxed himself:
“I’m happy for Johny. Johny has come off a rough, I guess we’ll call it a couple years. But I didn’t love the fight. Didn’t love it,” White said on the FOX Sports 1 post-fight show.
The assumption was that, with a win at UFC 185, Hendricks would get the opportunity to wait on the sidelines and fight the winner of that bout, likely in the fall. But after watching Hendricks wrestle his way to a victory over Brown, White was largely noncommittal when asked whether Hendricks deserved a golden ticket for the next title shot.
“We’ll see how this thing plays out,” White said at UFC 185’s post-fight press conference. “A lot of different things happen. I’ve seen guys say, ‘hey, I want to sit out and wait for that belt,’ and they don’t end up fighting for that belt for two years. So we’ll see what happens. It’s usually not a really good decision, but sometimes it can work. If it works out, then it will. If not, I’m sure Johny will take the option to fight.”
