White: Ronda is the biggest star the UFC ever had
“She’s the hugest superstar,” said Dana White of Ronda Rousey. “I’m going to go out and say she’s the biggest star we’ve ever had.”
If you love mixed martial arts, you have to read Yahoo Sports Kevin Iole. He and two dozen reporters met with UFC president Dana White on Thursday. No other reporter there, or maybe anywhere, would be able to so accurately convey what happened.
Do yourself a favor and skip this excerpt of White’s quotes, and click the link at bottom.
White began by opening up his phone and challenging the reporters to name a UFC fighter, or ten, and he would have them tested immediately.
Then a reporter asked if Ronda Rousey was ever going to fight Cris Cyborg. Cyborg and her manager UFC Hall of Famer Tito Ortiz have said they want the fight, and that Cris cannot make 145, citing doctors who said she risked her life and might not be able to bear children.
White got so heated during a 30-45 standing rant and roll, that at one point UFC COO Lawrence Epstein came down from the floor above to ask if he was OK.
“She got busted for drugs,” said White. “I mean, really look at this thing. You guys want to kick Vitor Belfort in the nuts every f—ing second of every day at every press conference and everything else. And you want to ask me if f—ing Cyborg is going to fight Ronda. First, she said she would die.”
“(A seated reporter) was just saying, ‘How is Cormier going to make 205? I think this is dangerous. Blah, blah, blah.’ This girl said she would die if she goes to 135, tested positive for f—ing drugs, but you ask me if she’s going to fight Ronda Rousey. When’s the Ronda Rousey fight going to happen?”
“She’s not a 135-pounder and said she’ll die. The problem with the whole Cyborg thing, the way it was played out, first of all, we can all sit here and say she couldn’t have hired a bigger f—ing idiot to be her manager. OK? That’s first of all. Mistake No. 1. She made a lot of mistakes in her career that we all know about, but after we came in and bought Strikeforce, that was mistake No. 1.
“Tito has done more f—ing to damage his career, his image and his f—ing life than any fighter I’ve ever met, and that’s her manager. They come out in this press conference and say, ‘She will die. She will die if she goes to 135. … So I’m going to go before an athletic commission and say I want to make the fight between Ronda Rousey and f—ing Cyborg Santos at 135 pounds? She’s on record saying she’ll die. What if she f—ing dies?”
White was not impressed when Alistair Overeem called out Brock Lesnar immediately after beating Frank Mir earlier this month. White thought Junior dos Santos was a more suitable opponent, but Reem declined, citing a rib injury that needed healing. To White, Alistaor Overeem is no Ronda Rousey.
“I’ll bet his rib wouldn’t hurt if we got him Brock Lesnar,” White said. “I’ll bet his rib would be fine then.”
“Ronda’s never cheated, ever. She’s an Olympian. She’s a world champion who has not only defended her f—ing title, but I asked her to go back-to-back and she f—ing did it. Coming straight off filming two f—ing movies, a training camp. This girl, the other thing with this girl? She gets the f—ing flu, gets sick, run down, s— like she’s going to die, and she still f—ing trains through camp.
“I’ve got a big 6-foot-8 f—ing musclehead whose rib hurts and won’t f—ing fight dos Santos. This chick does two movies back-to-back, fights, comes back in f—ing camp, films ‘The Ultimate Fighter,’ f—ing does all these appearances and all this other s—. She’s a f—ing rock star. She’s never cheated. She’s done all these great things. She’s an Olympian and she has to answer questions about Cyborg f—ing Santos?”
“She’s the hugest superstar,” said White of Rousey. “I’m going to go out and say she’s the biggest star we’ve ever had.”