MIAMI – Dana White met with the media following Saturday’s UFC 287 and gave his thoughts on a number of topics.
After former middleweight champion Israel Adesanya reclaimed the belt from Alex Pereira in a rematch, the UFC president talked about that result, what’s next for the champ, and other fallout from UFC 287 at Kaseya Center in Miami.
At the post-fight news conference, White also talked about the Endeavor deal with WWE, a return to Florida, Donald Trump and more.
Check out White’s thoughts on those topics and more below.
ON A NEW ATTENDANCE RECORD
The attendance tonight was 19,032 – sold out. Highest grossing event in the arena history. The gate was $11.9 million – sixth highest grossing event in UFC history. There’s a new sheriff in town, ladies and gentlemen. Miami beat (the most recent) Madison Square Garden (gate for UFC 281) – last gate there was $11.5 (million) and it was the same (main event). Unbelievable. When you think that last time we came here, we did a gate of $446,000, and now we just beat Madison Square Garden.
ON MIAMI'S RESURGENCE
I’ve been saying this all week: Miami reminds me of L.A. 10 years ago. This place is booming. I’m sure a lot of you are from here, but those of you that aren’t, I mean, every restaurant is packed till midnight, 1 in the morning, people out in the streets. It’s just like this place is as cool and as hot and incredible as ever. I’m glad we came here. It was a cool experience.
We’re coming to Miami (regularly). This place is such a different place than the last time I was here. Obviously, I’m assuming a lot of this was built up during COVID and all the stuff that went on here. It’s just this whole place is at a whole other level. It’s incredible.
Well, I don’t think I need to tell anybody at the office that we need to come back to Miami. I think everybody (wants to come back). It’s just such a great place to come. I’m sure those of you that came in town this week had a blast like I did. Ten years ago, L.A. was the greatest city in the world. I look at Miami now like L.A. was. This place is booming. This is a really cool city – tons of great restaurants, hotels, etc. When I opened this (news conference): There’s a new sheriff in town now, man. I mean, this thing was looking like it was going to be right behind MSG and Vegas. It beat MSG, so we definitely made the right decision, and now we’ll figure out when to bring it down here again.
ON THE CHASE SHERMAN CANCELLATION
He got sick. It happened a couple times – I think he ate something bad, is what I heard. Don’t quote me, though, because I don’t know for sure.
ON THE ADESANYA-PEREIRA MAIN EVENT
It was an absolute war. Israel Adesanya was saying this, coming into this fight. I mean, this guy never turns down a fight. When it came time to fight Pereira (the first time), he was ready. Let’s do it. I want to fight three times. I only want to fight the best. He lost. He was ready for an immediate rematch. People were asking in interviews leading up to this fight, do you think he’s messed up mentally? And do you think (Pereira is) in his head? And I did not think that. A lot of these guys, a lot of sh*t is talked in public, like, ‘Oh, I want this fight.’ And then behind the scenes, it’s a whole other ballgame. Israel Adesanya is not that guy. Israel Adesanya will fight anybody, anywhere, any time. The guy likes to fight three times a year, even though he has the belt. A lot of these guys get the belt and start making that really big money: ‘I’ll fight two times,’ and it goes down to one time. You know how it goes. You’ve seen it. But not this kid. He’s special. He’s different – emphatic victory tonight.
ON PEREIRA’S MIDDLEWEIGHT FUTURE
Honestly, I think that Pereira probably moves to 205 after this fight. He’s a monster. I know that he still had like two pounds to cut leading up to (weigh-ins) – it was like an hour left of the weigh-in. I’m not saying he’s moving to 205, but I would assume he is. You guys can ask him yourself, but I wouldn’t surprise me.
I would bet anything he moves to 205 after this fight. We’ll see what happens. We’ll see what he decides after the – I mean, the fight just happened 30 minutes ago. I don’t know.
ON BURNS' DEMAND TO BE BACKUP FOR NEXT WELTERWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT
I love that. Why not? Deal.
He’s the No. 1-ranked guy in the (UFC welterweight rankings). He has all these things (going for him) and he is one of the nicest guys ever. If he has to dog it out, like against (Khamzat Chimaev), that guy’s willing to go toe to toe and do anything. So, yeah, I mean, the way this guy fights and all the other attributes he says he has, he could be a big star, especially in Brazil.
ON THE HOLLAND-MASVIDAL INCIDENTS
The reason I didn’t want you guys talking to him about other fights is guys, We’re f*cking two days before a fight. He’s not fighting Jorge Masvidal. They got into whatever. First of all, it creates sh*t backstage and at the hotels. When you guys ask him questions like that and they say something, we’ve still got two days until the fight, and these guys run into each other backstage and everywhere else, and it’s so disrespectful to their opponent. There’s an opponent sitting up there that they’re going to fight, and I just hate that sh*t.
I get it. You want your f*cking clicks or whatever it is. You guys want to get your little f*cking moment that you can post, but I will f*cking attack you if you do that. It just causes a lot of bullsh*t backstage and at the hotel. It was like the time the stuff went down with (Nate) Diaz and all those guys. These guys have f*cking 20, 30 guys backstage, and that sh*t just can’t happen here, and and you guys can’t instigate it.
I mean, nothing happened – a lot of yelling at each other and stuff like that. But the thing is, you’ve got to understand these guys are grown men. When Holland left the press conference that day, I told the security guys I want more security on him, and they told them when he got off the stage. You know what he did? he ran out the back and left by himself because he doesn’t want security. These are grown men, and we can do as much as we can do.
ON HOLLAND TALKING TO HIM MID-FIGHT
Crazy sh*t. I mean, I don’t know what he was saying. He was yelling at me and I don’t even know what he was saying. It was crazy. I don’t know (what he said). (Donald) Trump looked at me and said, ‘What’s he talking about?’ I said, ‘I don’t know. Is he talking to me or talking to you?’ I don’t know what was going on, but yeah – he’s had a crazy week. He’s been acting a little crazy this week.
ON ADESANYA'S CONFIDENCE
I just think you meet some of these guys that are literally true fighters. They’re just fighters. And that’s what he is. This kid loves to fight. He loves to prove himself. He loves to challenge himself. He’s a very unique guy. Very unique. Even knowing already the celebration he was going to do, like seconds after he knocked him out, like having that stuff already pre-planned – I don’t know. You guys should really dig into that one. I mean, you know how mentally strong this kid is. He believes in himself so much and he is willing to test himself against a guy who’s beat him three times. And he comes out tonight and knocks him out viciously. (It was) pretty awesome.
ON MASVIDAL'S RETIREMENT
As soon as you think about retiring, you should in this business. He’s made a lot of (money), and he made a lot of money tonight. He’s got things outside the octagon going on too, like Conor does, and some of these other guys. I think he’s proved everything he needed to prove to himself and he’s changed his family’s life, and why not (retire)? That flying knee changed his life. When he threw that flying knee, it changed his whole life.
ON TRUMP, FIRST PRESIDENT IN U.S. HISTORY TO FACE CRIMINAL CHARGES
This guy calls me twice a month and will talk to me for an hour about fights that have happened since the last time we talked. He knows everybody. He knows what they did and who they fought last. He’s a huge fight fan – loves this stuff. Three guesses (who his favorite fighters are): Masvidal and Colby Covington.
ON RAUL ROSAS JR.
It happens. He’s a young kid. I had that two rounds to one. He’s got a lot of growing to do. He’s got a lot of work to do. People love him. This isn’t as damaging to him as (you’d think). Nobody really goes undefeated in this sport. It’s very, very hard to do. He’s just got to get back in there, get back on the horse and keep going.
There’s this thing with 18-year-old strength and 25-year-old man strength, and the other kid was a really good grappler. This kid has a ton of room to grow. Tonight was a good experience for him, and that’s what this sport’s all about. He was 7-0, but it’s very hard to go undefeated, and especially when you come into the UFC. As young as this kid is – I had it 2-1, and he’ll get better.
ON BELAL MUHAMMAD VS. KAMARU USMAN
Interesting. We’ll talk about it. But yeah, the other fight is the fight that we wanted to do. If he said (he asked to be a backup for Edwards-Usman 3 in London, but we gave it to Covington), then yeah, it’s true. He’s a nice guy. He’s not lying.
ON UFC IN AFRICA
That’s what we need. We need some real infrastructure over there to go over there and pull off a fight like tonight. But I’ve made it very clear that I’m focused on that. We’re building the PI right now down in Mexico right now. So once that gets done, we’ll start looking (at Africa). (We’re looking at at Dakkar, Senegal, which has a new arena.)
ON WHAT'S NEXT FOR KAMARU USMAN
I don’t know yet. I don’t know yet for Kamaru, but we’ll get him figured out soon.
ON THE WWE SALE TO UFC PARENT COMPANY ENDEAVOR
I like the deal. I’m very supportive of it. I knew that they were working on it a long time ago, and Ari’s super respectful like that. Ari wanted to make sure that everybody was good with this before we moved forward with it, and I think that Ari is going to bring a lot of value. That doesn’t change anything around here. There’s no, you know, we had Brock (Lesnar) come over here, we had Ronda (Rousey) go over there. If that’s ever possible, if guys leave here and they love wrestling and they’re good enough to do it, before this deal, we would’ve been good with that. But what’s going to happen now is Ari’s going to add a ton of value to WWE, whether it’s sponsorship, licensing, of a lot of other things that he can do when he touches the business. And these two, the UFC and WWE, will become their own stock – we’ll have our own (ticker stock symbol). I don’t know how much I can talk about this. I should shut the f*ck up, actually. My lawyer is shaking his head yes. We’re really happy about this deal and we’re looking forward to it.
They’re going to do what they do. We’re going to do what we do. The parent company and Ari will help them in a lot of ways that they know they can help them. Some of the things, as as much ass as WWE is kicking, there’s a lot of things in that business that can be tweaked and can make a big difference – not to mention the fact that their (broadcast) rights deal is up, so their television rights are up. And when your television rights are up, there’s nobody better than Ari Emmanuel.
ON HIS HISTORY WITH TRUMP
When we did that first deal at the Trump Taj Mahal, you’ve got to remember, and it’s hard for a lot of you to even think about this because of where the brand was at that time and what it meant, but he saw it, he got it. He cut us that deal at the Taj when we went there. He got there for the first fight of the night and stayed there until the last fight. He did it both times that we were there. Tonight, he got here at 7:30 – he’s here at 7:30 and he stayed till the last fight and then left. He loves the sport. He loves the fights. And like I said, many times, he’s been an incredible friend.
ON JOE PYFER'S LATEST KO WIN
That was a great performance. He didn’t win (a bonus), but you know I’ll take care of him. And (Steve Garcia) – we’re going to take care of him, too.
ON KELVIN GASTELUM'S RETURN TO THE WIN COLUMN
He’s a dog, and he fought tonight like the old Kelvin. You saw him go in there and go to war, and he comes back, he wins Fight of the Hight. It was a big night for him.
ON HIS WALK FROM BACKSTAGE WITH TRUMP, KID ROCK
There was no choreography. I mean, we were all back there together. I’m good friends with Kid Rock, too. So we were all back there, we’re all friends – me, him and Trump. And we walked out and the DJ played “American Badass.” There was no choreography whatsoever. The show was about to start, and we walked.
ON FLORIDA EVENTS
It wasn’t dead (the first time we came). We were just growing the sport and the brand at the time. Miami isn’t the same place it was when I came back then, either. This is a completely different city. This is one of the most powerful cities in America now. It was not what it is then. I keep referencing L.A. because when you think of L.A. 10 years ago, it was probably one of the, if not the coolest city in the country. Not so much today. Today, Miami is on a whole other level, man. This place has boomed. So if you look at the growth of the UFC, the growth of Miami, it was the right time to come here and we were right. We had other options and we looked at other options and we pulled the trigger on Miami and we’re all very happy that we did.
If you look at, if you look at what we’ve done in Florida since 2020, and again, going through COVID, we had Florida and we had Abu Dhabi. We’ve been bouncing around (Florida) and doing well because of what the mayor did for us up in Jacksonville. We’re going back again. Thank you, sir. We appreciate everything you’ve done for us and we’re going to go back there and give them another event. Florida was very good to us, and tonight was. And I can’t not say something about your governor (Ron DeSantis), too, another guy who was incredible to us through COVID and everything else, and who also takes a lot of credit for how kickass this state is right now, too.
Credit (American Top Team founder) Dan Lambert, a guy who has spent his own money to not only take care of fighters, but create world champions and essentially help build the UFC and the sport.
ON A SUMMER RETURN TO LONDON
I’m working on it, and I want it to be a pay-per-view. When I talk about Florida, let’s talk about London now. London has been incredible to us. It’s been amazing. The fans over there are amazing. We’re supposed to have a Fight Night in July. I want it to be a pay-per-view. So there’s a lot of internal sh*t that needs to be worked out, and I’m working on it.
ON ROB FONT
Big win tonight for Rob Font. Man, that was huge. Impressive. The fight was a war, and tonight was a big night for him.
ON PUERTO RICO
I’m all about Puerto Rico. I’ve talked about Puerto Rico a lot when I talk about building (UFC Performance Institutes). I mean, I wouldn’t say no. We’re doing Mexico right now. We’ve got to get that one. But PIs aren’t cheap. They’re expensive to build. We’re working on Mexico now and then we will get our sh*t together and figure out what’s next, because we’re talking about opening one in Abu Dhabi. I want one in Puerto Rico, and I would love to have one in Africa, too.
ON JON JONES
Jon Jones came out, made quick work, and poof – disappeared. He went back to whatever he is doing. He’s ready to fight. He wants Stipe (Miocic), so we’ll get it figured out. That’s the one he wants.
ON MASVIDAL'S GAMEBRED BOXING
I actually watched (Gamebred Boxing 4). I liked the undercard. I thought the undercard had good fights. The other thing that I was impressed by with them is that they actually had good production. When you, when you watch a small show like that, one thing that you have to understand whether the production’s good or not is how fast the replays (happen). They were right on top of the replays. The replays came out fast. They did a damn good job with the production. I was impressed with it. The thing that I don’t like is 50 year olds fighting. It’s just not my thing. So the co-main and the main (I didn’t care for), but the rest of the card was fine. I mean, Jose Aldo and Jeremy Stevens was an awesome fight. The kid that was undefeated, I think he was Puerto Rican actually – that kid that he fought didn’t just show up for a paycheck. That kid showed up to win. It was a great fight. I liked that fight, too. I had fun watching the card. I was home Saturday night, didn’t do anything, and I watched it.
ON MEXICO
September this year. As the world starts to open up now, there’s a lot of other places that we’ve got to go. But you’re not wrong. For the first time ever, we’ve got three champions (from Mexico). Why did we not do a Cinco de Mayo fight (in Mexico)? Why did we not do this? Why? We’re f*cking it up. That’s why. We’re f*cking up. We’re trying to fix it. We’re making a lot of mistakes right now, and I know we are. We’ll get our shit together, I promise you.
ON WWE COMPETING WITH UFC
Any time that we ever went on the same night, our fan bases are completely different. I don’t think there’s a ton of crossover with the fan base. It’s not like it ever hurt us. But maybe we won’t. I don’t know. I don’t know the answer to that question, but I don’t think it makes a difference. If anything, what I’ve started to notice is when these type of things are on the same night, you make more people stay home and maybe people will watch both or whatever the deal is.
ON GERVONTA DAVIS VS. RYAN GARCIA
There are very few good boxing fights out there. This is a good one. This should be fun. That’s a fight I would definitely watch. I have no idea. I have no idea (who will win). I mean, Gervonta is a bad dude, and Ryan’s unproven yet. This is his first real big test, so if you can go in and pull it off, it’s a big deal. I’ll be watching even though (Oscar) De La Hoya is involved with it.
