Dana White Post-Fight Press Conference | UFC 322

All right, the attendance tonight was 20,664 was sold out. Gate was 13.6 million. That's the third highest gate at MSG. UFC holds one through five, seven, nine, and ten all time at MSG. Two more years, we'll be the top ten, all 10 of the top 10. The performance of the nights were Nickel, BSD, Pratus, and Morales. They all won 50 grand.

Well, Dana, in the end, a much more dominant fight for Islam than maybe we thought.

I thought maybe it was going to be a bit more 50-50.

I agree with you. What did you think of his performance, Jack's performance and the whole fight? Yeah, I mean, you know, not the most exciting title fight you'll ever see, but let me tell you what, complete dominance. And it's depending on what we do next with him and what's going on. This guy's headed toward goat talk.

Right. And that's the thing, right? What exactly do you do next? It's no surprise there's a lot of guys who want to fight him. Kamaru Usman, Shavkat, Edea Tapoir is calling him out. Is the Edea fight, that's obviously the biggest fight, right, but is that one you would like to look at, or would you rather keep Edea at 55 and make him defend that championship at least? thing that you just laid out is we have a lot of options. Yeah. And it depends on what he wants to do. Has he been through here yet? Islam? No.

So does he want to stay at 170? Is he interested in 155? Is he you know, I don't know. I don't know any of those questions. You know what I mean? answers?

Yeah, I'm getting the sense we're going to hear the words White House quite a lot almost like, oh, does it have to be America versus the world themed and stuff like that? For you, would you be happy putting

a non-American main event on that card?

Yeah, it's not America versus the world. What's the best card we can build?

So could Islam end up on the White House?

We're talking about him possibly, you know, goat talk here, depending on what he does in his next couple of fights. So it's a possibility.

And then speaking of goat talk again, Valentina Shevchenko, another crazy dominant performance. I saw you did a podcast where you said that fight would never be boring and then it turned out that Valentina just kind of smoked her.

Curious your thoughts on that fight as well.

Yeah, I thought that, you know, Weylie's a little pitbull I thought she would she would be much stronger and and do better in that fight than she did one of my buddies text me after the fight said this is why we have weight classes I mean Zhang's a very strong

woman and Valentina just kind of threw her around like no business would you be interested in Valentina maybe moving back to 135 to try and test herself or you okay with her making those calls? I don't know I'm not even thinking about that kind of shit okay Okay, and last one from me, yesterday Jorge Masvidal did a Q&A and he said that the UFC is mad at him for something, he wouldn't get into details.

I was just talking to him 30 minutes ago.

Why are you mad at him?

I have no idea, I didn't know I was. We're definitely not problem with him.

The rest of the main card, a couple of star-making performances in Mike Morales and Carlos Pratas. I know you guys have always been high on Carlos, but to put away Leon like that and calling himself the most entertaining fighter in the division, just what did you make of his kind of, like I said,

star-making performance out there?

Yeah. I mean, listen, when you get these kind of opportunities, like Ewing tonight, I mean, when you get an opportunity, you come to make the most of it. And there was a lot of that on the card tonight.

Well, I was going to ask about Ewing, but I'll ask now. He laid out his last 48 hours. He got the call, 9 a.m., said he's always gonna be ready and just wants to rock it now. So I guess those last 48 hours have to be one of the wildest ones for you guys.

Yeah, it's incredible. I mean, definitely for him. You know, when he came to the weigh-ins yesterday, I was like, hey, man, you know, much respect. What an incredible opportunity for you. And no matter what happens tomorrow night, I'm going to be sending you something in the mail. And, you know, I love these guys. It's like the guys that are just coming off the contender. I mean, you got, you got Jack Della, who tonight was the champion defending against a potential goat. And, and then

you got the other guys that were on the card tonight and then throwing a kid like Ewing it's it's awesome it's it's what makes this sport

so fun. And then speaking of Michael Morales not just his performance today but kind of all week at the press conference he kind of came off as a superstar he got most of the questions he's had the longest media day there's a ton of Ecuador and media here specifically for him so he's you've got to see money with him. Yeah listen he's obviously incredible ton of Ecuador and media hair specifically for him. So he's you've got to see money with him. Yeah.

Listen, he's obviously incredible. He's 19 and oh, he's cool as hell. And yeah, he's got he's got he's got it all.

You can check all the boxes with that kid.

And then just last one for me a reaction to Bo Nichols head kick

knockout and then getting on the the New York crowd. Yeah. Oh, I didn't see that. Oh yeah, I did see that. I did see that. What was that about? I was in the back. Oh, they booned him or something. He said he was

quote standing up for myself. You're going to give me grief. I'm going to give it back

to you. I don't give a shit. I mean, that's, that of a way to end it. Dana, you were obviously here for Anderson Silva's

incredible run in the UFC as Lan Makhachev ties his record for 16 consecutive wins. Like, such crazy things can happen in the sport. Eye pokes, you know, disqualification, stuff like that. How remarkable is what he's done matching that record

12 years after Anderson's streak ended?

Yeah, so I was like, Habib came up to me, freaking out and screaming. He says, can I put the belts on him, please? I said, yeah. He goes over there and wraps him over the head with both the belts.

I think he took more damage in getting his belts than he did during the fight. And I was saying to Habib, I've been in the fight business since I was 20 years old and all I ever hear is this guy's gonna be a world champion, this guy's gonna do this, this guy's gonna do that. Everybody says the same thing and almost nobody ever does or makes it. His father said Habib will go in and

dominate and he'll have a run and when he's done and then Islam will come in behind him and do the same and you know holy shit it played out exactly the way his father said which is pretty amazing I don't know what you asked me but I hope I

answered your question. I know it's just his winning streak matching Anderson Silva's

record but yeah. Yeah I mean everything that this kid's accomplished and you know to move up and wait and say what you want about Jack and the odds you know you know the odds makers had him a big I didn't I thought that that Fight was gonna be much much tougher for Islam and Jack's a tough Tough kid and and gritty and you know, he beat below and below is a nightmare for a lot of people. I Thought it was gonna be a lot closer than it was

how hats off to Islam for

Dominating how much of a say will he get and who he wants to fight out of all these guys pre fight he's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy.

He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great guy. He's a great He was walking through Shavkat and Uzman and Ilya, and the list goes on and on. It's a great problem to have, especially when you start talking about this kid

as a couple fights away from possible goat dog.

And I know this is the fight game. Crazy stuff happens all the time, especially behind the scenes. But I was right there on press row when that crazy brawl broke out with Dylan Danis and the member of Habib's team and stuff.

Can you just tell us how disappointed you were to see that and any insight into the follow-up?

I blame myself for that, actually. They came back and told me right before I walked out for the main card that Dylan Danis was here and he was moving around sitting in fighter seats and not sitting in his own seat that he had. He had a ticket, and they said, do you want us to throw him out of here? And I said, he has a ticket?

And, and, and I said, yeah. And you know, they told me, they said, Masvidal said he's going to fuck him up on site. And I said, well, where's Masvidal sitting? He said, well, he's six and keep an eye on him. It never even crossed my mind as stupid as this could be that the entire Muslim Brotherhood was here tonight in the first five rows for Islam and as soon as it broke out I

was over on the other side and I go fuck I know exactly what that is I knew it and yeah you will never see Dylan Dennis at a UFC fight ever again.

Yeah, I was gonna say he's been he's wanted badly to come in this company and he said you guys don't want to sign him because he makes too much trouble. I guess point made.

Well, that and a lot of other reasons. But yeah, you'll never see him at another fight. So they called me from downstairs and they said, we got him down here. Do you want to press charges and have him arrested? And I said, no, we don't want to press charges. It's the fight business, man. You know how I feel about this shit. And I could have prevented this tonight and I messed up.

Anyone else get arrested or anything like that?

Not that I'm aware of, no. We're not pressing charges. I'm not speaking for MSG or anybody else that was involved in this thing. I don't know, but we, the UFC, are not pressing charges against anybody.

Cool, and just last with me, we're here halfway through November. No fights announced for 2026 yet. I know you guys are working on a lot of stuff,

but when can we maybe just checking dates and fight announcements. Yeah, we got obviously the first fight on Paramount that we gotta put together and then after this year ends, the big one is the White House fight. So, I don't

know. We'll get it done though. Dan is straight down here down the middle. Um what are your thoughts on where Leon Edwards goes now from here? Three losses in a row and they've

progressively got worse. So yeah, yeah, it was a rough one tonight. I don't know Leon will go home Spend take some time and then we'll get back with him and see what he's thinking where his head is at and go from there Do you think perhaps his best days are behind him? Well, I have no idea. I mean listen when you get in there, you know There was a lot of buzz on this card. You know why? Because every one of these fights was badass tonight. That's why. And you know, anything can happen when you get in there and start mixing it up with the best in the world.

So. And final one for me. A few weeks removed from UFC 321 though, Chad, the unfortunate eye poke of Tom Aspall. I'm curious, have you spoken to Tom in recent weeks and is there any update on him?

There's no update. What he needs to do is stay home, get well, stay off the internet and start training and get ready to come back. Thank you.

Thanks. Dana, you mentioned Islam as a potential go to. I was wondering you think the pump up pound for pound ranking is gonna look like next Monday

What do I think the pound for pounds gonna look like? Yeah, I Think Islam is gonna be number one. That's what I think and if you but it's not up to me It's up to you guys you guys guys voting that shit

Not me and if you had to we know you like to do and you're usually wrong

So it'll probably bomb it'll probably be Ilja on.

And if you had to do a GOAT ranking as of right now, currently, would Jon Jones still be the first one?

Yes, Jon Jones is still the GOAT, whether you like it or not. Go ahead, sir. Yeah.

I want to talk about the main event. You said it wasn't the most exciting fight. You're not scared to criticize a ref, do you think Herb Dean should have stood him up? There wasn't that much action going on.

No, I think that You know in both fights the the co-main and main, you know, they they got the takedown They got the dominant position. They were trying to work. They're trying to move, you know It's it's it's definitely not what everybody wants to see, but it is what everybody in this room and everybody who watches this press conference knew what the game plan would be. If if if Jack couldn't stop the takedown, then he at least better be able to get back to his feet. And if he couldn't, you knew how this was going to play out. Every single week it seems like you're asked about a different location and you say you want to go here you want to go there. In 2026, 2027 will we start seeing you more on the road and less Apex shows? I've been home like fucking 10 days this year. Are we not traveling enough for you sir? Yeah, no

we're gonna keep doing exactly what I seriously what have I been home a fucking I've been home like eight or nine days in the last in the last 40 days You want me to never go home sir, is that what you're asking me less apex shows we're definitely doing less apex shows

Yeah, all right in my last question You do besides doing shows you go to like special locations. I think you went to the Spear, you went to the White House. Do you have anything else, like a specific location you want to go to, not necessarily

a city, but like a spot?

Hmm. Spain.

Yeah, we haven't done Spain. Yeah.

Just right here. Talking about Europe Europe can you give us any news about the potential rematch between Thomas Pinal and Cyril Gannes? About the rematch with? Pinal. What about it? Any potential news? I just answered that. Welcome to the press conference sir. Second one, Benoit SDenis asked for a BMF title. Does he have the right profile for you to get this belt?

I don't know. You know, he did, yes. And, you know, I don't even think about that stuff tonight. You know, we'll fly home tonight, have all day tomorrow, get back in the office Monday, and then Tuesday we start. You know what I mean? I don't even think about that stuff tonight.

Thanks.

But I understand. Listen, he wants to fight for the BMF. Pratis tonight was all over me. He wanted to get back into the octagon and, you know, square off with Islam and,

you know, everybody's all fired up tonight. We got to take some time to figure out what we're gonna do next. And just a little one, we have three number one contenders in France, Manu Furor, Cyril Gann and Nasruddin Imamov. Can we have big events in France, more than a fight night in the future?

Yeah, I mean, what's crazy is I always talk about going to the UK and seeing events, the crowds and all this stuff. Listen, France is pound for pound and the mix for as far as crowds go. So I'm also one of the owners of SLS Skate League. We just did a skate competition there and the French kid pulled off a trick there

and the place went crazy and everybody started, it was sold out, everybody started throwing their water bottles into the, it's pretty badass in France, the live events. So the long-winded answer to your question is yes. Thank you sir. Yes sir.

Dana straight ahead. I know the focus is on 322 and rightfully so, but big picture. I mean what you guys did in Vegas with Canelo and Crawford tonight at MSG planning for the White House Guard. You've come so far from working for Peter Welch in Southie. He's here tonight, yeah. Is he really? Is there a lesson that you still hold on to from that time? I mean, it's amazing where you were and where you are now.

Yeah, what's the question?

A lesson that you learned from Peter back in 1920?

I learned everything from him. Everything about the fight business I learned from him.

Everything you still hold the principles you still apply now?

Well, different. everything you still hold the principles you still apply now? Well different I mean, you know, we learned the fight game from him and then I had to get into, you know, when Lorenzo, Frank and I did our first live event, we'd never done a production ever. We'd never done production. It was our first time ever. So there's obviously been a lot of on-the-job, you know, training for me. And yeah, I mean, I wouldn't be here today

if it wasn't for Peter.

And it's amazing how, just to follow up on that, the expectations, they grow bigger every year. You just mentioned Spain. I mean, that's a long way away from your first ever production. I mean, it's amazing, again, the growth year by year.

Yeah, well, the two biggest things that, first, the sphere. I mean, I thought we'd open the gateway, and you notice nobody's going to the fucking sphere to try to do what we did. Literally nobody is. And then now pulling off the White House is,

the sphere was technically challenging, and this is going to be logistically challenging.

And in terms of, you mentioned Spain, Madrid, Barcelona, probably the big cities if you did get to go there?

Yeah.

Thank you.

Yep.

John, I'm here from Tunnel Vision Sports. You kind of spoke about having a good problem in this aspect. How do you feel about the overall depth of the current fighters on your roster in a full circle moment?

How do I feel about the what? The depth of your current roster. The entire roster?

The entire roster from all the divisions. How do you feel about the talent, the UFC?

Really good. I think that if you start to, I mean the 55 pound division is nasty. Now 70's nasty. I mean as you go, when you look at the top 15 in and and all of the weight classes weren't a good pretty good place You go through You know, it goes like this with different weight classes at different

Points of time, but yeah, we're really happy with where we're at

Dana around here. I know you're a big boxing fan. Did you happen to catch the Connor Ben Chris you bank jr. Rematch?

I didn't see it. But you know, I got I got the updates on it Yeah, but I didn't see it and I heard this crowd was going crazy out there. The fight was that everybody was really into the fight

Yeah, and did you see the fight that's reportedly being worked on for December 19th in Miami?

Did I see the fight being worked on in December 19th in Miami? Yeah. No.

Do you know which fight I'm talking about? No.

Jesus. That's a fucking bad idea. That's a bad idea. But let me tell you what, a lot of people watch that one.

Will you watch it?

Sure. You know what everybody's tuning in for on that one. Will you watch it? Sure. You know what everybody's tuning in for on that one. I think everybody's gonna get what they finally been waiting for.

Dana over here. Mm-hmm. Back here. I know you mentioned Islam joining the goat debate potentially. Where do you rank Khabib in terms of goats of coaches?, I don't know I I don't rank coaches as goats

Dana quick one right over here. Yeah, I know you spoke about Ethan Ewing already But this is a guy who came across the country on two days notice shocked the world and changed his life. What kind of Message or notice do you think other fighters or lessons other fighters should take from something like that?

Well, I don't know if there's there's lessons to be learned by that. You're either that guy or you're not It's not something like oh that guy did it. I should probably do that, too you're you're you're built differently than everybody else is and you know Yeah, it's just even John Jones I mean you guys know how I feel about John Jones John Jones turned down a short notice fight against Chael Sonnen, because his team told

him to. That's one of the most fucking, it's just, I still get mad when I think about it, how fucking dumb that was. But you know, this kid's wired differently than a lot of people are.

Thank you, sir.

Yep.

Dana, can you reflect on your relationship with ESPN and also look forward to the relationship with CBS Paramount Plus?

Yeah, all the Paramount CBS people here tonight. And these guys are so fired up about this relationship. It just fires us up even more. So we're excited about it and I look at you know, the path that we've taken to get here. We started on Spike TV from there.

We went to Fox then we went to ESPN and now we have this Paramount deal. It's almost like it's been the perfect trajectory and you know I say it all the time publicly. I had a little bit of a rocky start with ESPN and a couple of different departments but we ended up having an incredible relationship with them and you know I have a lot of respect for ESPN and all the people that work there and I appreciate everything they did for this company over the last seven years. Quick follow-up, how is Aspen gone in the mix to be the first Paramount Plus CBS match?

We haven't even talked or thought about anything and yeah. When I tell you guys that February we were literally not even thinking about the White House fight yet because I want to see how the rest of this year plays out.

Hey Dana, what are your thoughts about Michael Morales wings and what you think is next for him?

Thoughts on Michael Morales, what do you think should be next for him?

I don't know sir, we won't think about that till Tuesday

Thank you, thank you

Just one for me. I talked going back to John Jones. I think you said yesterday He has nothing to apologize to you for did you ever apologize about the trail Simon thing? Does he need to?

I don't know if he did. I don't think so You know, I think that he was in a position where he had coaches in the team and they all wanted to have input into what he did and he listened to them and... Fucking... That's fucking crazy. Anyway... Yeah. No. I talked to Jon Jones last night, actually.

Yeah. I got nothing to say about it. I just talked to him last night. Good. Thanks guys. Thanks guys.

Have a great night.