UFC boss Dana White unleashes wild spray at Aussie media

UFC boss Dana White has ranted and raved over a range of issues following the sport’s latest event at Sydney Olympic Park.

Dana White has questioned why Australia shows pillow fighting on national TV and took a big swing at the Aussie media in a wild press conference at UFC 312.

The UFC chief executive also heaped praise on his defending champions Dricus du Plessis and Weili Zhang – hinting the latter will be allowed to chase ‘Champ Champ’ immortality against Valentina Shevchenko.

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On a day when he met with ARLC Chairman Peter V’landys and NRL superstar Nathan Cleary, White also praised Australia as a fight destination and praised a crowd that included cricket great Steve Waugh.

He also stressed he has no say over the high taxes that are said to make it difficult to sway some of the sport’s biggest names to fight Down Under.

UFC boss Dana White speaking took the press at UFC 312 in Sydney. Picture: Jonathan Ng

The 55-year-old did, however, make one Australian fighter immediately richer, awarding a $50,000 performance bonus to breakout lightweight Quillan Salkilld, who opened the card with a stunning KO after 19 seconds.

Only a day after UFC commentator Jon Anik tipped him to Fox Sports Australia as the Aussie most likely to star, Salkilld dropped and stopped India’s Anshul Jubli before a stack of even the most avid fans had found their seats.

Officially, it was the second fastest KO in company history.

All of which opened a solid UFC 312 card that saw two champions defend – with both du Plessis and Zhang winning convincingly against American rivals and gym mates Sean Strickland and Tatiana Suarez.

The event also proved a solid one for Australian MMA generally, with UFC debutants Salkilld and Jono Micallef both earning wins.

Queensland lightweight Tom Nolan and welterweight Jake Matthews also got up, while returning Melbourne light heavyweight, and crowd favourite, Jimmy Crute looked strong in his draw.

“I love it,” White said of the local talent on display. “I keep talking about this region, how fast it blew up.

“Not just the fans, the talent coming out of here.”

But then his press conference went off in a different direction.

“I saw f**king pillow fighting on TV tonight here in Australia,” he said, somewhat bizarrely. “I don’t want to ever hear another word about PowerSlap from you people.”

With White also rumoured to be moving into boxing, the UFC boss was asked about Saudi billionaire Turki Alalshikh this week signing Mexican megastar Canelo Alvarez and effectively ruining a proposed bout with Jake Paul.

Dana White had high praise for Strawweight champion Zhang Weili (right). (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

“They control the sport of boxing right now,” White said of Turki and his team.

“I don’t think it’s hard for them to steal anybody from anybody.”

Then after a short pause, he took a shot at Team Paul saying: “I don’t know the ins and outs of that deal but I’m sure it’s not hard to steal anybody away from them.

“Totally different levels there.

“Universally (different) levels.”

Of course, it wouldn’t be a UFC presser without White having a shot at media and the big fella didn’t disappoint.

He took exception to a newspaper article that slammed White’s podcast appearance this week alongside NSW premier Chris Minns and the government’s decision to help fund the sport’s push into Australia.

“For a place that is so tough, where everything on land and in the water can kill you, you have the biggest pussies in the media I’ve ever seen in my life,” he said.

“I saw one story where a guy was like ‘I saw Dana do a podcast with the Premier (Chris Minns) and it physically made me sick’. Holy f**king s**t.

“We were reading the story in the back and cracking up.

“That guy has got to be the biggest f**king wimp on planet earth.”

UFC President Dana White and NSW Premier Chris Minns at the UFC in Sydney. Picture: Supplied.

White also praised Strickland, who badly broke his nose in the fourth round of a lopsided loss to South Africa’s du Plessis, where he was continually outworked by the champ.

“I’ll tell you something real fascinating that I noticed tonight for the first time and I don’t know why,” he started.

“Sean Strickland, the way he acts leading up to fights, normally when you have people who act the way that he acts, you see signs of it in a fight.

“But who is more focused, professional and solid in a fight than he is?

“When he gets hurt, there is no sticking out the tongue, or no ‘no, that didn’t hurt me’.

“The guy stays focused and keeps coming forward.

“There is never any hint of how he acts outside the Octagon when he is in there.

“Absolute professional the whole time.

“It’s fascinating.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a guy.”

White also heaped praise on Chinese superstar Zhang, who remains the UFC strawweight queen after beating hyped challenger Suarez convincingly through five rounds.

The fight CEO said Chinese content did 100 million views on UFC platforms during fight week and hinted he would likely grant the champ’s wish to chase ‘Champ Champ’ status against flyweight queen Shevchenko.

Currently, Shevchenko is rated the women’s No. 1 pound for pound.

Asked if that was right, White replied: “That’s a good one. I f**king hate answering these questions.

“I love both of them. Maybe we have to find out.”

So a fight between the two next?

“It’s a possibility,” he said. “Weili and her team are waiting out there for me and whatever she has to ask in the hallway … I’ll probably say yes.”

Originally published as UFC boss Dana White unleashes wild spray at Aussie media