UFC President Dana White appeared on the first ever edition of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast with Matt Serra and comedian Jim Norton and spoke in candid fashion about a number of current topics.
In addition to addressing the Ariel Helwani banning, which White referred to as a “pity party” that nearly ended a “major relationship” that UFC has with WWE, the UFC boss also spoke about the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Fabio Maldonado fight that aired on UFC Fight Pass this past weekend.
White claimed that the fight was highly viewed on the UFC Fight Pass service and also criticized the referee of the fight, noting that he appeared willing to let Fedor die before stopping the fight. He also spoke about the possibility of UFC signing Fedor following the Russian legend’s recent claim that he is “closer than ever before” to signing with the promotion.
“They were going to let him die before they stopped that fight, you know that? But a testament to how tough and durable and mentally strong Fedor is, man. He was out. He was out. Literally, when he got back up … when a guy is on crazy legs the way that he was on crazy legs, and it’s not like he was on crazy legs and able to avoid punches after that. He continued to get hit with bombs by Maldonado and he made it through it. But I’ll tell you this: Those refs were willing to let him die before they stopped that fight, No. 1. And No. 2, Fedor’s got a chin and he’s a tough guy. We’ve been negotiating for many, many, many years. I’ll tell you this: Fight Pass did very well with that fight, so people do still want to watch Fedor.”
You can listen to the complete premiere episode of the new “UFC Unfiltered” podcast at UFC.com.
H/T to MMAJunkie.com for transcribing the above Dana White quote.
