Las Vegas — Dana White had lots of ground to cover following Week 8 of this year’s Contender Series run, and started on Tuesday by touching on what happened to Raoni Barcelos over the weekend.
The Brazilian essentially collapsed in the fifth round of his UFC Vegas 121 main event fight with Raul Rosas Jr, and was taken out of the Meta Apex on a stretcher, rushed to hospital. A scary scene, though he’s since told fans that he’s okay.
“Thank god he’s doing well. He’s doing well. He’s up walking around and talking,” White noted on Tuesday. “It goes right in line with everything that I always talk about and what we do. All the pre-fight medicals were triple checked, everything was good. There were six doctors here that night, three ambulances. He was taken straight to the trauma center, not to Valley. Everything was done the right way, and the outcome was good.”
As to whether or not Barcelos fights again (the actual specifics of what happened have yet to be determined), White said that he’s “not even thinking about that.”
“Who gives a sh*t, as long as the kid is okay,” he added.
Scary as that scene was, the more controversial topic this past week has been White’s involvement in the Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua bout. Promoter Eddie Hearn, who represents Joshua, says White cannot legally be involved, based on contracts. Tyson Fury also confirmed that he removed a clause from his own contract barring White’s involvement. Netflix announced his participation in the event, but White admitted Tuesday that he won’t be attending the press conference for the fight, while stating it was due to his commitment to the Contender Series.
That said, queried about the confusion over his role in the boxing spectacle, the UFC and Zuffa Boxing head honcho stated that “There’s no confusion whatsoever. If you look at everything from the network to the guy who’s actually f*cking paying for it, and to me saying what I’ve said. I’ve been saying it now, feels like for f*cking years, but it’s probably been weeks. But I’ve been saying the same thing.”
Asked whether the fight could fall through due to his involvement, White downplayed the idea. “No, it’s happening. It’s done. It’s done, it’s a done deal. Everything that I’ve been saying is the truth. Why would I say it and double down and triple down and f*cking quadruple down if it wasn’t the case?”
He also suggested that the “hesitation” to having him involved in a promotional capacity was more about ego. “This isn’t a hesitation, this is an ego thing. Total ego thing. Has nothing to do with any of this sh*t.”
“Boxing has taken a hit in the United States. It’s not as big as it was here 20 years ago. It has become a very British sport. And all the sh*t that you’re hearing, the crying and the bitching and the f*cking whatever, is all coming from the U.K.”
Reading between the lines, that seems like a shot at Hearn, who has been vocal with his dislike for White (and vice versa, truth be told). Yet White isn’t down on boxing, after spending a year or so promoting in the sport. “I’m having fun, man. This is right up my alley.”
Over on the UFC front, a big card in Qatar was recently announced for November, including a key fight at 205lbs. While White agrees that the light heavyweight division is in a weird spot at the moment, the upcoming bout between Navajo Stirling and Jiri Prochazka isn’t officially a title eliminator, he told Cageside Press.
“Like I always say, the fight’s gotta play out first. And especially in this goofy f*cking social media world that we live in now, anything that I say, it’ll be lied about everywhere tomorrow that I said yes, this and that. Let’s see how the fight plays out, then we’ll go from there.”
Current champ Carlos Ulberg, a teammate of Stirling, is currently on the sidelines injured.
Watch the full DWCS Season 10 Week 8 post-fight press conference with Dana White above.