Dana White sounds off on Anderson Silva, Dan Henderson, and UFC fans
Published by Zach Arnold on October 22nd, 2009 in Current Events

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Dana White does so many interviews, it’s hard to keep track of what he is saying from one day to the next. He’s asked about the same questions now in every interview — when’s Rampage coming back? When will Dan Henderson be back in UFC? What about Kimbo Slice and The Ultimate Fighter? So, now that the questions are often predictable, it’s hard to seperate the good Dana White interviews from the bad ones. However, Dave Farra of r a w v e g a s . t v always does a good job interview White and various UFC fighters.

In a recent interview with Farra, the UFC President addressed the current situation with Anderson Silva and also addressed all the standard questions that hardcore and casual fight fans are asking him now.

START

DAVE FARRA: “First and foremost, let’s talk about the next upcoming run of UFC fights because 104 just a couple of weeks away, all the way throughout the end of the year there’s lots of exciting fights, but everyone’s talking about Anderson Silva right now and where he is. Is he going to fight again, maybe in January or in the next couple of months?”

DANA WHITE: “Yeah, he had some elbow surgery and I’m expecting him to be back on the roster, uh, for January 2nd.”

DAVE FARRA: “And Dan Henderson, where’s he?”

DANA WHITE: “We couldn’t come to terms with Dan Henderson. We just, uh, I just uh did an interview yesterday, you know, we couldn’t come to terms. It’s business, nothing personal with Dan, I’ve a great relationship with him but uh he was looking for obscene amount of money.”

DAVE FARRA: “So is it dead? Is it floating in the water?”

DANA WHITE: “Yeah, you know, you never know what’s going to happen, we’ll see what happens in time but as of right now, yeah, negotiations are done.”

DAVE FARRA: “He’s instantly talking about going to Strikeforce, Strikeforce has this big show coming up, you think they’re going to make the same mistakes that Affliction did and just bone up too much?”

DANA WHITE: “You have to run a business, you have to do it right, and uh you know let me tell you what, if they can afford to sign Dan Henderson and I couldn’t, what’s that tell you?”

DAVE FARRA: “Rampage Jackson is somebody that you were talking about on my radio show a couple of months ago and everything that went on him and the movie deal. Where’s that right now because I know that you said on Opie and Anthony show that he would fight again. Is that the case?”

DANA WHITE: “Yeah, he’ll fight again, you know, I’m not… you know, I’m not happy with him right now and he’s not happy with me, we’re in a real uh a real uh shitty place right now but we’ll see what happens. But he’ll fight again, this is where he makes his money, this is where his money is.”

DAVE FARRA: “What about Chuck Liddell? Is he ever going to fight again?”

DANA WHITE: “It’s a possibility. Everybody knows where that is, I don’t want him to, he wants to, you know, I’m his friend, I’m not his Dad and he and I will sit down and figure it out.”

DAVE FARRA: “2009 World Mixed Martial Arts awards are coming up at the end of the year, December 30th is the actual ceremony and it’s all voted on by the fans so it’s kind of this very cool voting process and the UFC is cleaning up across the entire board. It’s got to feel nice that you know the fans are still saying, above all the UFC is still doing the best job.”

DANA WHITE: “Anything that the fans vote on I really appreciate, you know, um… I always say you know we got the best fans in all of sports, they’re passionate, they’re crazy about this thing you know that’s why they’re so vocal and we’ll call it passionate, they’re passionate sometimes. I love the fans, they’re the best, and anything they vote on I’m happy to receive those awards.”

DAVE FARRA: “Let’s see if I can get this right with the Top 5 fighters: GSP, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, Brock Lesnar, and kind of a surprise, Mike Brown is also up for Fighter of the Year this year. Out of those five, who do you think the fans are going to tip their hat to?”

DANA WHITE: “I’m actually to glad to hear you say Mike Brown, he should be in there. Um, it’s got to be you know in those kind of things you know they’re popularity contests too, it really is probably going to be between Anderson Silva, GSP, and Brock Lesnar in my opinion.”

DAVE FARRA: “You think the fans are really going to come around on Brock Lesnar? Do you think that he’s going to get that warm reception from everybody?”

DANA WHITE: “I don’t know if he’ll ever get a warm reception, but he’s come through already man, people whether they want to see him win or lose, they want to see him.”

END