UFC president Dana White was on Canadian sports show Off The Record with Michael Landsberg, which is always an entertaining time due to the somewhat standoffish vibe between Landsberg and White. Most media outlets tend to pitch promotional softballs to Dana, but not Landsberg.
In this interview alone he questioned the decision to allow CM Punk into the UFC, pointed out White’s aggressive naysaying of a Georges St Pierre comeback, and wondered aloud if the UFC had a part in Ronda Rousey’s loss due to all the promotion they had her doing. Here’s how that last one went down:
Landsberg: “You didn’t really answer the question though, buddy. I asked you whether you thought Ronda was at her best, if she was ready for her fight the way she had been in the past because she had so many distractions. She said on this show two days before the big fight that she was exhausted, she said “I have to sell out the entire building myself.”
White: “Right. No, it’s true. And after the fight, I talked to her almost every day after the fight and when she sat down with me and Lorenzo a few days ago she said “I was exhausted going into that fight. I was exhausted mentally, physically, emotionally, she had a lot of personal things going on too with her family and it all … I dunno. I dunno.”
The only public glimpse we got of personal things with her family during this camp was Ronda’s mother slagging her coach Edmond Tarverdyan, saying she’d “run over him with my car if there wasn’t a law against it.” Having your mum talking s**t about your camp is certainly less than helpful, but is it big enough of a deal for Dana White to reference it as a potential reason Ronda’s head wasn’t right going into the Holm fight? Whatever the issue was, it didn’t seem to stop Rousey from enjoying Thanksgiving with her family, sporting a big smile for the cameras.
No mention from Dana White about the ridiculous amount of press they had Ronda doing as the fight came up, but to be fair he regularly brings up the extreme stress being a UFC champion and doing endless media can cause. He considers it just part of the job of being champ, but if you’re burning your biggest stars out before their fights, maybe you’re doing something wrong.
