White added that what really scares him is the potential for an athletic commission or a referee to wreak similar havoc on a UFC bout at a juncture as critical for MMA as the Mayweather-Ortiz bout may have been for boxing. Because I don't know about you guys, but I was watching the fight, I would have liked to have seen how that really would have ended." He destroyed it.That was a multi-, multi-million dollar fight that this one guy destroyed. "Realistically, when you look at it, boxing puts on two big fights a year," White said. Though he claimed not to have watched the Strikeforce World Heavyweight Grand Prix event on Showtime the weekend before, Mayweather-Ortiz prompted a lengthy rant from White on all the ways Cortez had erred in his handling of the fight, and how it only proved that "something needs to be done" about the athletic commissions that handle both MMA and boxing events. And what's Floyd going to do? A 102-year-old guy just said that to him."įor the 35 minutes that White spoke to reporters following the pre-fight press conference inside the Pepsi Center, no subject seemed to hold as much interest for him as the Mayweather-Ortiz bout and its aftermath. He's up there berating Floyd, but Floyd can't say anything back to you? You've been disrespecting guys your whole career, and guess what, you can go back 60 years, you're not kicking Floyd's ass, okay? Give me a break. "The guy is senile, he's out of his mind. "I actually thought that that was very embarrassing for HBO," the UFC president said. It was a lapse in professionalism that apparently didn't help to endear him to White, an avid boxing fan. As Mayweather criticized Merchant for what he regarded as a history of bias on the part of the 80-year-old TV commentator, suggesting that HBO should fire him, Merchant retorted, "I wish I was 50 years younger and I would kick your ass." Merchant drew Mayweather's ire in the post-fight interview for asking about the dubious fight-ending punch combo that, while legal, seemed dirty to many. Who the hell would want to do an interview with him? It's probably the thing they dread worse than training and cutting weight and everything, is their interview with Larry Merchant. "These guys get done fighting and he jumps in the ring and just starts saying off-the-wall, weird, rude to these guys. "It's my big beef with Merchant for years," White said. DENVER - With as fired up as UFC president Dana White gets when talking about last weekend's Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz boxing match, you almost wouldn't know that his organization put on some fights of its own that same night.įollowing Wednesday's UFC 135 press conference, White ripped into referee Joe Cortez for "destroying" the highly-anticipated bout, but he saved his most virulent criticism for HBO commentator Larry Merchant, who found himself in a bizarre confrontation with Mayweather after the controversial ending.
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