Burt Watson gave his first public interview since leaving his position as the event coordinator for the UFC, sometime during the UFC 184 weekend. In the short time following his departure, the internet has been awash in rumors as to exactly why he left the organization. A lack of clear information has led to some serious name dropping as potential arguments with Ronda Rousey’s fight team and possibly Mark Munoz have been given as possible reasons behind Watsons departure. Further complicating the picture, fighters at the event were apparently told that Watson was feeling ill and that he had left the show for that reason.
All of which has left Watson feeling he needed to clear the air, in an interview with MMAJunkie Radio, on some of the stories going around:
Things happened, and I have always always respected my name my work my work ethics my presence. I’ve always respected what I do and how I do it, because that’s what we do baby. And more than that I’ve always respected the athletes.
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I’ll start by saying that Dana White, the Fertittas… always respected me. I’ve never had a problem with being mistreated, pushed aside, or them disrespecting me. And I’ve respected working with the fighters and their camps like you would not believe, baby. Those are like my children. But there was an incident that happened in LA, I can’t go into specifics, but it happened.
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I respect the fighters and camps. And since LA, I’ve heard fighters and camps… You know, social media is social media. People say things that are nice and not so nice.
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I’ve heard fighters names, and things being mentioned about what happened in LA. And at that point I needed to say something about that. I’ve never had a problem with Ronda Rousey, she’s probably one of the sweetest and gentlest people (until she steps in the octagon) that I know. I’ve never had a problem with Mark Munoz.
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When I heard these things about these fighters and these camps, I felt I needed to say something about these rumors, that they’re not true.
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You make your decisions and no one has a part in that. That’s what I do.
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Ronda Rousey and Mark Munoz, those people have bigger fish to fry than me. Nor was it anything with Dana White or Lorenzo Fertitta.
As for what exactly did happen, as Watson stated above, he wasn’t giving out a lot of details, but he did offer some insights into the conflict that made him decide to step away:
Sometimes you push and there’s nobody pulling, and you stop and there’s nobody there, and that shit rolls back on you.
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There’s gonna come a time where you have to decide that you’re not gonna do this anymore.
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When cooler heads prevail, things don’t happen. Did someone say something to me that I didn’t like? Yes. Did it escalate to a certain level? Yes. It’s hard for me to adjust to someone telling me that something I’m doing is being done wrong.
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If somebody says something some times, I may not think it through to address it, but I’m going to address it quickly. The decision to leave LA was mine.
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Someone said something to me that should not have been said to me in my opinion, and I said some things afterword that maybe I shouldn’t, out of hurt… And it went from one level to the next.
And finally, as to whether he regrets his decision to leave, or might possibly consider coming back to the UFC down the road, it sounds like the answer is no on both accounts:
And me leaving, or coming home. “When you step in the snow, you cannot back track those steps. You can try to, but it’s not gonna fit.” I knew I was stepping in the snow when I did that.
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No, I’m too old to regret decisions. I’m not in a point in my life for regretting what I do. But, do I ever re-think situations, and think cooler heads may have prevailed, sure. But when you get to a certain point in life, you can’t regret because you can’t back up.
Obviously, details are still missing as to exactly what transpired between Watson and the UFC, but Watson has painted a pretty thorough picture of his feelings on the matter. As one of the major pieces of the the UFC’s actual event operations, it will be interesting to see how the UFC works to replace him going forward.
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