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Welcome back to the MMA Hangover, our Monday feature that catches you up on the big stories that happened between Saturday’s fights ending and now (since you should have been resting and enjoying other stuff over that time). This week we’re leading off with Dana White, who reacted to the PFL and Bellator news with all the smarm you’d expect.
Let’s get to it.
Dana White thinks PFLelletor is a match made in heaven
UFC CEO, and slapping enthusiast, Dana White spoke to the big bad media last night, after UFC Fight Night: Dariush vs. Tsarukyan. In doing so he was pressed on his thoughts regarding the recent acquisition of Bellator MMA by PFL MMA.
PFL head Donn Davis has talked up the acquisition as something that could see his company rival the UFC for eye-balls and cashola. I think it’s fair to say White sees that prediction as ludicrous.
“It’s f*****g hilarious. Good for them. I wish them all the luck in the world,” said White with all the sincerity one would expect.
“I’ve covered this before,” he continued. “One s****y organization that sells no tickets and nobody watches buys another s****y organization that sells no tickets and nobody watches. Sounds like a f****g winner to me. Woo!”
Dana White has made hating the media part of his personality in recent years. His disdain for the fifth estate is pretty common among folks who do s****y things and don’t want to have to explain themselves for it. So it’s no surprise that he met questions over his rivals with sarcasm.
To be fair, he had just sat through one of his shows (a rare one he thought was good enough to attend), so I can understand him feeling a little perturbed that a question about two rival orgs becoming one was on the list of questions.
Even so, White’s mocking might be read as a little insecurity. PFL is starting a Legion of Doom of Dana’s least favourite characters over there with Jake Paul, Francis Ngannou and possibly Cris Cyborg under one roof.
I don’t think PFLelletor will rival the UFC for much, but given who is involved there, any success is likely to rankle White (who is probably working on some kind of groin-kicking competition at the moment).
In Other News
Arman Tsarukyan found room for pettiness on Saturday
Arman Tsarukyan had a career-night in Austin, TX. He demolished Beneil Dariush in more brutal fashion than Charles Oliveira did when they met, and when Do Bronx beat up Dariush all we could say was “no one ever does that!”
In TKO’ing Dariush, Tsarukyan took the leap from random dude to actually interesting dude at 155 lbs. The win gave him a three fight winning streak, following on from a close decision loss to Mateusz Gamrot in 2022.
Despite carving his way towards fights with the elites at lightweight (and a dark horse title contender run), Tsarukyan still found time on Saturday night to embrace his pettier side.
Here he is in his post fight press conference discussing Bobby Green’s brutal loss to Jalin Turner.
“I was super super happy … when his head was bouncing on the canvas,” said Tsarukyan somewhat unprompted.
Tsarukyan’s animus with Green stems from Green apparently “talking s**t” about him. This playground offence lead to some pushing and shoving around the fighter hotel last week.
Regardless of the reasons behind it, Saturday night would have been a moment for Tsarukyan to bask in his glory, not snicker at Green’s failure.
Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping react to that brutally late stoppage
About that Bobby Green loss to Jalin Turner. Wow, that was a bad stoppage. Here’s how our Dayne Fox summed up referee Kerry Hatley’s performance in that bout:
“This isn’t hyperbole when I say this: that was the worst stoppage that I have ever seen, from a UFC fight down to a regional show. Jalin Turner blasted Bobby Green to the mat with a clean shot. Hatley was far enough away from the action that it wouldn’t have been controversial for Turner to have landed the first one or two follow-up punches once Green hit the mat. I don’t think there would have been much said had one or two more after that landed. The problem is there were about 13 total punches landed. Granted, not all of them cleanly, but that was absolutely inexcusable.”
Mark this as another black eye for the commission in Texas (who once sent me the late Kimbo Slice’s medical documents as an attachment in an email telling me I could not have them).
Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping were cage-side in Austin and they had strong opinions on what they saw from Hatley.
“Jalin Turner comes in, does his thing, fights the perfect fight,” said Cormier on his official YouTube channel. “Hits Bobby Green with a right hand behind the ear, drops him. Bobby falls face down. Guys, I have said time and time again — when someone falls face down, there’s no need to count in boxing and there’s no need for follow-up shots.
“For some reason, the referee just doesn’t want to stop the fight,” continued Cormier. “I mean, Bobby is laying flat on his belly, getting just hit over and over and over. Until eventually, mercifully, the referee stops the fight. I thought it was the worst stoppage in UFC history. The concern on the face of everyone sitting Octagon-side was crazy. People were like [covers his mouth in shock].
I saw a little girl next to the Octagon turn away. She turned away! Not a little girl, a teenager like 19, 20. She turns away because she can’t watch what’s going on in the Octagon. That’s how bad it was. I don’t know who the ref was…it’s one of the very well-known officials, and he made a bad mistake. It was terrible. There was no reason for a guy to take that amount of damage after the fight is over when its very clear that the fight is over.”
“Jalin Turner was like a piston,” said Bisping on his official YouTube channel. “The right hand hit him on the temple and he goes down. He’s pretty much out, okay? He’s pretty much out, unconscious right there. But, of course, the referee didn’t stop the fight. Jalin Turner follows him down, boom, boom, a few more punches, gets on top of him. Bobby Green is face down, on the canvas and Jalin Turner has no choice but to continue to rain down very, very traumatic blows. They were heavy punches. They were knockout power punches, one after the other after the other.
“The whole arena — all of the commentators, everyone around the Octagon was in shock,” continued Bisping. “The referee — I don’t know his name, but he is a good referee — but that was madness. That was insane. Bobby Green was unconscious and he took about nine, ten unnecessary blows. The commission have got to have a word with that guy, okay? Now maybe from his angle, he couldn’t quite see it right. Maybe he couldn’t see that Bobby Green was unconscious, but he did go unconscious a couple of times and some of the punches brought him back around.
“…Jesus Christ, ref. I don’t want to rain on your parade. I don’t want to add to the s—t storm, but that was bad. It was really, really bad. Fighter safety is supposed to be paramount. That was not good. That was an awful stoppage. One of the worst, if not the worst, that I can remember in recent memory.”
Fighters’ Words
Ryan Garcia beat Oscar Duarte on Saturday and now he’s toying with a villain era.
Jalin Turner got the biggest win of his career this weekend (and he’s letting us know it).
Miesha Tate halted a two fight losing skid in getting a submission win over Julia Avila.
Avila spoke of her disappointment online, but assured us there is more to life than just winning MMA fights.
In Case You Missed it
Winners & Losers: Dayne Fox sliced through all the noise of UFC Austin and picked out the key storylines from the top fights. (link)
Fights To Make: Jack Wannan wants to see Arman Tsarukyan fight Justin Gaetjhe next, what do you think about that? (link)
Is Ryan Garcia coachable? Blaine Henry broke down Ryan Garcia’s win over Oscar Duarte an a fight week which sadly asked more questions than it answered. (link)
Mike Perry is our new king of violence (apparently) Check out how Stephie Haynes covered BKFC 56 in real-time. (link)
Do us a solid
One of our partners put out a sick video on Ramon Dekkers last week. Do us a favour and give it a click.
Hangover Cure
A lot of what I read and listen to is either news or sports. But a lot of the time I get pretty flipping sick of news and sports. When I want to listen to something which isn’t about my team that sucks or the world that sucks, I like to drop in to Ologies by Alie Ward. It’s often a peaceful respite from these chaotic times we live. This particular episode is especially charming, focused on the humble and ever-present squirrel.