If you can only watch a few of the UFC 304 prelim fights, Dana White recommends that you tune in early for either of these two violent clashes.
The excitement for UFC 304 in Manchester this weekend is building nicely, with the pre-fight press conference last night delivering some surprisingly entertaining moments – yet that pales in comparison to the entertainment fans are in for on Saturday evening, with two fights in particular catching Dana White’s eye.
Dana White confirms he’s upping the UFC 304 bonuses to $100,000
At the UFC 304 press conference last night, it was up to the one and only King Green to ask Dana White the all-important question about raising the POTN and FOTN bonuses.
“Uncle Dana! Let’s spice it up a little bit – can we get 100G’s for it? Can we get 100?!” screamed Green, as his fellow UFC 304 fights all chimed in to hype up the American gangster.
White agreed to up the Performance of the Night and Fight of the Night bonuses to $100,000, simply stating “If Leon says yes” as the crowd and table alike erupted into cheer.
Belal Muhammad would then add in “Let’s go – I’m going to Greece” before Leon Edwards refuted the idea that he’d end up with that extra $100K in his pocket – “Belal don’t worry about that, you ain’t knocking no one out!”
Dana White reveals his two ‘must-watch’ UFC 304 prelim fights
Just a few hours after the UFC 304 pre-fight press conference wrapped up, Dana White posted his traditional ‘If you don’t know, now you know’ video to X in which he picked out the two prelim fights that fans should be tuned in for especially.
“Sam Patterson versus Kiefer Crosbie – both have five first-round finishes and Crosbie is a hard puncher that crashes in throwing a lot of good combos. He’s usually looking for the big shot and will take one to give one.
“Patterson is coming off a quick submission win over Lainesse, he’s a very long and rangy fighter who uses distance well and also uses that length well going after submissions – this should get the crowd fired up early. England vs Ireland, and two guys who are all offense.”
The second of the two ‘must-watch’ fights of UFC 304 is the middleweight bout between England’s own Christian Leroy Duncan and Brazilian juggernaut Gregory ‘Robocop’ Rodrigues.
“High-flying and flashy Brit Christan Duncan looks to go one step closer to the rankings when he faces an opponent also knocking on the door of the top 15. Christian Leroy Duncan has excellent striking with power, plus nonstop spinning kicks.
“Christian is 10-1 with eight of those wins coming by knockout. [Whereas] Gregory Rodrigues will walk you down and throw absolute bombs with 13 of 15 wins coming by finish, 10 of those coming by knockout… Something has to give – this is going to be a very violent fight!”
Interestingly, as this video was obviously filmed several days ago back in Las Vegas, the list of bouts behind White still includes Muhammad Mokaev vs Manel Kape as the second fight on the main card.
This is contrary to the current listing on the official UFC and ESPN websites, which both now have the flyweight bout as buried all the way down on the early prelims – fans will get confirmation of the bout order at the ceremonial weigh-ins later today.
UFC 304 goes down live from Manchester, England on Saturday, July 27.