ウィスパリング同時通訳研究会コミュのUFC 257 Post-Fight Press Conference

Dana White: (00:01)
Performance of the night, went to Rodriguez, Muradov, Chandler, and Poirier they all won $50,000. Congratulations.
John: (00:15)
Pretty big night in the lightweight division, especially. So let’s start with the main event, Dustin Poirier, I think one of the biggest wins of his career. What’d you think of his fight tonight?
Dana White: (00:24)
Yeah, no. Listen, he came out, Khabib, when I was with him last week said, “He needs to come out in that first round. He needs to try to grapple, not strike with them.” Tire him out, make him use his arms and legs, get them past, he thought a round and a half and he thought the fight would go the other way, if he could get Conor out of the first round and a half.
John: (00:49)Have you had a chance to speak to Conor yet after the result?
Dana White: (00:54)No. I haven’t seen anybody.
John: (00:56)I want to ask you what you thought about Michael Chandler as well, an amazing debut from him.
Dana White: (01:01)
When guys come into the UFC for the first time, they usually have a rough first time in the big stage, he didn’t, he came out and almost seemed like Hooker froze in that first round. And Chandler was just all over him and put on an incredible performance. Listen, man. When you get the platform that we had tonight, you make the most of it. And that kid did, some people did tonight and some didn’t.
John: (01:32)
I guess now the big question is, because those were two great wins. Was Khabib impressed by anybody? Do we know what he’s thinking?
Dana White: (01:41)
I did talk to Khabib and he said to me, “Dana, be honest with yourself. I’m so many levels above these guys. I beat these guys” and I don’t know, but it doesn’t sound very positive. So we’ll see, and what he said was, I told you guys before, he won’t hold the division up. He already retired. He’s basically retired. I’m the one that’s been trying to get him to do one more.
John: (02:15)
So do you give him a deadline? Obviously, you’ve got guys that are wanting to compete for a belt and I know he’s not going to hold up, but what’s the schedule in your mind?
Dana White: (02:22)
That doesn’t matter. Because these two just fought. They’re not fighting again anytime soon. So get it figured out.
John: (02:28)You think if he is done, do you think those are the two guys that fight for the lightweight title?
Dana White: (02:34)Yeah.
John: (02:36)
You talked about the massive platform, any early indication, how are you doing? And also it seemed like there was some … a little bit of tech issues at the start. Do you know what happened there?
Dana White: (02:44)
Yeah, it was mostly on the West Coast. West Coast had some problems, but they got it fixed and yeah, it was a good night. It was a really good night. Top two all time.
John: (02:58)Top two all time?
Dana White: (02:58)Yeah.
John: (02:59)Wow. We know you were going after the pirates, the illegal streaming, any news on that one?
Dana White: (03:04)
So let me tell you that story. That’s my phone. So the night that, I guess it was, I did an interview with BT and then I did, I think you asked me at the press conference, right? And I basically said, this is what’s going to happen. So, and I told you guys that we found the guy and we were watching him. He put out a statement that night said, “I will not be streaming the McGregor vs Poirier anymore, but I will show you how to buy it legally” and put out this huge statement. And now his whole streaming service has been deleted and is gone, disappeared. One down and it shitload to go and I’m ready. Every event I’m going to go after one of these guys or more, we’ll se.,

John: (04:05) Lastly for me, we didn’t get to see you after the weigh is the whole-
Dana White: (04:09)
And who you are, guy that did this, good move. We had you, pal. I don’t know if he knew something or what, but we had you. And all you had to do is pop up that stream and you were in big trouble. So he did the right thing.
John: (04:25)
Fair enough. Last thing for me, we hadn’t seen you since the weigh in, is the whole Ottman Azaitar situation, what was in the bag that was brought there? You talk-
Dana White: (04:32)No clue. No clue.
John: (04:36)Crazy.
Dana White: (04:36) Yeah, no clue. Yeah. Unfortunate.

Speaker 1: (04:42)
Dana White, when you’re watching the main event, the first round Conor going for the shoulder strikes again, Dustin Poirier, going for the take down, when you’re watching that first fight, was it playing out how you had expected?
Dana White: (04:54)
I think, Conor had a good first round doing what Conor does, but Poirier did too. Think Poirier fought the way he needed to fight in the first round.
Speaker 1: (05:04)Then the calf kicks [inaudible 00:05:05] obviously played a major-
Dana White: (05:07)100%.
Speaker 1: (05:08)
And then I think Dustin even said he kind of thrives being overlooked. He didn’t say he was being overlooked this fight. But I think a lot of people were looking forward to the Khabib, Conor fight. Did you think A, was he being overlooked and did he thrive?
Dana White: (05:19)
Every time I did an interview, I had to talk about Dustin Poirier because the interviewers weren’t. Yeah, he was totally overlooked.
Speaker 1: (05:28)
And then Dan Hooker took his gloves off and tossed them into the octagon after he left. Have you spoken to him at all?
Dana White: (05:34) No. I haven’t talked to anybody except Khabib.
Speaker 1: (05:38) Where does Charles Oliveira fit into this lightweight title picture too?
Dana White: (05:40)Yeah. Good question.
Speaker 1: (05:42)
Then finally, what did you make of the stoppage in the Marina Rodriguez, Amanda Ribas fight. Marina says she basically got two knockouts in one fight.
Dana White: (05:51)
True. That is true. Yeah. It was a bad … he got too close to it to make them think that it was over. And then the second stop, which was good. I guess that’s the way to put it. But yeah.

Speaker 2: (06:09)
Just going back to the Ottman situation, I think I heard you an interview say that they gave the wristbands to their friends, but then the guy who had the wristband scaled the balcony or something. Why did he do that, if you had a wristband? Why couldn’t he just go into the lobby?
Dana White: (06:21)He did. He did go into the lobby, went into a room, then scaled a couple balconies over to his room.
Speaker 2: (06:29)Did he just get into the wrong room or something?
Dana White: (06:31)I don’t know what the hell happened. They gave a wristband to somebody. The guy came up and was …
Speaker 2: (06:39)Is there a chance of criminal charges being brought against that guy?
Dana White: (06:42)
No. No. We’re not doing that. But getting your fight pulled and getting kicked out of the UFC’s probably bad enough for him. We don’t need any criminal charges against the kid. He’s not a bad kid, he just made a bad decision.
Speaker 2: (06:57)I meant, the guy who came in.
Dana White: (06:58)
Oh, that’s Abu Dhabi government guy has his name. I don’t know what they’ll do with him. Yeah. That’s up to them.

Speaker 3: (07:11)
Dana, can I ask if Jo Jo Calderwood, do you think she’ll make her way back to Valentina, back to the title picture with that win?
Dana White: (07:18)
That was a great fight. She looked good tonight. All kinds of weapons tonight. I don’t know. I don’t make fights the night of the fight, but obviously, she looked great tonight.
Speaker 3: (07:30)Awesome.
Dana White: (07:31)Go ahead, honey.

Sandrine: (07:31)Sandrine from Cora. Would you say that Chandler’s UFC debut was the most impressive you’ve seen?
Dana White: (07:37)
It’s pretty damn good. I don’t know if I’ve seen one, but like I said to John, a lot of people who come in their first time have a rough go, in the first fight in the UFC, that kid fought like he’s been here for years. So yeah, off the top of my head, I can’t remember a better one.(07:55)
Do you guys hate the back flips as much as I hate the back flips? Just fucking, the kid gets his fight in the UFC, then does a back flip that looks like it’s going to blow out both fucking ankles, knees, and his spine. I don’t get the back flip thing and I don’t like it. Somebody is going to get fucking hurt doing that.

Speaker 4: (08:15)
Sorry. Dana, what do you make of the performance of Rodriguez against Amanda? How do you see the future of Amanda, that had a lot of hype and then got knocked out?
Dana White: (08:24)
Well, it happens. In this fight, she deserved all the hype she got, but when you put two of the baddest women in the world against each other, somebody is going to get it and it was her. It wasn’t that she was over hyped, they’re two top 10. To make it into the UFC and then to make it into the top 10, I knew that was going to be a good fight. And either one of them could have gone in that fight. She wasn’t over hyped.
Speaker 4: (08:56)
We saw the video of you talking to Khabib about the numbers of the UFC 257. Do you have any updates on the numbers?
Dana White: (09:04)I told Johns, it’s either number two or number three, all time.

Speaker 5: (09:13)
Dana, to your left over here. Conor said in the cage he’s keen to be really active going forward after this and he wants the rounds. Are you considering maybe turning him around relatively quick? Obviously, he needs to recover for a knock like that.
Dana White: (09:28)Who Conor?
Speaker 5: (09:29)Yeah.
Dana White: (09:29)
I don’t know. We’ll see. I’m sure, in a few hours, he’ll be blowing me up telling me a million things he wants to do. So we’ll see, we’ll see what he wants to do from here.
Speaker 5: (09:41)
Obviously, Dustin’s heading in a different direction, but he says they would maybe like to do part three sometime down the line, is that something you could envision?
Dana White: (09:48)Yeah. There’s always a trilogy when you got one-on-one.
Speaker 5: (09:53)Awesome. Thank you.
Dana White: (09:53)Cool.

Speaker 6: (09:56)
Here, Muradov jumped out of the gage and ask you to give him an Instagram follow. Is that true?
Dana White: (10:02)
Yeah. Yeah. He jumped over the cage and said, “Dana?” And I walked over there and he says, “Why don’t you follow me on Instagram?” I said, “I’ll follow you right now.” We got it done.
Speaker 6: (10:15)
And also any updates on when you UFC might be coming to Abu Dhabi again?
Dana White: (10:20)We haven’t left yet.
Speaker 6: (10:23)We already want to come back.
Dana White: (10:24)
Yeah. If I had to map it out in my head, we’d come back here in June or July. Probably it’d be about that time. Who knows. While we we’re here, there was a new inauguration and we’ll see what happens, traveling in America and all this stuff. It’s going to be, I think, another massive challenge for us this year.
Speaker 6: (10:51)Thank you.

Speaker 3: (10:53)
Dana, can I ask about Michael Chandler? Because he came past the media and he was saying, ” I’m coming for you, Khabib, I’m coming for you.” What did he shout at you? I see him come over to you just after his victory, just before he exited the cage. Did he say something similar?
Dana White: (11:09)
He was saying all kinds of things. I can’t hear well, so I kept asking what he was saying. I didn’t get most of what he said, but I knew he was fired up and I’m sure he was asking me for something, but I don’t know exactly what he said. You’re going to have to ask him when he comes in here. But yeah, I’m obviously going to talk to Khabib and see if he wants to defend that title. And if he doesn’t, I won’t push it anymore.
Speaker 3: (11:40)
I know we got Khabib’s comments to you. You said that he was levels above those guys, but did he make any special mention of Michael to you?
Dana White: (11:46)
No, he said, “Dana, be honest with yourself.” He wanted to see something spectacular. He hates Conor, so I know he wanted Conor to lose, but there has to be a little piece of him inside that … the fight with him and Conor would have been one of the biggest fights ever, if not the biggest fight.
Dana White: (12:05)
So the last few days, the way that this thing’s been trending, you guys had to feel it with your numbers too, our numbers are off the charts this week. And I was saying that I felt that Khabib, Conor could be the number three fight, all time, period, in all combat sports. Today, I felt like it could be number one. I felt like it could beat McGregor, Mayweather and a piece of him, had to want to be a part of a fight that big.
Speaker 3: (12:40)Yeah.

Speaker 7: (12:42)
Dana, we just had a taste of what’s like having fans back. Do you think it’s going to be a little weird going back to the Apex and would you have Conor fight, because he wants to stay active, would you have Conor fight at the Apex with no fans?

Dana White: (12:59)
Yeah, coming into this thing, I didn’t know these fans here were great. I figured they’d be crazy tonight. At one point when they were chanting, “Olay,” it sounded like this place was sold out, so it’s cool to have fans, but yeah. We could do Conor at the Apex. I don’t know. I don’t know what we’re going to do. I don’t know what this year is going to hold for any of this stuff with what’s going on in the United States right now. So we’ll see what happens.
Speaker 1: (13:26)I was going to say, Anderson’s debut was pretty impressive.
Dana White: (13:29)Yeah. True. Yeah. True.
Speaker 1: (13:32)And what’d you say about travel, might be more difficult under this administration?
Dana White: (13:36)
It sounds like things are tightening up over there and talking about the 14 day quarantine like Canada and stuff like that. If that happens, that’s going to be a problem.
Speaker 1: (13:47)
If you do come back here. Because I know some people, they had to quarantine for, I think, 10 days or something like that. And they miss that window and have to resell their tickets, is there anything we can do about that, so fans don’t get to miss-
Dana White: (13:57)What happened?
Speaker 1: (13:58)
I think some people had bought tickets, but they missed the window for quarantining to get into Abu Dhabi. So they had to sell their tickets because they couldn’t go. Is there anything that can be done about that, if you do come back here?
Dana White: (14:08)
Listen, I’m trying to do everything we can do. This situation is never going to be perfect, but Abu Dhabi is as close to perfect, as you can get. I might have to move here this year. Yeah. It’s as close to perfect as you can get. The way that these guys do everything, everything in this country is done to the best of everybody’s ability. That’s incredible.

Speaker 4: (14:33)Dana?
Dana White: (14:34)Yes.
Speaker 4: (14:35)
Yeah. You already talked a little bit about Oliveira, but there’s an interview that you said that just engages the fight to make [inaudible 00:14:44] Oliveira. Is that the idea?
Dana White: (14:45)
For who? Oh, I don’t know. Listen, I didn’t make any fights. We’re just talking, people are throwing theories at me. Theoretically, what do you think of this? I didn’t make any fights tonight. I didn’t agree to anything. We’re going to go home. Tuesday is matchmaking. We’ll start figuring stuff out. Go ahead.
Sandrine: (15:08)
Based on your personal knowledge of Conor, how do you think he would react to this defeat? As a personal opinion.
Dana White: (15:17)
Yeah. I think it will make him hungry. I think it’ll make him hungrier. There’s two ways this goes, hungrier or I’m done. He’s got the money. When you think about it, I’m a huge Rocky fan. This is like Rocky Three. Okay. When you get off a 310 foot yacht. You living that good life. It’s tough to be a savage when you’re living like he lives and has the money that he has, on his way up, he was a young, hungry kid, didn’t have any money and he wanted nice things. He wanted nice suits, nice cars and nice houses. He’s got everything he ever wanted. So I don’t know. It goes this way or that way. Yeah. Thanks guys. Have a safe trip home. ( silence)
John: (16:39)Congrats, man. Couldn’t have gone much better than that, could it?
Michael Chandler: (16:43)
No, man, I really don’t think it could have. It’s been a long time coming though. Right? Just I felt everything in there. I saw everything in there. There was something about this week. There was something about preparation, meeting the opportunity. I know everyone’s heard it a million times, but man, you’ve seen it, a lot of y’all have seen it. I’ve cut my teeth in this industry for a long time. I’ve been preserved, my brain, my body, my will to win, has been preserved for such a time as this. (17:15)
And it all showed tonight, stepped into that octagon first-time and listen, I’ve been nervous in a lot of fights, in my career. And a lot of times it’s because I’ve had a lot to lose. You’ve seen those match ups, a lot to lose and nothing to lose tonight, man. Top five, lightweight Dan Hooker, of course there was a ton of pressure, but I didn’t feel it. I was there. I had my feet on that octagon canvas, man, rubbing my back on that cage, drinking a little bit of water, team there. I felt at home and onward and upward. Can’t wait to for the next one.
John: (17:49)
Because it was crazy. Watch you walk out and you’re just nonstop, smile on your face. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen you quite that happy walking into a fight.
Michael Chandler: (17:57)
Yeah. I halfway was a little bit nervous waiting for one of my coaches to be like, “Hey man, settled down. You’re about to get into a fist fight in front of millions of people.” But it just let the emotions run wild. I was crying back in the back, happy tears, thinking about my wife, thinking about my son, and thinking about this opportunity, thinking about this platform, thinking about how God has had me in the palm of his hand since I was a young, young man and there’s been a lot of ups and a lot of tough times, but they have all led me to this. And I just feel so grateful.