UFC president Dana White took questions from the media following UFC on ESPN 11, and blasted critics of lightweight Max Rohskopf, who took a fight vs. Austin Hubbard on short notice, and retired on the stool after Round 2.
“In this f***ing sport, if you’re done, you’re done,” said White post-fight, as transcribed by Damon Martin for MMA Fighting. “You should absolutely be able to quit. I know that it’s frowned upon but guess what? Anybody that would talk s*** about you quitting, isn’t in there fighting. It’s real easy to be a critic. What these kids do is a whole other level.
“As the guy who runs this organization, as the guy who’s involved in the matchmaking and everything else, you see these kids, we deal with managers from all over the world, they’re like ‘this guy’s the guy, this guy’s the guy!’ When you get here, this is a whole different level and that guy’s not ready and he might not ever be ready.”
“I’ve told you guys this many times before, I believed back in the day that I was a fighter and I wanted to do this and that and one day I found out that I wasn’t. The realization was that I wasn’t. When you find out, you need to walk away. I’m not saying that’s the case with this kid, but if that kid felt like he needed to quit tonight, who the f*** is anybody to judge him on that? He had the balls to come here and fight and take a short-notice fight in the UFC. Period.”
“He’s got to get up tomorrow morning and look at himself in the mirror and figure out who he is and what he wants to do. There is no shame in getting here and finding out you’re not it. There’s no shame in that at all.
“You gave it a shot, it didn’t work out. Anybody who would try to ridicule a kid like that, f*** you. Come try it. Come try and do what he did tonight. Very few people can do it.”
https://youtu.be/DyWuthIBH5M?t=282
While responded to a question about when the league plans to return to events with a live audience. The questioner noted that boxing promoter Bob Arum intends to hold a boxing card in Las Vegas soon, with spectators in attendance. White said he is not even thinking about holding events with an audience right now, especially in the USA. And he took yet another shot at Arum.
“So, this a**hole is saying that he’s gonna have fans at his fights, when a few weeks ago, he was talking s*** about me for even going," responded White as transcribed by MMA Weekly. "Then I go and now he’s going right after I’m going, but he’s gonna have fans all of a sudden too?! He’s an a**hole.”