Following the conclusion of the UFC 154 weigh-in’s, UFC President Dana White talked to Ariel Helwani of FUEL TV about tomorrow night’s fight card, Matt Mitrione, fighters turning down fight, Ronda Rousey and future of Strikeforce.
White opened by talking about tomorrow night’s main event, which he once again says that middleweight champion Anderson Silva will be in attendance tomorrow night.
“If Georges St-Pierre beats Carlos Condit tomorrow night, Anderson Silva will be there sitting cageside and those two will fight and probably in May at Dallas Texas Stadium, Toronto or a soccer stadium down in Brazil,” White said.
Also, White talked about how fighters use to never turn down fights and now they are. The UFC President said that Cheick Kongo turned down a chance to replace Shane Carwin against Roy Nelson and they offered the fight to Matt Mitrione and he accepted it.
“Kongo has turned down two fights in a row,” he said. “We offered Kongo the fight with Nelson and he refused to do it and we offered him a fight before that and he refused it.”
White is frustrated by fighters turning down fights recently and it kind of turns him off guys that are not willing to step up and take a fight.
“We are getting into the era now with these guys that, it bothers me and yeah I don’t like it. It turns me off guys when they don’t want to step up and take big fights.”
Finally, White did say that Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion has signed a new contract and is a UFC fighter. He would not say when she will make her UFC debut, but believes that one of her potential challengers is not interested in fighting her.
“It’s become abundantly clear to me that Cyborg does not want to fight her.”