Dana White Says That Mark Hunt Nearly Didn't Return to the UFC
Posted by Jeremy Thomas on 03.16.2013
White talks about how he nearly didn't sign...
Dana White recently spoke (via MMAjunkie) about Mark Hunt's upcoming fight with Junior Dos Santos and more. Check out the highlights:
On Hunt nearly not coming to the UFC: "He felt very disrespected and felt like he never really belonged here. He had a losing record in PRIDE and we didn't want to bring him into the UFC, so we said, 'We'll pay you the money and you can ride off into the sunset and do your thing.' And he was like, 'F--- that. I want to be paid to fight.' First of all, a losing record, his age, the guy hadn't fought in a long time. It just made no sense to bring the guy in...He fought it and fought it and fought it, and finally we said, 'Fine. You wanna earn the money and fight for the money, come on in.'"
On Hunt's UFC success: "Even though we weren't wrong (about not wanting him at first), we ended up being wrong. He proved us wrong, he proved everybody who doubted him wrong. We just didn't cut him, we kept him – and imagine if we had cut him."
On speaking with Hunt and working things out: "Since that day, how we didn't want him, and just wanted to pay him and have him basically go away, he took incredible offense to that and never felt like he really belonged here. I understand that. I said, 'I'll fix the things that made you feel this way. You're right, and I'm sorry this happened to you. We do respect you and I think you're one of the greatest stories in sports right now, to be honest with you.' So I got everything worked out and now he's ecstatic and I'm happy I could do it. We have so many guys and as you're doing the daily grind, you don't think about things like this and this happens sometimes. We deal with different personalities, and there's always an issue with guys one way or another, whether it's their professional and personal life, that have to be dealt with. I'm glad we got it straightened out."
