“I Believed Back in the Day That I Was a Fighter”- Dana White Reveals How He Gave Up on Fighting

Dana White addressed the post-fight press conference after a successful conclusion to UFC on ESPN 11. He commented on the controversial episode of Max Rohskopf, wherein the coach of the promotional debutant denied his will to quit.

Giving his views on Max’s decision to quit from the stool, the UFC President made his stance quite firm. He said that he respected what fighters go out there and do. In fact, he reflected upon his own old-time dream to explain that there is absolutely nothing wrong with what Max did. He said,

“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. And, when you find out, you need to walk away. I’m not saying that’s the case with this kid. But, if that kid [Max] felt like he needed to quit tonight, who the f**k is anybody to judge him on that? He had the ba**s come here and fight, take a short-notice fight in the UFC.”

Displaying immense honesty and respect, White quoted an example from his own past. And truly enough, he started boxing at the age of 17. However, after realizing that fighting wasn’t for him, he took to becoming a coach.

Furthermore, he even managed legends like Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. Of course, that was before he became the boss of the then not-so-popular UFC.

Dana White says critiquing from the outside is very easy, but not desirable

More often than not, human nature pushes people to believe they know more about an art than the actual practitioners of the art. This can come from something as small-scale as observing without actually feeling what goes on inside the person they are observing.

Thus, when a fighter like Max decides to call a fight off midway through the bout, people pounce at him. They believe that quitting should not be the characteristic of a fighter. However, people tend to pass casual comments without realizing just how these comments impact their target.

Elaborating on the same, White said,

“It’s really easy to be a critic. What these kids do is a whole other level, man. As the guy who runs this organization, as the guy who is involved in matchmaking and everything else? We’ve seen managers from all over the world. And when you get here, this is a whole new level. And that guy is not ready, he might never be ready.”

Do you agree with what Dana had to say?