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WHITE ON JONES: “RIGHT NOW, ALL WE’RE CONCERNED WITH IS GETTING JON BETTER.”
Rousey on Zingano: “She’s an extremely dangerous opponent. I have to entirely put her away.”
2015 Preview, White and Rousey Interviews on UFC TONIGHT
LOS ANGELES, CA – On UFC TONIGHT, host Kenny Florian and guest host Brian Stann preview 2015, plus they interview UFC president Dana White, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey and light heavyweight contender Daniel Cormier after his loss to Jon Jones. Plus, Karyn Bryant adds reports.
UFC president Dana White on who comes back in 2015: “I believe GSP will be back. Brock Lesnar is still under contract with the WWE and he knows he can call me when that contract is up.”
White on Anderson Silva vs. Nick Diaz: “It’s an interesting fight. After the injury, where is Anderson going to be mentally? He does the right thing and is going to be in shape, but will he throw the leg kicks the way he used to? Nick Diaz hasn’t fought in a while. So who knows, we’ll see what happens.”
White on Jon Jones checking into rehab: “Right now, all we’re concerned with is getting Jon better - getting him taken care of and getting him healed. We’ll make some decisions later.”
White on Rory MacDonald not getting the next title shot after being promised it: “It’s tough, you say a guy is next in line, but you have a war with those first two fights, and Johny [Hendricks] won one and Robbie [Lawler] the other, a trilogy makes sense. He’s now next in line after this coming fight.”
White on if teammates TJ Dillashaw and Urijah Faber will fight each other for the title: “That’s possible. Those guys have made it clear they’ll fight each other. But it’s not the plan right now.”
White on if Cain Velasquez will return and fight in Mexico City against Fabricio Werdum for the heavyweight title: “That’s the plan. As long as everything goes our way, that fight should happen.”
White on what’s next for 2015: “2015 is starting off with amazing fights. It’s the best January in the company’s history. And all these fights lead to bigger fights. If you look at the Cormier vs. Jones, then Gustafsson vs. Rumble, then the winners of those fight and that will be a great fight. You’ve got Vitor vs. Weidman, then Anderson. If Anderson wins, he can fight the winner of either Vitor or Weidman. Rousey fights Cat Zingano, then she’ll fight again in July. If Conor wins, then he fights Aldo, which is then the biggest fight ever in that division.”
VIDEO: Interview: White
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
VIDEO: White on AMERICA’S PREGAME
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Daniel Cormier on the aftermath of his loss to Jon Jones: “It’s been tough. It was a tough fight. You owe it to yourself to let it burn a little bit and let it hurt. If you try to move forward too fast, it doesn’t have the effect that you hope it has to allow yourself to rebuild afterward.”
Cormier on what he thought of the fight: “I started early and tried to gauge his speed and ability. I thought I did extremely well in the second and third rounds, but in the fourth I just didn’t fight, and in the fifth didn’t do anything. Wish I fought like I did in the second and third round continuously. I have to make myself better in these long fights. I’m just disappointed. For as well as he did; I didn’t fight my best fight.”
Cormier on what he thought after the results of the positive drug test: “The fight is what it is, he won the fight. I don’t believe I won the fight. But how unfortunate: this is a guy who has the ability to reach people at a different level. Not many people can reach outside of the sport and world of MMA – I believe Jon can do that. Unfortunately, these incidents keep happening to him after his unbelievable performances. He should be a star among stars. He should go in the ESPYS and be recognized with the biggest stars in the sports world. But because he does things outside Octagon, it holds him back.”
Cormier on if there’s still hard feeling between him and Jones: “Those feelings are 100 percent real. They don’t go away because we fought once. We still have things to deal with. We’ll probably only deal with them if we stand across cage from each other again. Hopefully the outcome will be different.”
VIDEO: Interview: Cormier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Ronda Rousey on her upcoming fight: “Cat Zingano is an extremely unique fighter, not only is she undefeated, but she’s shown an amazing ability to deal with a lot of adversity. There’s been a lot of times in her fights where she’s been down but she’s never been out. There’s been times when she’s close to losing, but there’s never been a time when she didn’t come back. That makes her an extremely dangerous opponent. I have to entirely put her away to the very end. She’s the most risky opponent I’ve ever had.”
Rousey on who she’s watching in the division: “I’m keeping an eye on Bethe Correia. She’s undefeated right now. And Holly Holm, I’m looking forward to her debut. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jessica Eye do well this year too. So all three – I’m very interested to see how year plays out for them.”
Rousey on the strawweight division: “It’s good and it’s been around a while with Invicta building it up. But it’s little bit younger than the bantamweight division. It’s a little striker heavy, so the grapplers have the advantage at the moment and it doesn’t surprise me that Carla is the champ because she has the style advantage over everyone at the top of the division.”
VIDEO: Interview: Rousey
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
UFC TONIGHT
UFC TONIGHT is the official weekly news and information show of the Ultimate Fighting Championship on FOX Sports 1. Veteran UFC fighter and multiple title contender Kenny Florian, light heavyweight title contender Daniel Cormier, veteran combat sports journalist Karyn Bryant and four-time World MMA Awards Journalist of the Year Ariel Helwani bring you all the news and analysis.
Follow on Twitter at: @KennyFlorian; @BrianStann; @KarynBryant; @UFCTonight; @FOXSports1
