UFC president Dana White talks McGregor-Poirier 2, Holloway-Kattar and Spencer Fisher story

Dana White goes 1-on-1 with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole to discuss the latest UFC news and preview the three upcoming events on Fight Island in Abu Dhabi. Also discussed: the relationship between White and McGregor, Khamzat Chimaev's status after his COVID-19 diagnosis and the recent MMA Fighting story on Spencer "The King" Fisher.

Video Transcript

KEVIN IOLE: Hey folks. I am Kevin Iole. Welcome to Yahoo Sports. My guest now is the president of the USC, Dana White. USC has a couple of shows coming up, including a really big one on ABC on Saturday, Max Holloway against Calvin Kattar. The big one is going to be UFC 257 on January 23. Here to talk to me about that and everything else UFC is Dana White. How's it going, Dana?

DANA WHITE: Good, buddy. How are you?

KEVIN IOLE: Well, I am looking forward to some good fights now. It's been a while so we've had some time off. So we're looking forward to getting back at it and seeing some guys go at it hard.

DANA WHITE: Yeah, me too. Obviously had a nice little vacation during the holidays. But it's good to be back. And it's definitely good to be here on Fight Island, man. The weather's perfect. The hotel is incredible and I'm glad to be here.

KEVIN IOLE: Let me start with that, asking you about you had said in Vegas after one of the press conferences that you wouldn't have fans until you could do the whole thing. But as I understand it, you're going to have partial fans on Fight Island. So how is that, you know, how is that going to work? How many people will be at these shows at Fight Island? And are all the fights going to be at the new Etihad Arena.

DANA WHITE: Yeah, it's at the New Etihad Arena. There's going to be 2,000 fans. And Abu Dhabi wanted to do this, not me.

KEVIN IOLE: OK, so.

DANA WHITE: We're not telling Abu Dhabi no about anything. They want 2,000 fans, they got it.

KEVIN IOLE: OK. Just out of curiosity, what is your objection? Because I'm sure 2,000 people would love to come to some shows in the United States. What's your objection to having just a crowd like that or a partial crowd?

DANA WHITE: I don't know how it's going to continue to go on in Abu Dhabi, you know. Maybe we start 2,000. And then next time we come, you know, we double that or how that's going to work but. I'll do whatever they want to do. They've been incredible partners to me. So whatever.

But in the United States and the rest of the world, we travel around, I'm not doing it until we can sell out an arena. And when that day comes, we will-- it's going to be big. Like we first got into Toronto, when we first went to New York City, things like, when we do the first full crowd back, we'll do a big fight and we'll blow it out and it'll be fun.

I just-- I would rather-- you know I'm not saying, if we're at the-- if things change a little bit and we're at the Apex, we wouldn't have some people come in to the Apex. Almost kind of like we used to do for Contender Series, when that first started. But I'm not looking to sell out any arenas. I'm not looking to do any arenas until I can sell them out.

KEVIN IOLE: I was talking to some people yesterday and I understand MGM is not booking any major events, concert shows anything until September in Las Vegas. So that kind of tells you what they are thinking about. Have you heard that as well and does that affect your thinking in terms of what you may do and what arena availability may be in Vegas?

DANA WHITE: Listen, don't take this as you know, the word or fact or whatever. I'm hearing from people that I know and that I respect that are telling me, life as we knew it being normal again is it going to happen to like '23. So I don't know what to think. OK.

KEVIN IOLE: Well let's talk about the fights in Saturday's fight card, a Fight Night card headlined by as I mentioned, Max Holloway against Calvin Kattar. It's going to be on ABC. How did it come about you know it's not the same as when you debuted with Junior dos Santos against Cain Velasquez on Fox, because that was the first time on network television. But you're back on network television for the first time since you left Fox to go to ESPN. How did this all work out that you ended up getting the show on ABC?

DANA WHITE: Well, obviously, we had a great year last year. You know, and a lot of things are uncertain right now in the sports world. You know, some of these games are getting postponed, canceled, all those things. The one thing that is certain is UFC. So you know, these guys wanted us on ABC. They asked us to. And we're never going to turn that down. So we're pumped. I'm obviously very happy and excited for the fighters to be able to fight on ABC on network television. It's a big deal and I'm sure we're going to deliver for them.

KEVIN IOLE: Given, you have a big Pay Per View that you expect a big number for anyways. What do you think the impact of ABC is going to be? Do you think that you're going to get that residual impact that you know is going to help your Pay Per View number be better?

DANA WHITE: You know I can tell you right now, the thing Monday was already you know, off the charts. So I'm not worried about the Pay Per View at all. I'm more concerned with delivering for ABC on this Saturday, you know what I mean? The Pay Per View is going to be just fine. And yes it doesn't hurt promoting the Pay Per View on ABC.

KEVIN IOLE: The main event, Max Holloway versus Calvin Kattar. I think is a really fascinating fight. It should be a war, you would think. You know, a good stand up fight. You know, and I said this to Holloway and he kind of sloughed it off. And I want to get your idea. You know, it seems like it's the Super Bowl for Calvin Kattar. You know, Holloway is by far the biggest guy he's ever fought, you know, the biggest name, the most accomplished guy.

Max Holloway has fought everybody. Calvin Kattar is just another guy to him. Seems like the motivation factor and all the intangibles would seem to me to favor Calvin Kattar in this fight. How does Max Holloway get this done? You know, where does he get the motivation to beat a guy like Calvin Kattar to keep his name in the mix in that really competitive featherweight division?

DANA WHITE: Well you're the number one guy in the world. You're the number one guy in the world and you want another crack at your belt, you're got to take on all comers. And you know, he's taking on the number six guy in the world in Kattar who is very hungry. This is what-- imagine you're Calvin Kattar right now. You're going to fight Max Holloway the number one guy in the world in the main event on ABC.

And if you win this fight, you're going to get a shot at the title next. I mean, it's huge. It's massive. And you know as well as I know and anybody who's a real fan of the sport knows, this fight's a war. This is going to be a good one. I'm very happy that this is the fight that we're actually showcasing on ABC because I expect big things from it.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, you said something interesting there that Kattar will get a title shot. So if he beats Holloway, you're anticipating he would fight the Volkanovski Ortega winner.

DANA WHITE: Exactly, exactly.

KEVIN IOLE: And when do Volkanovski and Ortega fight. Do you have a time for that?

DANA WHITE: Not yet.

KEVIN IOLE: OK. Any time frame? Is it going to be spring, summer, do you have any idea or is it still too far out?

DANA WHITE: Should be in the next few months.

KEVIN IOLE: Next few months, OK. All right, well, let's you know, before we get into some of the other stuff I want to talk to you about, let's talk about Conor McGregor. You know, I never thought I would say that, but he's kind of an enigma now. And I don't know what to expect out of Conor McGregor because you know, he's fighting a guy in Dustin Poirier that has the absolute capability of beating him in the main event of UFC 257.

I don't even know, Conor won their first fight by first round knockout. I don't think there's anybody who knows the sport that would doubt that Dustin wins it. Now, what do we expect from Conor? I mean you know, it's like sometimes he's half in the sport. Sometimes he's not. What kind of Conor McGregor are we going to see on January 23?

DANA WHITE: Yeah you're right. And the Conor McGregor that I've been dealing with the last several weeks is the fun Conor, the Conor that is 100% mentally focused on this thing, talking about fighting multiple times this year after this fight. Telling everybody, wait till you see what happens during this fight. I got something special I'm going to show everybody.

This is the fun Conor, man. This is the guy that everybody fell in love with five, six years ago. Have you guys-- I don't know if mended fences is the right word. But you know, he put out text exchanges that you had. I know that that angered you. You weren't happy with him when that happened. The relationship was probably strained a little bit. Have you mended fences? Are you guys back together or is it still a little-- I know you get along with guys differently than you know--

DANA WHITE: No, you're right. The relationship was strained a lot, not a little bit. And I didn't think it was ever going to be fixed. And it did. I'm happy, you know, we got together and we talked and we fixed it. We squashed that whole thing. So, yeah, which was great for me now, because going into this fight it's actually fun for me and not miserable.

KEVIN IOLE: I don't want to have as private conversations. But I mean, I think people are interested to know. He blamed you for not-- you know, he fights on Donald Cerrone last January, impressive performance. Conor's back, everybody's excited. There was talk of him coming back and fighting right away. And then it never happened. And this will be his first fight since then.

He blamed you for that. And he put out text messages that seemed to indicate that he was telling the truth. I mean, so, what was the conversation? How did you guys get that resolved? And does he understand, are you on the same wavelength in terms of know what happened in terms of trying to get another fight?

DANA WHITE: Yeah, the thing that upset me about, you know, the releasing of the text messages was what was said about Diego Sanchez. If you remember, the discussion was about Diego. And Diego is a kid that I respect and care about. And you know, the first thing I did was go to him as soon as that came out and talk to him. And then Conor and I-- I don't remember exactly how it went down. But he and I got together and we figured this whole thing out.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah, that's interesting. Let's talk about Dustin Poirier. I mean, this guy has beaten just an unbelievable who's who of the best fighters in the world. And as good as he is, I still think Dustin Poirier's underrated. He's like a minus-- Conor's like 260 or 270, I believe, favorite. Almost the same as it was last time.

I don't know if people just think so highly of Conor and maybe he's a public figure and then he's going to get so much betting or it's not giving Dustin credit. But you know to me, I think Dustin's a pretty live dog at 220. What do you think a fight with Conor, A, how does it change given what happened last time? And B, you know, what kind of performance you think you're going to see out of Dustin Poirier? Yeah

DANA WHITE: I think you're going to see an incredible performance out of him. Think about it. All the time that this kid's been knocking off all the best in the world, and had to think about that first Conor fight, and he's actually getting the rematch. So it's a big deal for this kid to get this fight. He's going to come in in unbelievable shape.

And he's going to do everything he can to win, which is going to make this fight great, and a fun fight to watch. And I agree with you, you know minus 220, I'll bet as the fight gets closer, and after the weigh-ins, you'll see a lot of money probably coming on Poirier. It's going to be interesting to see how-- where that number goes. But it's going to depend on the weigh-ins and how both these guys look.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah, you know at MGM right now, it's minus 260 plus 220. So you know I right now, say I'm going to bet Poirier. Because I think Conor probably wants to fight, but I think that that number is not-- I think there's a lot of value in a guy like Dustin Poirier.

DANA WHITE: I understand.

KEVIN IOLE: You know, one thing Dustin has ground. I mean, you think this is going to be a stand up fight. But I asked Dustin this question. I want to ask you, you know, when you look at Conor, some people think oh, yeah, take him down. That's the way. Conor is not necessarily an easy guy to get to the ground, right?

I mean you know, he's quick and he's that. Do you think this fight necessarily is going to be a stand up battle or could you see it in any way, you know, I mean, I guess it would favor Dustin if it got to the ground. But can you see it going to the ground in any way?

DANA WHITE: No, I see this fight being a stand up fight. I think that everybody has this fairy tale that Conor McGregor can't wrestle or his wrestling isn't up to par. His ground isn't up to par. None of that's true. And everybody thinks it's easier to get him to the ground than it is.

KEVIN IOLE: Right.

DANA WHITE: And I see this being a stand up fight.

KEVIN IOLE: When you look at Conor versus Habib, you know, and Habib was dominant as he is in all the fights. I mean, that was Habib's toughest fight, right? I mean Habib, you know, lost a round in that fight, which doesn't happen too often and you know Conor had his moments.

DANA WHITE: Yeah, no, Conor McGregor is one of the best, one of the best in the world, man. And because of his personality and time off and antics and whatever it might be, people sometimes don't take him seriously, which is crazy. He is a very talented fighter. He is a very unbelievable striker and he hits hard.

KEVIN IOLE: I want to ask you about one more fight before we get into some news and whatnot. And that's going to be your other fight on Fight Island in between the ABC show and the Pay Per View, which is going to be Chiesa versus Neil Magny. And I like that fight. And I think the one thing both guys seem to be really highly underrated, right?

I was talking to Neil Magny today and I'm looking at all the guys he fought, you know, Johnny Hendricks and RDA and Robbie Lawler. He fought all these former champions, guys that helped out, Hector Lombard held the Bellator title. This guy, and look at his record, and to me, they're ranked eight and nine in the division. And you look at it, you say, man, that might be a little bit low for both of these guys.

DANA WHITE: I agree. This is a great fight. You couldn't have said it any more perfectly. These are two guys who really, especially Magny, is a guy who hasn't gotten the credit that he deserves. I'm happy to see this guy in the main event and facing off against somebody like Chiesa, who also has worked his way up and fought some tough guys.

But Magny has fought the who's who, man. And he's always willing to step up, late minute fights. He'll fight anybody. He was-- when nobody wanted to fight Khamzat, he was willing to fight Khamzat. Neil Many is the real deal. I'm really happy to finally see him getting the respect that he deserves and headlining a card.

KEVIN IOLE: And I don't want people to take this the wrong way because some people are going to say Kevin Iole compared Neil Magny to John Jones. But in this standpoint, John Jones is tall with that great reach. Neil Magny in the welterweight division is 6 foot 3 with an 80 inch reach, right? And he creates that kind of match up that I think Jones created for a lot of light heavyweights. And you don't see guys with that kind of reach at 170 pounds too often. What kind of advantage is that? You fought. What kind of advantage is that for him, do you think?

DANA WHITE: It's true. When you have that kind of a reach, and that kind of length, even on the ground, with that kind of length, it's a massive advantage. I don't think he's that much bigger than Chiesa though. I think Chiesa is-- they're close.

KEVIN IOLE: He's got five inch, five inch reach and two inches in height. So you know, he does have an advantage over Chiesa.

DANA WHITE: His reach is still huge. five inch reach, with only two inches in height. That's amazing.

KEVIN IOLE: It's pretty, it's pretty incredible. What does a win do for that-- obviously a big win, whoever wins that fight, what does a win do for that person? Do you think that puts them any closer, a fight away from a title shot?

DANA WHITE: Well, I don't know if it's a fight away from the title shot. But both guys are ranked in the top 10. It definitely pushes them up possibly with the top five flight.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah, OK. You know, one of the things I want to talk to you about. There was a really interesting article written by Stephen Marrocco on MMA fighting the other day, talking about Spencer Fisher. And this is something that you know I have been ringside for seven deaths in boxing. Thank God, I've never seen one in MMA. And it's been a while in boxing.

But you know, even in 2019, we had four boxers including a former UFC fighter, Tim Hague pass away in boxing matches. And he talked about Spencer Fisher having a lot of injuries. And you know, first I just want to get your reaction to the story. I'm sure if you haven't read it, you've at least heard about it.

DANA WHITE: I haven't, but I've heard about it.

KEVIN IOLE: And you obviously know Spencer very well. What was your reaction to the story and the problems he's suffering?

DANA WHITE: Yeah, I figured that eventually somebody was going to write a story about this stuff. And it's not just Spencer. There's other guys out there too. I mean, you and I both came from boxing and this is you know this is normal. This isn't something like, oh, my God, this, this, what? This is unbelievable.

I mean everybody who gets involved in this sport, nobody is under the misconception that getting punched in the head is good for you. OK? Getting punched in the head is really bad for you. And, we all know it going in, not just the people who participate in it, the people who promote it, the people who watch it, and the people who cover it. I mean, this is one of the facts of combat sports and contact sports as a whole. So yeah, I mean, it's not shocking.

KEVIN IOLE: Well, you know, I mean, when you get a case like this, this is an extreme case, right? Where he doesn't remember his children's name, and all that. You know, there are some people that have some deficits but they can live a normal life. This guy is not able to live a normal life. I mean, how do you take care of guys like that when--

DANA WHITE: I don't know if everybody does. I mean, I think once you start to have brain problems, it creates all different kinds of things, emotional problems, different types of stress, anxiety, all kinds of different things happen from having these brain injuries. Happens to a lot of the military guys too and police officers.

What I can do, as a promoter, if you look at all the things we've done from health insurance, which I heard, you know, in the story that our health insurance was questioned. It's not really health insurance because it's got a deductible to it. It's the best health insurance we could get. Trying to get health insurance for 650 ultimate fighters and see what kind of a health insurance plan you're going to get. It's never been done in combat sports before. We're the only ones that did it and we did it.

We've been donating millions of to the Ruvo Center for Brain Studies. And now, this new story just came out on HBO Sports where they're using psychedelics to try to-- their microdosing psychedelics. And they're saying that it's helping some of these guys with brain injuries. We've talked to John Hopkins. And we're working on getting us involved with that too. The PIs that we've built, and the list goes on and on of all the things that we've done to try to improve the sport.

And Spencer Fisher definitely isn't the first and he won't be the last.

KEVIN IOLE: Well I get it. And I was going to bring up the-- because I just wrote about the Ruvo Center, the professional athlete brain health study that's being run by Dr. Charles Bernick. And they're doing great work. I talked to him. I didn't write this in my story because I was having trouble understanding and I thought it would be difficult for the public. But they're making advancements on understanding CTE and and stuff like that. So you know a lot of good things.

But I was wondering, like you know, can you do something, given your support of that, say support put money in escrow for fighters like Spencer Fisher, who after they're gone from the UFC and they're out but they need medications to support themselves, can you do something like that? Is that something you've ever considered so that there's money in escrow that's there for these guys. That if they fought so many times in UFC and they have issues where they have medical things going on post career, that you know that can be taken care of?

DANA WHITE: Yeah, I mean, listen if you knew the wide range of things that we do already medically, I mean things that pop up, you know this is a contact sport, not just your brains, your backs, your neck, shoulders your knees, you know, all the things that can go during a sport like this. And we do, we spend millions of a year on things like this.

I don't know what the answer is but, yeah, this isn't-- first of all this isn't shocking. Second of all, this is what happens in contact sports and not the first and definitely won't be the last. So we're trying to do everything we can to understand this, you know. If we can figure out the microdosing thing, the Ruvo Study and what they're doing and all these other things, and you can figure out how to make these guys' lives easier, that's where the money needs to be spent.

KEVIN IOLE: You mentioned, I haven't asked you about him in a while. So I'm going to ask you about him today. Khamzat Chimaev, you know, I was asking you there for a while, pretty much every day about Khamzat. But he got the coronavirus, or I guess he had some-- he had coronavirus before and he had some kind of reoccurrence. First of all, fill us in on what happened. Why he had to pull out of the fight with Leon Edwards this month.

DANA WHITE: He had the coronavirus. And then once he got through it, he went back into the gym and started training and his lungs, he didn't have the same lung capacity he did before the coronavirus. Went back to the doctor. The doctor said, you have to take more time off.

KEVIN IOLE: So now that fight is going to be March in Las Vegas. Is that correct?

DANA WHITE: Correct.

KEVIN IOLE: What is the specific date, do you remember?

DANA WHITE: It was March 13, right? Yeah, March 13.

KEVIN IOLE: Is that going to be a Pay Per View or is that going to be a Fight Night.

DANA WHITE: No, it's a Fight Night.

KEVIN IOLE: A Fight Night card, OK. You know, you made a comment the other day, you said, that's the fight to make as opposed to getting Leon Edwards another fight. And while I like the fight, I think it's interesting, I find your comment interesting for this reason. Khamzat's a guy with what three fights in the UFC. Leon Edwards is the third rank. So what makes that the fight to make in your opinion?

DANA WHITE: Because we already made it. They both accepted it. And in this crazy world we're living in right now with COVID and this and that, that fight is agreed to. They want to fight. Fans want to see it. It was the fight to make.

KEVIN IOLE: OK. Do you think in any-- I read Darren Stewart's comments. And for people who missed it, go search on YouTube for Darren Stewart talking about Khamzat Chimaev. Did you happen to see that interview that Darren Stewart gave?

DANA WHITE: No.

KEVIN IOLE: Oh my god, I should have sent this to you before I talked to you. Darren Stewart talked about how Chimaev was unbelievably strong, how hard he hit, how tremendous his grappling was. If you listen to Darren Stewart, you would think Chimaev was like the greatest fighter who ever lived. And you know Darren Stuart's a pretty good fighter. I mean just you know, went off. And just Google on YouTube, search on YouTube for Darren Stewart and Khamzat Chimaev. It is just an incredible interview that he gave, where he talked about how good Chimaev. So some people might be surprised that you got Chimaev fighting the number three guy in the world. But Darren Stewart, I guess, would say that that's probably not a bad match-up.

DANA WHITE: Yeah, no, we know that this guy is super talented. And he's basically a freak of nature. And we're going to find out. We'll see. Because Leon Edwards is pretty bad ass too.

KEVIN IOLE: Yeah. Do you feel badly about Leon Edwards, just from the standpoint that this guy has gotten every bad break in the book, right? And you know, and here he is now sitting there. You know, it's going to be what 15 months or so since he fought or even more than that. It's been a long, long time since he's had a fight. Do you feel bad in any way that, you know, the way things have gone for him? And do you think it's going to be tough on him coming back after such a lengthy absence?

DANA WHITE: Yeah, I mean, listen these things happen. Some things you know you got a guy like Kevin Holland who fought five times in 2020 and had a great year. And other guys have a rough road. And you know, that's life that's the way life works for lots of people. And you know, this is a big fight for him. You say Khamzat only has three fights in the UFC.

The guys got over a million followers when he had 30,000. He's one of the hottest names in the sport. This is a massive fight and I actually think that anybody else we could have picked for Leon to fight other than fighting for the title, this is the biggest high profile fight he could have got. So it's a big opportunity for him. And he wins this fight, a lot of people are going to be talking about Leon Edwards.

KEVIN IOLE: What I want to ask you about is, where do we stand with John Jones' next fight?

DANA WHITE: I don't know. I don't know. As far as things that are going on down the road, I don't have a lot of information for you right now.

KEVIN IOLE: You don't huh?

DANA WHITE: Kev, I'm on Fight Island out here. I got three fights coming up this week. That's all I'm looking at.

KEVIN IOLE: OK, so just I just want to try to get some of the fights that you were going to schedule because it's been a while since we've seen Jones. Let me ask you one last thing then. Adesanya and Jan. If Adesanya wins, is he going to keep both belts or will he campaign in one division or the other?

DANA WHITE: That's a good question. You know, it's one of those things, when he wins, you know, if he wins the belt, we talk about it then. What do you want to do? Because if he wants to continue to defend his title at middleweight, he'll have to drop the light heavyweight. But that kid likes to fight a lot. He likes to stay active. So, I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

KEVIN IOLE: Do you have a date for that one? Is that March?

DANA WHITE: I don't.

KEVIN IOLE: All right. Well, we're striking out on some of that so, Dana, we will let it go. We got three fights on Fight Island. When you come back to Vegas, what's the first show after Fight Island? What do we have after that?

DANA WHITE: Well, we come home the 24th, right after. And then what is the first show. We have a week off, then we'll go the next week.

KEVIN IOLE: Go the next week, all right. Well good luck on Fight Island, Dana. Thank you so much, A always, for your time and we will see you soon.

DANA WHITE: Thank you, brother. Have a great night.