Dana White addresses stone-faced reaction to Belal Muhammad's UFC title win
Dana White dismisses the notion that he doesn’t like Belal Muhammad as a UFC champion.
People noticed White’s reaction when wrapping the belt around Muhammad’s waist, in which the UFC boss appeared displeased with the outcome. He also didn’t give Muhammad (24-3 MMA, 15-3 UFC) too much credit during the UFC 304 post-fight news conference for upsetting Leon Edwards to claim the welterweight title.
White explains that he was merely tired as UFC 304 took place overnight in Manchester, England. White was also not happy after boosting the bonuses to $100,000 and getting seven straight decisions at one point prior to Paddy Pimblett submitting King Green in the featured bout of the main card.
“Let me say this to be fair: I was tired,” White told Kevin Iole. “I was in a bad mood. I was, you know, at that press conference, and you know it depends on when you catch me.
“Belal went out there, implemented his game, fought his fight, and did his thing. Everybody thinks that I don’t like Belal. I saw stuff posted that like ‘Dana is going to commit suicide right now because Leon’ (lost) – that’s the furthest thing from the truth.”
The video of White wrapping the belt around Muhammad’s waist currently has more than 22 million views on Instagram. White praised Muhammad for being a “good guy” and said stats prove that he’s more popular than people think.
“To put it into perspective, the belt wrap for Tom Aspinall did 8.2 million views. Belal’s belt wrap did 22 million views,” White said. “So, for people to think that people don’t care about Belal Muhammad, this right here proves that’s not true.”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for UFC 304.