UFC President reveals the fight he would have liked to have but couldn't

D. White reveals which fight he was unable to promote Photo: Reproduction/YouTube

The UFC was the stage for great fights in the history of MMA, such as: José Aldo x Conor McGregor; Anderson Silva x Vitor belfort; Khabib Nurmagomedov x Conor McGregor e Ronda Rousey x Holly holm. But all these big fights didn't take away an old desire of Dana White, president of the UFC. The director revealed, in an interview with Ultimate's own website, his frustration at not having promoted Brock Lesnar x Fedor Emelianenko.

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The fight between the fighters was widely speculated between 2011 and 2013, as the greatest heavyweight duel in the history of MMA. However, the UFC was never able to reach an agreement with the Russian.

“The only fight I wanted to do that I never got was Brock Lesnar against Fedor Emelianenko. We were going to do it at Texas Stadium. But I couldn't close a deal with Fedor, so it never happened,” he said.

Why didn't it happen?

After the end of negotiations between UFC and Fedor, many rumors arose about the failure of the agreement. From huge demands on the fighter to the low salary proposed by the event. However, Dana White explained that the contract was not signed due to Fedor's personal problem.

“We were talking (with Fedor). We were close to signing him, right before his father died. We were there. When I was talking about doing the big show at the Dallas stadium… Then, (Fedor’s) father died,” he added.

After not signing with the UFC, Fedor went through M-1 Global in 2012, Rizin in 2015, and EFN in 2016. The Russian announced his retirement, but went back and signed with Bellator, having five more fights since then. . He has a record of 39 wins and six losses as a professional.