UFC President Dana White made it clear last month that he has very little tolerance for fighters who aren’t willing to step up and compete in certain situations. His opinion on the matter is so strong he even took light heavyweight champion Jon Jones to task publicly when he turned down a bout with Chael Sonnen despite a significant size advantage and jump on training.
Now White has taken aim at heavyweight Matt Mitrione for declining to duke it out with Strikeforce‘s Daniel Cormier. The unbeaten Cormier was left without an adversary in an upcoming bout when original opponent Frank Mir went down with injury. Adding to White’s rage, Mitrione recently got into a war of words with Quinton Jackson with each verbally agreeing to face one another at a catch-weight.
“He wants to fight a guy who weighs 205, but doesn’t want to fight the guy who’s the real heavyweight, the legitimate guy who’s ranked,” said the frustrated executive in a conversation with MMAJunkie after the conclusion of this weekend’s UFC on Fuel 5 lineup. “It f*cking makes me sick. Listen, you don’t want big opportunities, I hear you. I get it, then. All I can say is, I guess he doesn’t want big opportunities. I get it. Duly noted.
On the flipside, White knows he won’t have the same problem when it comes to Cormier’s willingness to go to war no matter who the UFC puts him up against.
“Cormier will fight anybody. The guys who are the real guys fight anybody, man. They’ll fight anybody,” said White.
Cormier Doesn’t Think Zuffa Will Give Him an Elite Foe to Face
Other options possibly on the table for Cormier at the moment include Pat Barry, Fabricio Werdum, Tim Sylvia, and Andrei Arlovski. Meanwhile, the 34-year old Mitrione is set to scuffle with Philip De Fries in December where he’ll attempt to improve his record to 6-1.
PHOTO CREDIT – UFC
TweetSource: http://www.fighters.com/09/30/dana-white-disgusted-by-matt-mitriones-refusal-to-face-daniel-cormier
Melvin Guillard Cody Guinn Jorge Gurgel Andre Gusmao Alexander Gustafsson
No comments:
Post a Comment