Speaking at the UFC 248 post-fight press conference, UFC President Dana White was clearly delighted with the incredible co-main event, contended for the Women’s Strawweight championship and equally as eager to move on from the tepid affair that was the showcase bout between Middleweight champion Isreal Adesanya and Yoel Romero.
Despite both the co-main and main events going the full five rounds, the response to both fights contrasted drastically in Dana White’s estimations, as he rightfully awarded Weili Zhang and Joanna Jedrzejczyk with fight of the night honours and lamented even booking the Adesanya vs Romero fight, putting the decision down to the ‘goofy fan’ in him.
When questioned on the relative lack of engagement in the main event, White referenced the Last Stylebender’s previous wars with Kelvin Gastelum and former Middleweight kingpin Robert Whittaker as reason to believe his match-up with Romero would produce the same fireworks but the usually explosive Cuban elected to fight more conservatively, and was kept firmly at a distance by the Nigerian-born champion en route to a unanimous decision victory.
The UFC President seemed more eager to talk about the likely and long-awaited future match-up between champion Adesanya and consensus number one contender Paolo Costa, almost promising a better fight, claiming that the champ ‘fights to the level of his opponent’ and would be forced into a fight as Costa would ‘try to decapitate him’.
Dana was practically beaming when discussing the gory co-main event between Zhang and Jedrzejczyk, stating that in the build-up he was ‘begging people to watch that fight’ and wouldn’t even entertain any questions of a rematch from the media as both women were transported straight to the hospital following the fight. Joanna in particular was sporting a gruesome hematoma that left her almost unrecognisable as Bruce Buffer delivered the news of Zhang’s victory via split decision.
When asked his verdict on who won due to the close decision on the scorecards, White responded, ‘I was so into it, I didn’t really score it’ and simply stated the contest was ‘definitely a Hall of Fame fight’. White was also incredibly complementary of Jedrzejczyk in defeat, dubbing her ‘one of the baddest to ever do it’ and gushing that the UFC is ‘incredibly lucky’ to have her.
Other notable stories coming out of the event include an impressive knockout victory for surging Bantamweight Sean O’Malley to which White responded, ‘I want to turn him around as quick as possible’. Also, an apparent backstage scuffle between Featherweights Brian Ortega and ‘the Korean Zombie’ Chan Sung Jung could lead to a sanctioned fight between the two. Jung and Ortega were originally scheduled to face off in December of last year in South Korea, but the fight was cancelled after Ortega was forced to pull out due to a knee injury.
The Inbound Observer 