Dana White: Anybody Scoring Fight To Thiago Santos Is ‘Out Of Their Mind’
UFC president Dana White is not entertaining any shouts that Thiago Santos deserved to win at UFC 239 on Saturday night.
Despite what appeared to be a compromised knee early on in the fight, Santos rallied and fought out the full 25 minutes against Jon Jones in their light heavyweight title affair. Many believed “Marreta” had won the fight as well, with one judge even scoring it 48-47 in his favor.
However, the other two judges saw it 48-47 in favor of Jones, who retained his title once again, only this time, through a split decision. White was not particularly pleased with the judge who scored the fight for Santos, as he let his feelings be known after the event:
”Anybody who scored that fight for Santos is out of their mind,” White told ESPN’s Brett Okamoto (via MMA Mania). “Yeah, you should never judge another fight if you judged for Santos. Santos fought tough, he’s a tough guy. Something happened to his knee or his leg, I don’t know exactly what, in the second round. He fought through it and was tough, but he lost that fight.“
Jones Controlled The Fight Against Santos
While it wasn’t the most entertaining fight, White still had appreciation for Jones and how he controlled the fight, especially after taking some damage of his own:
”Jones controlled the whole fight,” White explained. “Walked him down, controlled the pace of the fight, controlled everything. Jon Jones moved forward, at the end you could tell Jon was hurt too, his legs were busted up. He had to be carried out of the Octagon. But, he absolutely won that fight.
”He won. It wasn’t a 2.5-second flying knee knockout. It wasn’t knocking someone out that has never been knocked out in MMA before. But, he went out and he won the fight. It’s not a crowd pleaser, it’s not one of those ones that has everyone jumping up and down for joy, but he won the fight — against a really tough guy who came to fight and came to win.”
Many have since called for a rematch but that doesn’t seem to be happening, at least going by White’s response:
”I thought that Jon completely dominated that fight and I’m not thinking about a rematch,” he added.
