Dana White gives his take on Henry Cejudo vs. TJ Dillashaw stoppage

Henry Cejudo needed only 32 seconds to defend his UFC flyweight title against UFC bantamweight champ TJ Dillashaw in Saturday night’s UFC Brooklyn main event. Regrettably, Cejudo’s stoppage victory was somewhat controversial, as some members of the MMA community felt the referee stepped in early. Dillashaw certainly feels this way — and apparently he told UFC President Dana White as much when the fight ended.

“He just yelled at me while I was doing an interview when he walked by, ‘That’s bullshit,’” White said post-fight (transcript via MMA Fighting). “I thought it was an early stoppage too.

“Listen, you’ve got two of the best guys in the world, two world champions, in a superfight. Let them fight, let them finish, and I’m not talking anything away from Cejudo because the fight went 20 seconds and Cejudo busted him up. I’m sure when you saw [Dillashaw] sitting here it looks like he was in a three-round fight, but Jesus Christ, let ‘em fight. Horrible stoppage.”

When it comes to an immediate rematch — something TJ Dillashaw is adamant he deserves — Dana White was noncommittal.

“I said we’ll see what happens, I didn’t say I’d have an answer on Saturday,” the UFC boss said.

“Don’t ask me. I don’t know what I’m gonna do.”

Dana White also implored athletic commissions to use their best, most experienced referees for big fights, rather than assigning these high-stakes affairs to inexperienced referees.

“I don’t love it when they have local guys in main events, especially a fight this important, a superfight between two world champions,” White said. “Please, please, please commissions, put the experienced guys in there. Give the guys with the most experience because all you do is you hurt the fighters and you hurt the fans. Your job is to do the exact opposite, so I don’t love it. Honestly, I don’t love it.”

What do you think of these comments from Dana White?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 1/20/2019.