UFC President Dana White made no effort to hide his frustration with several of the main card fights at UFC 149, but he does not believe the criticism should extend to the main event title match between Renan Barao and Urijah Faber.
Though the criticism for that Interim Bantamweight Championship bout was not as harsh as what fans and critics hurled at fights like Cheick Kongo vs. Shawn Jordan and Tim Boetsch vs. Hector Lombard, many observers were nonetheless underwhelmed by the lack of significant offense in the main-event.
Barao, who seemed to completely have Faber’s number in the fight, never aggressively pursued a finish. Faber, meanwhile, refused to notably change up his strategy–or begin “swinging for the fences”–even as it became increasingly clear in the latter rounds that he was en route to a decision defeat.
White, however, believes that any negative reaction to that fight stems from an unfair fan expectation for craziness.
“Guys just aren’t going to run in and start swinging crazy,” explained White. “[Faber-Baro] was a tactical, good fight.”
In fact, he outright said that anyone who voiced their disapproval of Barao vs. Faber is not a true mixed martial arts fan.
“If you’re booing Faber-Barao fight, you’re not a fan of mixed martial arts,” declared White. He also cracked that anyone who booed the fight came to the show expecting to see something like “lions in the cage” rather than a fight between two elite martial artists.
An adamant defender of that bout–as well as the cards on the preliminary portion of the show–White nonetheless refused to hold back in tearing apart other bouts on the main card, repeatedly expressing his overall disappointment with the show.
He referred to the action in the Cheick Kongo-Shawn Jordan fight as the “Ultimate Clinching Championship” and said that this show, which joins his very small list of bad UFC events, gave him no ability to force critics of the card, which was light on high-profile names, into eating crow.
“This isn’t what we do…ever,” declared a disappointed Dana White, who noted that mixed martial arts would not be able to sustain its reputation as the fastest-growing sport if it consistently delivered shows like this.
