Dana White calls exhibition matches ‘bullsh*t loophole’ for ‘guys who shouldn’t be fighting’

Dana White is not a fan of exhibition matches.

The UFC boss recently shared his lack of interest in mixed rules bouts after the announcement of ONE Championship matching Demetrious Johnson against Rodtang Jitmuangnon. Well, with the continuing trend of old legends like Vitor Belfort and Evander Holyfield squaring off in boxing exhibitions, White’s not a fan of those either.

“Had Conor [McGregor] beat [Dustin] Poirier, I know that they were talking about it. I know they wanted to do it,” White told media after Dana White’s Contender Series. “Obviously, there were a lot of things that needed to happen for that fight to happen so it didn’t. But I don’t know if that fight would have ever happened.

“I’m not a big fan of exhibitions. It’s just a bullsh*t loophole in the system for guys who shouldn’t be fighting to be able to fight. But whatever, man.”

In the case of Conor McGregor and Dustin Poirier, they weren’t in the same line of thought as some of the others Dana White referred to. The UFC lightweights, however, expressed interest in a charity boxing match after their rematch before making the trilogy official for UFC 264.

Aside from the recent Belfort vs. Holyfield match, there were also former UFC champions Anderson Silva and Tito Ortiz who went at it directly before Belfort and Holyfield this past month. Needing only a minute and 22 seconds, “The Spider” found the knockout over the “Huntington Beach Badboy”.

There was a time where Dana White and Ortiz discussed the possibility of having their own boxing exhibition back in Ortiz’s UFC heyday. This, of course, never came to fruition – the UFC boss remains adamant that it was close to happening at a point. Even going as far to claim he “brought in real heavyweight guys to spar with”.