Dana White on Uriah Hall: He Doesn’t Have What it Mentally Takes to Fight In The UFC
After coming off of three blazing performances on the 17th season of The Ultimate Fighter, Uriah Hall has been on a downward slide in to obscurity in the UFC’s middleweight division. His most recent setback came at the hands of John Howard at this past weekends UFC on FOX Sports 1 debut where he lost via split decision in a fight that many feel was one that he didn’t apply himself too.
The most important of those critics was UFC president Dana White who spoke candidly about the former top prospect at the post-fight media scrum following Saturday’s event:
“I love Uriah Hall. I have a great relationship with this kid. He’s one of the nicest human beings you can ever meet. He’s not a fighter, man. If I could take Brad Pickett’s brain and heart and put it inside Uriah Hall’s body, holy shit there would be some damage done, because Uriah Hall has all the physical attributes to be amazing. He’s got speed, he’s got power, he’s unbelievable. He doesn’t have what it mentally takes to fight here. You know what I mean? It’s a mental thing. He was this killer on TUF, and then he comes into the big show where it really matters and this is going to make your livelihood and everything else, and he turns into this different person. This super nice guy. He was telling me after the Kelvin fight ‘I really like him, he’s a really nice guy. OK, well that really nice guy just took everything fucking thing you ever wanted. Do you get what I’m saying, does that make sense to you? I guess it doesn’t make sense to him.”
Hall went in to that fight as the biggest favorite of the night, coming in at -475 in some places. Now he is reeling off his second straight loss as he waits to hear what comes next in his MMA career.
Hall hasn’t been officially cut from the UFC roster and his profile still remains active on UFC.com but after strong words such as these and an 0-2 run to start, Hall may soon be fighting outside the Zuffa banner.
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