Dana White at UFC 130: What's Next for Rampage, Lesnar's Health, Nelson's Career

Always a source for reality, UFC president Dana White had some very candid opinions about last night’s UFC 130 event during an interview with MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani.

When speaking about the main event featuring Matt Hamill vs. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, White discussed that while he thought that Rampage fought well, he understands why some fans were a bit disappointed in his lack of a finish.

“I think people did have expectations for Rampage tonight,” White conceded. “They expected him to go out and knock Hamill out and I think a Rampage that has been active and was in shape could do that.”

Helwani tried to delve deeper into things, asking whether or not the rumors of a Jon Jones vs. Rampage Jackson UFC light heavyweight title fight were true. White didn’t answer directly, but did give us a bit of insight.

“Who out there doesn’t think that Rampage is one of the best fighters in the world at 205 pounds?” he retorted. “I don’t know, we’ve gotta see what’s wrong with him. He’s talking about his hand, so we’ve gotta’ get his hand checked out. I’m not going to let the guy fight if he’s got bad hands.”

In the semi-main event, Frank Mir bested Roy Nelson by unanimous decision in a fight that many booed and called boring. White actually agreed with that assessment.

“To be honest with you, I was disappointed in both of their performances,” said the UFC president. “I thought Big Country looked terrible tonight.”

Nelson and Mir both looked gassed in the third round, but it looked like the mulleted brawler was about to pass out at numerous times as they got close to the final bell.

“He needs to make some serious career decisions,” White continued in a harsh tone. “People talk about him making 205. Listen, that would be a huge life change and a tough thing for him to do. How about 240? Let’s make 240, Roy.

“The ‘Fat’ thing was funny for awhile. It’s not funny anymore. It’s not funny when you’re the co-main event in a big fight like that and the fight looks like that.”

While he seemed to be almost upset at Roy Nelson, Dana did deliver a bit of good news about a former UFC champion Brock Lesnar. He announced earlier in the evening that Lesnar had undergone surgery for his diverticulitis, but he went into a bit more detail about it in the interview.

“They removed about 12 inches of his colon, repaired it, put it back together. All they had to do was make some incisions in his stomach. They didn’t have to cut him open or anything,” White explained. “It was very successful. He feels good, he’s sore and everything else, and he’s going to be on a liquid diet for awhile, so he’s going to lose a lot of weight. But everybody’s optimistic that he could be back by the end of the year.”

Lesnar having successful surgery may be the silver lining on an otherwise somewhat disappointing night for the UFC.