Dana White has been in the combat sports game for a very long time. The President of the UFC was asked, in a post-fight press conference, what he thought of the death of bare-knuckle boxer Justin Thorton.
“First of all, let me start here, is anybody shocked?” Dana White said during the DWCS 42 post-fight news conference (transcription via MMAJunkie). “In bare-knuckle fighting? You know, I’m not a big fan. I get, I guess you can call it concerned when I see some of our people leave here and go there. It’s like, ‘Oh, God.’
“We’ve been putting on fights for 25 years. I’ve done over 7,000 fights with no serious injuries in the UFC. We’ve had some broken bones, some bad broken bones, the shin bone being the worst. It just blows our mind when that bone breaks, and cuts … that’s what we have.”
Dana White reiterates that the UFC does everything it can to prevent things like this from happening. Fighter safety is very important for the number one MMA organization.
“Fighter safety is a very big deal to us, has been since Day 1,” Dana White explained.” We ran toward regulation. We do extensive pre-, post-fight medicals. We follow up afterward with these guys. …The other night when Ortega fought, I walked right into the Octagon and told his corner, ‘Do not do an interview, do not talk to any media. I want you to go straight back, they’re ready for you. They’re going to put him in an ambulance and take him out of here.”
Dana does make good points about fighter safety and the UFC has managed to avoid any deaths. It's an unfortunate risk of combat sports and it's one that promotions hope to eliminate as much as possible.
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