Dana White does not usually spend a post-fight press conference arguing with his own sport. At UFC 334 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden, he spent most of it doing exactly that — with the judges, with his own first impression of a heavyweight, and with the line between showmanship and disrespect. Three moments carried the night, and White gave a verdict on each one.
“That decision is absolutely insane to me. Insane.”
The first was the scorecard. Kevin Holland and Uros Medic fought three rounds to a majority draw, 28-28, 29-27, 28-28 on the official cards. Bruce Buffer announced a draw in the cage but read out scorecards that suggested Medic had won a majority decision, and the confusion hung over the arena until the tie was confirmed as the correct result: two of the three judges scored the fight even, and the third had it 29-27 for Medic even after Medic lost a point for multiple low blows.
White did not hedge. "That decision is absolutely insane to me. Insane. I don't even know how," he said. "I'm embarrassed to f—ng even tell you what happened to me tonight. I got all these people that we have here business-wise, and I'm talking to everybody, whatever. Clearly, Kevin Holland won the fight."
He said the confusion came down to the point deduction itself. "What had happened, from what I understand, is the judge took the point away on the wrong [round]," he said. The deduction was for repeated low blows, and White's account is that it landed in the wrong round of the scoring — which is how a fight Holland appeared to win became a draw on two cards.
He was not the only one who could not make the maths work. His own son texted him during the chaos. "One of my sons was flying here, and when the whole airspace shut down, he got stuck in Cincinnati," White said. "And he texted me and said, How the f— did Kevin Holland lose that fight? And I went, 'What? Kevin Holland lost? I didn't even know he lost the fight.' Because there was no way he lost that."
Daniel Cormier, on the broadcast, put it the same way: a draw does not make sense, and he asked how anyone gets to a draw in a fight Holland so clearly won. Holland himself was counting what the draw cost him. "I'm missing some racks, it hurts," he said afterward. "The decision makes no sense to me I thought I was up 2 rounds. I agree with everyone, I'm not good at math but I know I'm missing money so this s**t sucks."
The second verdict was the night's reversal. Ciryl Gane kept the heavyweight title with a unanimous decision over Josh Hokit, 48-47 on all three cards, after five rounds that sent both men to hospital afterward. A reporter asked White whether both fighters' stock had gone up in the main event, even in Hokit's loss. White did not pause.
"Yeah, there's no doubt that Hokit's stock goes up," he said. "I mean, even with me, I thought this guy was a big-mouth goofball and I hated his shtick and the whole thing. I respect the sh*t out of that guy." Then the line that will follow Hokit into his next camp: "He is the real deal. Stock went up with me. I don't know about anybody else, but yes."
It was a complete turn from the man who had spent the build-up dismissing Hokit as a sideshow. Before the fight, White had said Hokit "has definitely walked the walk" and "deserves to be here" — and then Hokit went out and made the champion fight for every minute of it. "I mean, it was an incredible fight," White said. "The pace he set was insane." After the first round, he said, "I was like holy s—t. If he can keep the pace for five rounds, Gane's in big trouble… but Gane actually looked best in the fourth and fifth round." The two heavyweights landed a combined 541 total strikes, a record for a heavyweight fight.
The third verdict was about the gesture nobody in the building had seen before. During the main-event introductions, Hokit flipped Bruce Buffer off. It was payback, of a kind: Buffer had publicly criticised Hokit for the comments about former First Lady Michelle Obama — Hokit called her a "man" after beating Derrick Lewis at the UFC White House event — and Hokit decided to answer him in front of the Garden crowd.
White was asked whether it crossed the line, and he answered like a man who has watched Hokit cross lines all year. "Yeah, it was pretty crazy, yeah," he said. "I think that threw Buffer off a lot. Nobody has flipped Buffer off before. Did it cross the line? Everything that guy does crosses a line."
But he drew his own line, and it was not where most people expected it. The Obama remark, White said, was the bigger offence — bigger than the middle finger at the most respected announcer in the sport. "Look at what he said on the White House lawn, in a fight that's about America's 250th birthday that's supposed to be for everybody. I would rather have him flip Bruce Buffer every single fight than him to say that s—t." He had already called the remark gross and inappropriate on its timing when it happened. The finger at Buffer, by comparison, he treated as Hokit being Hokit — distasteful, unprecedented, and survivable.
Put the three verdicts together and they say something about the night. The boss sided with the fighter over the judges, praised the loser more than the winner, and forgave the middle finger while refusing to forgive the words that came before it. None of it changes a result: the draw stands, Gane keeps the belt, and Hokit goes home with his stock up and his reputation exactly where it was — on the line, every time.
