Is Belal Muhammad finally becoming champion a blow to Dana White? ‘Remember the Name’ defeated Leon Edwards in the latter’s backyard in Manchester at UFC 304 to become the welterweight kingpin. However, certain videos and snaps from Muhammad’s crowning moment showed Dana White looking a little upset. Fans soon took to social media to share their reactions to the UFC CEO’s questionable facial expression.
“I mean it wasn’t a barnburner,” White said about the main event at the post-fight presser. To claim that Belal Muhammad took the fight to Leon Edwards would be an understatement because, except for one round, he dominated the former champion in the Manchester PPV headliner. There was a lot of volume from ‘Remember the Name’, who landed 192 strikes in total and took down ‘Rocky’ 9 times with over 12 minutes of ground control time. However, that didn’t appear to impress Dana White much.
The UFC CEO was not in his best mood during the post-fight press conference due to the lack of finishes on the card, despite obliging to the request to raise the bonuses of the PPV to $100,000. As a show of frustration, he declared he would never do that at a press conference again.
“I think tonight showed that we should not [give out bigger bonuses],” White said at the UFC 304 post-fight press conference. “Upping them doesn’t change anything. It doesn’t make anybody fight any harder. It doesn’t change anything. I’m not doing this again. Ever. Today was the last day that I’m doing that. Not saying that in the future the bonuses couldn’t get [bigger in general], but I’m not going to be at a press conference and say, ‘$200, $300K.’ F*cking never again. Never again. You can thank everybody on this card for that.”
Does that ‘everybody’ include Muhammad too? The bonus winners of the evening were Paddy Pimblett, Tom Aspinall, and Mick Parkin, all of whom secured first-round finishes. Pimblett received a special $200k bonus for his performance while the others received the aforementioned $100K. Muhammad, despite a dominant display against Edwards, went home with just his promised purse and the title.
White even announced the decision to not re-sign flyweight starlet Muhammad Mokaev, after the matchmakers were not happy with his wrestling-first style. Where does that leave the promotion in terms of Muhammad winning the title? The top 5 in the welterweight lack the star power to draw huge PPVs. With Edwards dropping the title to Muhammad, who many deem a ‘boring fighter,’ is White wondering how he will sell a PPV headlined by the Palestinian?
Dana White appeared to show no emotions when he put the belt around Belal Muhammad’s waist. The new champion was visibly and understandably emotional after the biggest win of his career, but from Dana White’s end, it was unusual. People have always witnessed a smiling face in the past whenever he crowned a new champion, but the scenes, as per footage on social media, were different this time around.
UFC 304 main event wasn’t worth the wait for Dana White, fans claim
There was one fan, who claimed, “Dana looks like he’s about to kill himself I’m crying.” This comment was arguably at the lack of marketability in Belal Muhammad. They’ve even termed him as a rather boring fighter. They confidently claimed that the outcome of the fight was not what the 54-year-old had in mind.
Another fan stated, “Dana did NOT want belal to win.” Meanwhile, some fans also claimed that White’s decision to stay up late in Manchester did not turn out in his favor. “He’s in disbelief that he stayed up until 6am for this,” another fan added as the event’s timing had been questioned many times by fans and fighters alike. Co-main event star Curtis Blaydes openly expressed frustration at the timings before the event. Leon Edwards claimed he felt tired during the fight blaming it on the timing of the event.
The same marketability issue that Dana White might face with Belal Muhammad was something that most fans echoed. Most of the UFC fanbase has only one thing to say after witnessing Dana White’s expressionless face: “He knows he’s gotta sell a main event with Belal now.” However, fans weren’t expecting such a visibly dejected reaction from the UFC boss as many felt that his “disgust” was just too apparent. One fan added, “DAWG IM CRYING LOOK AT THE DISGUST IN DANA WHITE FACE”.
Regardless, there were still a few fans who were positive about the situation. They don’t believe there’s an issue with Belal Muhammad becoming a champion because it was already promised to long time back. Also, fans have seen Dana White on their screens so many times that they concluded that it was just a normal expression from him. There’s nothing to speculate there. “Dana literally always looks like that lol.”Moreover, one X user claimed, “It’s not disgust, it’s steroids,” as the reason why the UFC CEO looked the way he did in the footage after Muhammad’s win. This was an obvious jibe at White’s impressive physical transformation over the last year or so.
Nevertheless, we would like to hear from you about this topic, too. What do you think was going on in Dana White’s mind after Belal Muhammad’s win?