Dana White says there are "no cans" in the UFC - only killers

R. Nath
UFC Fight Night Andrade v Zhang
UFC Fight Night Andrade v Zhang

One of the big criticisms that boxing gets today is the fact that there are too many professional "cans". If you're not aware who a "can" is - it's a fighter who's not anywhere close to being on the level of their opponent and is given to top-ranked fighters or big prospects to crush easily to rack up wins on their record and have a good win-loss ratio number.

This is undeniably the case in boxing and more often than not, two great boxers are kept apart and only put together for a fight after their prime to get a cash grab. The UFC, however, isn't like that. When you're a top-ranked fighter in a great division, chances are that you only get a row of killers.

If you take a look at fighters such as Anthony Pettis and Chris Weidman, for example, you'll notice that win or lose, they've only been fighting top contenders since making it to the big time.

There are exceptions, however, with Greg Hardy being a fighter who was given cans from the start to rise through the ranks until he faced Alexander Volkov last year.

When talking to Aaron Bronsteter at TSN, Dana White insisted that the MMA leader has no such thing as "cans" and only "killers".

“It’s just a fact, when you make it to become world champion in UFC, you went through a series of killers from the first day you stepped foot in here,” White told TSN . “We don’t do easy fights, we don’t do set-up fights, we don’t have cans, we don’t have professional cans here. It’s just not the way it works.”

There are certainly a few exceptions in divisions that are relatively weaker, but when you look at strong divisions, there's no denying that none of the contenders can be termed as "cans". To make it to the top 10, let alone the top 5 is a big achievement in such cases and the level of competition keeps evolving and growing.

Hopefully, this will mean that the so-called "weaker" divisions will have stronger talent down the line as well.

Check Out: How Much Does Dana White Earn?

Quick Links

Edited by Nishant Jayaram