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UFC president Dana White outdid himself over the last year, putting on fight cards every week while the world was shut indoors owing to the pandemic. After a year of staging fights in empty arenas, the UFC welcomed back a packed crowd at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, for UFC 261 on April 24, 2021.
In a recent interview with Morning Blitz, Dana White was asked about his favorite fight from UFC 261. The UFC honcho singled out his fight of the night while also showering praise for all the fighters on the card.
"That's a tough one. You gotta go with the Usman fight, the main event. Thug Rose looked unbelievable, I mean it was such a good card. There were so many good fights, you know what I mean? It's tough. Valentina Shevchenko I thought was going to have problems like she never had before with Andrade, and she [Shevchenko] f***ing did what she wanted whenever she wanted to. So, it was an incredible night."
The team at Morning Blitz went on to say that Dana White and the UFC deserve more credit for putting on fights every weekend since March 2020, at a time when the whole world seemed to shut down. We couldn't agree more.
The UFC president has never minced words when talking about his plans and how far he wants to take the company. He received a lot of criticism for packing an arena with 15,000 people while COVID-19 is still at large, but Dana White didn't seem to care. UFC 261 was a resounding success.
You can watch Dana White's interview with Morning Blitz in the video below:
What's next for Dana White and the UFC?
As of Thursday, 29th April 2021, the UFC is officially a public listed company. Endeavor Group Holdings, the parent company of the UFC, issued its initial public offering (IPO) under the symbol 'EDR' and is now listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
The UFC is already the biggest MMA promotion in the world. This is going to catapult the company to even greater heights. Dana White proudly announced the news on his social media.
The UFC also has a stellar line-up of fight cards scheduled for the next few weeks. UFC Vegas 25 and UFC Vegas 26 will be the next two cards on May 1st and May 8th respectively. The next pay-per-view (PPV) event will be UFC 262 on May 15th, which will see Michael Chandler battle Charles Oliveira for the vacant lightweight belt in the main event.
UFC 263 is set for June 12th and will watch two title fights take place. Middleweight champion Israel Adesanya will face Marvin Vettori in the main event. The co-main event will witness a rematch between flyweight champion Deiveson Figueiredo and number one contender Brandon Moreno.
Safe to say, the UFC's future looks stacked! As fight fans, we cannot wait to watch it all unfold.
