Matt Brown backs Dana White over controversial Israel Adesanya comments: ‘It’s the fight game, what the f*** do you expect?’
UFC president Dana White rarely admonishes his athletes for anything said before, during or after fights and that includes the heated war of words shared between middleweight champion Israel Adesanya and Dricus Du Plessis this past Saturday night.
During an in-cage confrontation following Du Plessis’ upset win over Robert Whittaker, which solidified him as the No. 1 contender in the division, Adesanya dropped a number of racial slurs while addressing his future opponent. None of it bothered White and he certainly wasn’t going to police anything that Adesanya said in the cage.
“Who gives a s***?” White said at the UFC 290 post-fight press conference. “I could care less. This is the fight business. Israel Adesanya can say whatever he wants to say. Who gives a s***? Why? Are people b******* about that? Of course they are. Too f****** bad.”
While it can be argued all day about what should or shouldn’t be fair game in trash talk between fighters, UFC welterweight Matt Brown backs up White when it comes to his opinion on how that should be handled.
“I kind of agreed with Dana the other day, I know he was taking a lot of s*** when he’s like ‘this is the f****** fight game, people say stupid s***,’” Brown said on the new episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Like imagine all of the stupid s*** Dana has listened to and heard his whole life or the last 20 years or whatever [in the UFC]. I kind of agree with him.
“We’re a bunch of f****** savages. Like there’s got to be something wrong with you to want to do this sport. If you’re a normal person or you’ve got a good head on your shoulders to start with — it’s different once you start making money — but you go be a f****** doctor or invest in real estate. There’s a million other things to do. It’s the fight game. What the f*** do you expect?”
Brown also knows that many of his peers in the UFC are prone to making controversial statements, especially when it comes to posts on social media.
He doesn’t defend what’s being said but rather that White can’t be expected to erupt every single time a fighter says something that somebody out there doesn’t agree with.
“With Dana specifically, like what the f*** is he supposed to do?” Brown said. “If he tried to do something every time a fighter acted out or said something the media doesn’t like or the mainstream has a problem with, he literally wouldn’t have time to do anything else in his entire [life]. He wouldn’t get anything else done.
“That’s why I think Dana is like that. He’s like you guys are talking about it. All PR is good PR. You guys are f******* talking about it. Let’s f******* go, keep saying stupid s***. You’re not hurting anyone.”
As for Du Plessis, he ripped Adesanya following the faceoff while calling him a “clown” for that behavior, which he saw as unbecoming of a UFC champion.
Regardless of the altercation in the cage and Adesanya’s comments afterwards, Brown had nothing but praise for Du Plessis’ performance where he scored a vicious second round knockout over Whittaker.
With that win, Du Plessis became only the second middleweight to defeat Whittaker in the UFC — the other is Adesanya — and he cemented himself as the top contender at 185 pounds.
“This guy he just shows up. He just gets it done,” Brown said about Du Plessis. “He’s just a f****** get it done guy. He doesn’t look great doing it. He doesn’t have technique like some of these guys do but he f****** finds a way and you’ve got to have respect for that. I’m sure Izzy has a whole new respect for him after what he did to Whittaker but god**** where did this guy come from? How did manage to do that?
“Because you just watch him, you could study and analyze him to death and you’re not going to pick him. Probably the more you watch, the less you’re going to pick him. But he comes out and f****** gets it done.”
Despite that win, Du Plessis will undoubtedly serve as the underdog in a future fight with Adesanya but that doesn’t mean he can’t pull off another seemingly miraculous upset.
For his part, Brown won’t go as far saying Du Plessis is going to get the job done against Adesanya but no one should count him out, especially after witnessing his win over Whittaker at UFC 290.
“That’s just this sport for you — there’s always that next guy that just f****** has something you can’t even pinpoint,” Brown said. “Like we try to analyze and make statistics in every little part of this game and then there’s a guy like Dricus. You’re not going to look at him like he’s got the best jab or he’s got the best wrestling or he’s got the highest volume or the most power. One thing doesn’t stick out where you’re saying this is the thing you’ve got to watch. I don’t know exactly how you game plan against him. You’ve just got to go in there and be better, I guess and to be fair that’s f****** Izzy’s game.
“None of us picked [Dricus] to beat Whittaker. I don’t think none of us are going to pick him to beat Izzy but I ain’t betting my house on it anymore. I’m not touching that bet.”’