UFC President Dana White joined Colin Cowherd on The Herd ahead of UFC 211 this weekend in Dallas.
White stated during the interview that he was unable to finalize a deal in time for a proposed cross-sports boxing match between retired former five division world champion Floyd Mayweather and UFC superstar Conor McGregor - and as a result he lost his target date of September 16th to Saul "Canelo" Alvarez vs. Gennady Golovkin.
White was present at the T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night, when Canelo battered Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for twelve rounds. After the fight, it was revealed that Canelo vs. Golovkin had been finalized for Mexican Independence Day weekend.
White had been targeting that September date, but now he's unsure of when the fight will take place or where it will land - although Las Vegas seems like the logical location and Mayweather has refused for years to fight outside of his home city.
Even though ge lost the target date, White is happy the Canelo-Golovkin fight finally got made after fans have been clamoring for that contest since at least the fall of 2015.
"I didn’t get the deal done fast enough [for Mayweather-McGregor], so I lose the date. That’s how it works," White stated. “You know what, boxing’s been dying for 20 years. Every time when you think boxing’s dead, it bounces right back with a great fight. The heavyweight fight [Anthony Joshua vs Wladimir Klitschko] was awesome.
"Canelo-Chavez, not a good fight but got a lot of… lot of people were interested in watching that fight. And that fight built Triple G vs Canelo, it really did. Canelo looked fantastic, Triple G knocks everybody out. People are excited now to see that fight. I don’t ever hate on boxing. I’ve hated on a lot of the mistakes that they’ve made, but I love it, man.”