UFC 111 Presser Notes: White on Toney Deal, Upcoming Shows & More

Quick notes on the UFC 111 news conference and question-and-answer session that took place Wednesday at Radio City Music Hall in New York:

• Shane Carwin did not attend. UFC President Dana White said Carwin was running late. Frank Mir, Dan Hardy and Georges St. Pierre were present in addition to White.

• White said the UFC is going back to Dublin, Ireland, this year.

• White said he wants to take the UFC to Puerto Rico.

• On adding bulk, Frank Mir said he had closed the strength gap on other heavyweights, but that he hasn’t got any bigger since the Kongo fight. He said his explosiveness has improved considerably, that Kongo made one mistake and he knocked him across the cage with a punch.

• Steve Cofield from Yahoo asked Dana White why Mir’s comments about making Brock Lesnar the first death from Octagon-related injuries was a big deal and asked White to relate it to sanctioning issues. White refused to answer the question, tried to make Cofield answer his own question and then refused again to answer.

• Mir said his comments were a mistake and that he used poor terminology.

• White said the UFC would be going to Orlando soon.

• Mir said Carwin has to pick his poison, that it’s Carwin’s choice where to lose the fight.

• GSP said he made some changes to his training and diet after the Thiago Alves fight. He put on five pounds of lean muscle. On fight night, he used to be around 184 or 185, and now he’ll be around 190 or 192.

• Mir said throwing a flying knee against Lesnar was a bad idea, that he had been watching too many smaller fighters, and since then he’s worked on strategy.

• White said there are some good women fighters, but there isn’t enough competition for them to start a women’s division now.

• White said if Mir wins, fighting Lesnar will depend on how healthy Mir comes out of the Carwin fight. If he’s 100-percent healthy and wins, White said Mir-Lesnar will happen early this summer.

• White said he would not consider starting a senior division in the UFC for older fighters who might not be as good as they used to be.

• White said he plans on taking “The Ultimate Fighter” reality show international, with the first goal being the Middle East.

• White said he would not share fighters like Strikeforce and Dream are. Instead, he said he’ll wait until both companies go out of business and then sign their fighters.

• Hardy was asked by a fan where he was going to display his welterweight championship after winning it Saturday. He said around his waist, permanently.

• White said Jake Shields knows Strikeforce is trying to get him beat against Dan Henderson. White said who knows, maybe Shields will win and then come over to the UFC.

• White said he wants Fedor Emelianenko just as bad as fans do.

• White said there will be a UFC gym in New York, that they’re going to “start cranking them out.”

• White said he didn’t let Dan Henderson go. He said they just couldn’t come to terms.

• White said he’s the first one to call certain fights “freak shows.” He said to be honest, he doesn’t know why he did the deal with James Toney, but he did it.

• White said Toney told him that he knows a lot more than White thinks he knows about MMA, that he would never do anything to embarrass himself.