It was a busy week for UFC President and CEO Dana White, with UFC 328, plus the first UFC Freedom 250 press conference, all taking place in Newark, New Jersey.
It meant that, by the time White arrived backstage for the UFC 328 post-fight press conference, the assembled media had plenty of questions to fire his way.
Here’s a recap of the main topics covered backstage at Prudential Center.
The main event saw Khamzat Chimaev and Sean Strickland battle all the way to the scorecards, with the latter recapturing the undisputed middleweight title with a split-decision win.
White gave his verdict on the contest, and said he felt the right man got his hand raised.
“I scored the main event. I had a two-to-two going in the last round. I thought Strickland won the last round,” he said.
“What was interesting is ... the first two times I saw (Chimaev) fight on Fight Island. He used to talk about the stand-up in his team all the time. And I was saying, we haven't seen him stand up and really go toe-to-toe with somebody in a while. But I think he had a rough weight cut.”
UFC 328 REWIND: Main Card Results | Prelim Results | Scorecards | Bonus Winners
That weight cut may well have been the final straw for Chimaev, who told White that he wants to move up to light heavyweight moving forward.
“He literally walked up to me after the fight and said, 'I want to move up. I don't want to fight in this weight class anymore,'” White confirmed.
As for Strickland, the Las Vegas native now has championship victories over both Israel Adesanya and Chimaev. White was asked how he saw Strickland’s career in the context of those two victories.
“I mean, you're asking me that because it's incredible,” he said.
“He looks great. He's got an awkward style, he's tough to fight, and (like Chimaev) another durable, tough guy that has no quit in him.”
After Joshua Van captured the title following Alexandre Pantoja’s freak arm injury at UFC 323 in December, question marks remained about how Van would fare as the flyweight division’s new champion. We got the answer on Saturday, as Van produced a thrilling performance to finish Tatsuro Taira in the fifth round to register the first defense of his title.
“The fact that after the first fight, when you win the belt because (Pantoja) breaks his elbow, (Van) showed up and delivered tonight,” said White.
“Man, he looked incredible. And what a war.”
Later in the presser, when asked about whether anyone’s performance surprised him, White said that he didn’t feel there were any major shocks, but reiterated how impressed he was with Van’s performance.
“I don't know if anybody really shocked me tonight,” he said.
“I mean, even the main event, I was talking to Chris Weidman, and he was like, ‘Man, everybody's sleeping on Strickland. Strickland, his wrestling's not terrible,’ and blah, blah, blah. So I never thought that he was a 4/1 dog anyway. So I wouldn't say that anything shocked me.
“I would say… impressed? The Van fight was incredible. I mean, what a war, back and forth. But nobody’s fight tonight made me change my plans, or shook up anything in any of the divisions. But Van looked incredible tonight.”
The evergreen Jim Miller added another win and another finish to his record as the UFC veteran defeated Jared Gordon at UFC 328.
Miller’s first-round submission of Gordon earned him a $100,000 Performance of the Night bonus, and White revealed that even more good things were coming Miller’s way, courtesy of a brand new multi-fight contract.
"Tonight was the last fight on his contract, and we just signed him to five more fights,” he revealed.
"If he fights four, it's 50 fights in the UFC. If he fights the last one, it's 51. Pretty incredible.
"I just threw (the fifth fight) in there. Sean (Shelby, UFC matchmaker) goes, 'Let's sign him to a four-fight deal.' I said, 'Let's sign him to a five-fight deal!'"
RELATED: UFC 328's Bigger Picture
White also spoke on whether Miller was an underrated talent in the UFC, and explained why he just had to give the 42-year-old a Performance of the Night bonus for his display in Newark.
"I don't know if (he’s) underrated. I don't know what you call it. I mean, the guy's special,” he said.
"At his age, I think he was a 3/1 dog tonight, and he wins in the first round by submission. That's why, when we were looking at the Performances of the Night, it's hard not to give it to Jim.
"I don't know if I'd call it underrated. I don't know. He's special, and what he's doing is pretty amazing.”
Sparks flew, and tempers flared at the UFC Freedom 250 press conference, with heavyweight contender Josh Hokit attempting to rile first his opponent Derrick Lewis, then former two-division champion Alex Pereira, and reigning lightweight champion Ilia Topuria, who took offense when he felt Hokit’s trash talk had crossed the line. Security had to step in, and Hokit was eventually escorted out of the press conference.
White said he wasn’t a fan of how the exchange played out on the dais, especially given the fact that Hokit and Topuria are never going to face off inside the Octagon due to the huge weight disparity between the pair.
“I don't want any of these guys getting hurt over stupid s*** that means nothing, with guys that are never going to fight each other. You know what I mean?” he said.
“It's not like Ilia Topuria and Hokit are going to end up fighting. So it was just…, I think that whole thing is goofy anyway, but you know, the guy went out and performed ... went in and beat the number five guy in the world.
“Ilia and Alex are pretty chill guys normally. Ilia flips out every now and then, but we didn't see that coming. They're all sitting next to each other in the same row, and (Sean) O'Malley scoots back, and I'm just like, 'You got to be f****** kidding me right now,' because all I was worried about was the weigh-ins, and not anything happening there. But we'll be ready for it. This is the business we're in.”
On the young boy who was on stage taking selfies with fighters at the UFC Freedom 250 press conference
“He was some kid from the crowd that was screaming my name. I love doing stuff like that for little kids. He said, ‘Today's the greatest day of my life!’”
“It's going to be the biggest fight we've ever done. I mean, the numbers tonight were monstrous. The White House fight will blow this out of the water.”
"The Pru has been great to us. And we sold out and broke the record last week in Perth. Then we came back in here and broke our record again at the Pru, and we will be back to MSG, and yes, MSG and Newark are the two spots that I'm going to keep hitting out here in this area.
"The history here is number one, number two, number five, and number six, highest gate here, we kill it in this arena. The fans are always great here. The arena has been good to us. The city has been good to us, the state's been good to us. That's the history."
"We literally have no dates set for Spain. But you know I want to go. And if you're going to go, you go with a guy like Ilia. So the answer is yes, we want to (but) no, we have nothing planned yet."
"Well, if tonight went differently, it would have absolutely, positively happened. I'm excited to have an event in Japan again. I know the staff is, too. But had (Taira) won the title tonight, we would definitely be looking at a fight in Japan."
On the possibility of UFC’s return to Paris in September being a numbered event
"It's a good question, and you're not wrong. That's an incredibly smoking hot market for us. It's possible."
“When we go into matchmaking (meetings), we start looking at each division. The matchmaking team has done a fantastic job at working on some of the divisions that we felt were weak, or trying to figure out how to make some of them more exciting, and how to inject more talent into these weight classes. They've done a fantastic job.”
“There's a formula to it. McGregor is going to do just fine … It’s based on, if you take the average of his pay-per-view buys, of what they do, there's an equation for that. We've done it with a lot more guys than just McGregor.”
UFC 328: Chimaev vs Strickland took place live from Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on May 9, 2026. See the final Prelim & Main Card Results, Official Scorecards and Who Won Bonuses - and relive the action on UFC FIGHT PASS!
