Fight fans are not exactly thrilled about the lineup for UFC 325. Dana White doesn’t care at all. At least, that’s the impression he’s giving.
UFC 325 goes down on Jan. 31 in Australia. The card will be topped by a featherweight title fight between champion Alexander Volkanovski and challenger Diego Lopes. It’s an interesting matchup. There’s just a few glaring problems with it. The first problem is that Volkanovski beat Lopes to claim the vacant featherweight belt less than a year ago, and hasn’t fought anybody since. Lopes, meanwhile, has fought just once, knocking out Jean Silva. The other problem is that there are two other contenders in the division who deserve the chance more than Lopes. Namely, Movsar Evloev and Lerone Murphy, both of whom are undefeated and riding big wins. Evloev even holds a win over Lopes.
Unfortunately, the UFC 325 lineup leaves a lot to be desired outside the main event too. It will include two excellent lightweight fights—one between Dan Hooker and Benoit Saint Denis, and another between Mauricio Ruffy and Rafael Fiziev–but it’s an objectively weak card beyond that. That’s especially true after a main card light heavyweight fight between Jimmy Crute and Dustin Jacoby fell through on Thursday.
The lack of big names and relevant matchups on the card has led to a lot of blowback from UFC fans. White, evidently, has heard the criticisms.
Dana White fires back at UFC 325 haters
If you expected the UFC boss to try to make some last minute improvements to the card, however, think again. His only advice for the UFC 325 naysayers out there is don’t tune in if it doesn’t interest you.
“If you don’t like it, don’t watch it,” White said during an interview with Complex.
As for the main event, specifically Lopes is getting another title shot before Evloev and Murphy? White said the matchup simply made sense to his team, whatever that means.
“It was just the fight that made sense,” he said. “We get in that [matchmaking] room and we start putting s**t together.
“It should be a good fight,” the UFC boss added.
Here’s the full UFC 325 lineup as it stands right now.
UFC 325 lineup
145 lbs.: Alexander Volkanovski vs. Diego Lopes 2 (featherweight title fight)
155 lbs.: Dan Hooker vs. Benoit Saint Denis
155 lbs.: Rafael Fiziev vs. Mauricio Ruffy
205 lbs.: Jimmy Crute vs. Dustin Jacoby
265 lbs.: Tallison Teixeira vs. Tai Tuivasa
155 lbs.: Quillan Salkilld vs. Rong Zhu
265 lbs.: Ante Delija vs. Serghei Spivac
170 lbs.: Oban Elliott vs. Jonathan Micallef
145 lbs.: Kaan Ofli vs. Yi Zha
205 lbs.: Billy Elekana vs. Junior Tafa
185 lbs.: Cody Brundage vs. Cam Rowston
185 lbs.: Torrez Finney vs. Jacob Malkoun
155 lbs.: Dom Mar Fan vs. Kim Sang-wook
145 lbs.: Keiichiro Nakamura vs. Sebastian Szalay
135 lbs.: Sulang Rangbo vs. Lawrence Lui
125 lbs.: Namsrai Batbayar vs. Aaron Tau
Do you understand the criticism of the card, or are you with Dana White on this one?