Considered the new powerful man of MMA in the world, UFC´s president, Dana White talked with our correspondent Cristiane Ripari in Las Vegas just after UFC 76.  In the opportunity, Dana explained the polemics about Pride, talked about the misunderstanding with Couture and about the plans to realize events outside USA. See the full interview below.

Last week, Randy Couture sent a fax to UFC stating that he was leaving the organization, although he still had two fights in his contract. What actually happened between Randy and UFC? 
This is what really happened between him and UFC. He is taking part on a film that´s being recorded in South Africa and warned us that he wanted to retire. He sent us a letter announcing his retirement. I have not spoke to him yet. So, when he returns to United States I assume that we will have a conversation and I´ll see what is the real story behind it.

Some organs of the media published that in a conversation between you and Lorenzo Fertitta, Randy Couture declared: "I heard that I am your second best paid fighter. That is not true! I asked Chuck, Tito, Mirko, Wanderlei Silva, and others. I also have the numbers of Fedor. Including the option of $ 250,000 PPV of bonus." According to Couture and the reporter of this issue that was a tremendous disrespect.
Yes. Randy Couture has the second best contract of UFC, after Chuck Liddell. All these other numbers with Tito, Mirko, Wanderlei Silva and the amount offered to Fedor represents less than the contract of Randy Couture.

UFC could not pay better the Captain America? 
We renegociated his contract only 8 months ago. And now he says that is not satisfied? If he approached me and said that´s not happy we would fix his problem. I never say no to Randy Couture. This is very interesting..

There is rumors that Randy is planning to create a union with all the other athletes in an exclusive partnership with UFC for better compensation and bonus?
I have no idea of what Randy Couture is planning.

UFC wants Fedor for a long time, but he´ll fight in an American organization that purchased M-1, probably on next January or February. What do you know about this organization that is planning to create events in United States, Russia and Japan? Who is the powerful man behind M-1 Mix Fight Championship?
I do not know anything about M-1 and I don´t know who is behind this. Sincerily, I think this is just speculation. I think people are just supposing things.

According to Red Devil, "Although we had accepted the exclusive contract with UFC, there were problems with firing if he lost fights and with sudden change of athletes." However, you announced in the media that was Red Devil who refused the contract. Who is telling the truth?
I decided to do business with Fedor. Obviously, Red Devil did not accept the contract otherwise Fedor would be in UFC now. They intercepted the business. These guys are crazy.

It seems that the manager of Randy Couture in Hollywood can have influenced him in his recent decision. And if Randy wanted to face Fedor in M-1, UFC would prohibit him to fight in that organization?
There is no doubt that his manager is behind this. In my opinion this guy is a great liar. I don´t like him and we will never get along well.

Mark Cuban, who has put Fedor in M-1 Global thinks there is a lot of money to earn in MMA. You know very well that this business is not so easy and that success does not happen so quickly. What is your opinion about M-1? Do you think they will achieve success?
I agree that Mark Cuban is getting involved with MMA. Many other people are trying to enter this business and have already lost millions of dollars. Mark Cuban will also lose a lot of money. Everyone is watching what UFC is doing and they think it is easy. They think that will make a lot of money. But it is not easy and Mark will discover that. We will see if he will be successful. Maybe he has luck, I don´t know ... what I can tell you is that it is better for him to stop dancing in that show  "Dance with the Stars" and pay more attention in business! (laughs)

The words “Ultimate Fighting Championship”, or “UFC”, probably means more to people than Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) nowadays. But do you believe that this marketing strategy might be leaving the athletes uncomfortable? 
We created a fighting championship. Brought up athletes, discovered stars and our trademark is growing along with all this. It is how it works. I´m not worried if people are not satisfied with the way we manage our business. Go fight somewhere else. Pay attention to all these other organizations that are failing. Pride was powerful and failed. K-1 is not going well. All these other companies are not taking profit and people are saying to us that we are conducting our business in the correct way? They must take care of their lives! This is my answer for them.

We were surprised to hear about the closing of the office and the resignation of the employees who worked for Pride in Japan. According to Mr. Nobuyuki Sakakibara the agreement when he sold Pride was not to finish with the organization. What happened? 
Obviously, we tried to keep the office. We have paid the salary of the employees during this time. But until when should we maintain a business that is not working? None of Japanese television broadcaster wanted to do the transmission. Even the TV channels here in United States have not shown any interest in the business. We believe that once the former owners were not more involved we would return to TV. It was not the case. So what is the reason to keep the business opened if we cannot have profit with it? We failed in making Pride run again. We lost a lot of money buying Pride. Mr. Sakakibara made millions, millions and millions of dollars. We invested a lot and could not make the deal work again. This is why we closed.

One more thing, when Lorenzo was interested in buying Pride, Mr. Sakakibara confirmed the agreement?
Yes, we said we would do our best to keep the Pride alive. We wanted to make a Pride X UFC. The problem is that the name was already worn. We were not able to keep it alive. Nobody wanted to do business with Pride.

Where will be the next best location for UFC? Chicago, New York, Canada, Mexico, Germany? 
We are going to Canada, Mexico and Germany next year.

What about Asia? We have heard that perhaps there will happen an event in Japan next spring. With the purchase of Pride don´t  you have good connections in the country? 
We could not keep alive Pride so we want to bring UFC to Japan. Actually we are working on it.

Besides a television broadcaster to transmit the event, what more is needed for this UFC in Japan happen? 
We need a good sponsor. An ideal place to hold the event and television

Now that Pride eventually finished do you plan to open an office for UFC in this country as you did in England?
No, we are not going to open an office in Japan

And what about China?
We are planning na UFC in Macau in the next 5 years.

We heard that Takanori Gomi began a negotiation with UFC. If this is confirmed will we have the revenge Gomi  vs BJ Penn?
Yes, we are interested in Gomi and we are trying to bring him to UFC. There are great fighters that he could face in the 155 pounds division, which is a sensational category. BJ Penn would be one of them.