Dana White names his biggest UFC missed matchmaking regret

UFC president Dana White has booked a lot of fights in his career.

The promotion has held more than 500 events since its inaugural show in November 1993, and White has steered the ship for most of them.

Just the past decade alone saw Conor McGregor superfights, Georges St-Pierre and Anderson Silva title defenses, and two grudge matches between Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier. It saw McGregor cross over into boxing to fight Floyd Mayweather and two of the greatest female fighters of all time square off. It was the home for Ronda Rousey and the pro MMA debut of CM Punk.

But there’s one missed booking that escaped White – one he really wishes could have come to fruition: a megafight between two of MMA’s heavyweight icons.

In an interview with UFC.com released Thursday, White was asked outside of Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson (which has been rebooked for April 2020), what fight he wished he could have booked.

“The only fight that I wanted to make that was never made was Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emelianenko,” White said. “We were going to do it at Texas Stadium. But I couldn’t get a deal done with Fedor, so it never happened.”

In the past, White has spoken about the failed Lesnar vs. Emelianenko booking. In early 2013, White revealed the promotion was deep into negotiations in 2012. However, the death of Emelianenko’s father temporarily halted the Russian heavyweight’s professional career. In turn, it permanently ended the talks of a matchup with Lesnar.

“We were in deep talks with (Emelianenko),” White said in January 2013. “We were that close to signing him recently, right before his dad died. We were right there. When I was talking about doing the big Dallas, Texas, stadium show? It was going to be Brock Lesnar vs. (Fedor Emelianenko).

“Remember when I met with him and said it didn’t go well? It actually went well. It went well, and Brock wanted to fight Fedor. Then (Fedor’s) dad died, and he was done.”

Since talks fizzled in 2012, Lesnar has retired from MMA twice. Emelianenko had also called it quits, but has since returned. Fighting under the Bellator banner, Emelianenko and the promotion have implied he has two fights left before he hangs the gloves up for good.