The UFC is in Montreal this weekend, and could be in Toronto by year's end.
As Canadians enjoy the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, leave it up to the UFC to boldly hold an event at none other than the Bell Centre in Montreal, home to Canada's legendary franchise, the Montreal Canadiens.
Similar to last year's sellout of UFC 83 at the Bell Centre, UFC 97 also sold out in record time. Canadian MMA fans have proven their worth to the UFC and are the main reason why the organization continues to look north of the border for potential live event locations.
"I'm not just kissing your a-- cause I'm in Canada. Canada is the mecca for mixed martial arts right now" said White. "I don't know too many places in the world where we can go and sell 22,000 tickets as fast as we did here. It's insane up here".
The main event at UFC 97 sees Anderson "The Spider" Silva set to defend his title against fellow Brazilian Thales Leites and perhaps break a UFC record en route to winning his ninth consecutive bout.
But the talk in Montreal was all about settling the pound for pound debate with their favourite son, Georges St-Pierre and the current king Anderson Silva, who delivered this message to GSP.
"It doesn't bother me much as far as Georges St-Pierre, that problem I'm sure is gong to be dealt with a little bit later" said Silva, sending a stern message to St-Pierre.
Much to his dismay, White is adamant about who the kingpin is of MMA's pound for pound list.
"What drives me crazy and [ticks] me off all the time is when people try to debate whether he is pound for pound the best fighter in the world. You have to be out of your mind to not think that this guy is not the best pound for pound fighter in the world."
White may be stern with his theory as to who is the best fighter on the planet, his affection for superfights bolds well for this potential matchup.
"I think anything is possible. I love super fights. If these two keep winning and they wanna fight each other, I wouldn't get in the way"
If Dana White has his say, Silva's aforementioned problem will be dealt with by the end of 2009, right here in Canada perhaps as part of the UFC's annual New Years Eve show.
"Maybe they fight in December and maybe they fight in Toronto".
While not setting anything in stone, White explains why holding an event in the city of Toronto is so important to the UFC.
"The people up here tell me 'you go to Toronto and you can do 60,000 seats'. People tell me crazy stuff about going to Toronto. I believe as fast as we sell out here, maybe we can do thirty (thousand) in Toronto. I don't know. We'll find out. I'm willing to take that shot"
The sticking point here is whether or not the Ontario government is willing to sanction and regulate the sport of Mixed Martial Arts. If we can take anything from what Dana White said Friday, where there is smoke, there is fire.
"MMA CONNECTED" debuts Monday, April 20th at 11:30pm.
