Dana White has spoken about the controversy surrounding Max Rohskopf quitting his fight against Austin Hubbard last weekend.
The UFC newcomer accepted the fight on five-days’ notice, thus his training regime was amped up to meet the weight requirements for his lightweight bout. Add in the fact that the match-up wasn’t going in Rohskopf’s favor for two rounds then it’s understandable why the fighter couldn’t continue on once the second round was done.
The controversy comes from Max’s chief cornerman, Robert Drysdale, refusing to call the fight even though the 25-year-old made it clear that he wanted out of the bout nine times. Commission inspector Charvez Foger stopped the bout on Rohskopf’s behalf; however, many have hotly debated on whether the cornerman was right for what he did.
Many believed that the newcomer quitting in his first fight in the UFC was a bad look in front of Dana White; however, the UFC President understands Rohskopf’s decision and doesn’t feel that the fighter needs to feel any shame over what he did (Transcript courtesy of MMA Junkie):
“Let me tell you what: In this (expletive) sport, if you’re done, you’re done,” White told reporters, at the post-fight news conference at the UFC Apex in Las Vegas. “You should absolutely be able to quit. I know that it’s frowned upon, but guess what? Anybody that would talk (expletive) about you quitting isn’t in there fighting. It’s real easy to be a critic. With what these kids do, this is a whole ‘nother level, man. … When you get here, this is a whole different level, man.”
White even talked about realizing why becoming a fighter wasn't for him during his early years in the sport:
“I believed back in the day that I was a fighter and wanted to do this and that, and one day I found out that I wasn’t,” White said. “The realization was that I wasn’t. When you find out, you need to walk away. I’m not saying that’s the case with this kid. But if that kid felt like he needed to quit tonight, who the (expletive) is anybody to judge him on that? He had the balls to come here and fight and take a short-notice fight in the UFC.”
It's not known yet whether Rohskopf will continue fighting or not, but Dana White knows that the young athlete will come to a decision very soon:
“He’s gotta get up tomorrow and look himself in the mirror and figure out who he is and what he wants to do,” White said. “There is no shame in getting here and finding out that you’re not it. There’s no shame in that at all. He gave it a shot, didn’t work out. Anybody who would try to ridicule a kid like that, (expletive) you. Come try it. Come try and do what he did tonight. Very few people can do it.”