White remembers an eerily similar night from more than a decade ago when the UFC was hoping to re-launch to the masses with one of the biggest cards ever that quickly turned into one of the biggest disasters ever.
UFC 33 was touted to be one of the biggest cards ever for the promotion, but after injuries scrapped their main event, and every fight on the main card went to decision, forcing the show to go over the pay-per-view time limit, it was anything but a success.
Fast forward to UFC 149 on Saturday night and White was feeling the same exact way he did that night in September 2001.
I felt like I was at UFC 33 again, White said at the post-fight press conference.
The night in Calgary definitely did not go as planned, but White couldn't be mad at the undercard fighters who performed on both FX and Facebook. Fighters like Ryan Jimmo burst on the scene with his ultra impressive seven-second knockout, as well as Bryan Caraway putting on a Fight of the Night performance against Mitch Gagnon.
Before I get too negative, I think that the undercard was awesome, these guys blew it out of the water, said White.
The rest of the card, however, failed to impress and White wasn't ashamed to admit it. Records were broken in Calgary Saturday night, but White is not a proud man for how his fighters delivered or didn't deliver as the case may be.
I like breaking records, we broke the gate record here tonight and Im embarrassed by it. I was excited when I heard, and now I'm embarrassed. The undercard delivered; they were awesome. The main card did not, White stated.