Dana White Responds to Eddie Alvarez, Defends How Interim Titles Help Fighters Get Paid More

Speaking at yesterday’s UFC 236 pre-fight press conference (via MMAjunkie), UFC President Dana White addressed former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez’s claim that UFC uses interim titles to get out of paying the fighters more money. You can check out the video of the full press conference below.

Dana White stated, “I like Eddie, I have a great relationship with Eddie, but he was talking about how we give interim titles so you don’t have to pay a guy so much, or some weird comment like that.” He added, “When you win the interim belt, you’re looked at as a title holder. So when you go into a title fight, both guys share in the pay-per-view revenue. If you’re a contender without the interim title, you don’t. So, there’s nothing bad about holding an interim belt.”

Poirier, Alvarez’s former opponent, also added, “Eddie hasn’t been right since I hit him with that last hand, so give him a break.”

UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway is going to face Dustin Poirier for the UFC interim lightweight champion at UFC 236 in April. The current lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, is currently on suspension due to the post-fight brawl at UFC 229.

UFC 236 is set for April 13 at the State Farm Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. It will also feature an interim middleweight title fight between Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum.