Dana White Now Thinks Chris Weidman Becomes No. 1 P4P Fighter If He Beats Belfort

There’s no denying that UFC President Dana White has worked wonders for the sport of MMA as a whole, but he isn’t exactly known as a man who makes a statement and stands by it through thick and thin.

And it looks like we have one of those confusing situations on our hands today. Speaking at yesterday’s UFC on FOX 10 pre-fight media scrum, White assigned even more value to the huge upcoming Chris Weidman vs. Vitor Belfort bout, tentatively set for sometime this summer.

Going back on a previous statement where he deemed UFC bantamweight champion Renan Barao the future pound-for-pound king if he finishes Urijah Faber at next week’s UFC 169, White now believes that middleweight champion Chris Weidman will now be best if he can defeat Belfort:

“If Weidman beats Belfort he’s the best. He’s No. 1. How is he not the No. 1 pound-for-pound in the world if he beats Vitor Belfort? It’s impossible not to call him the No. 1 pound-for-pound guy.”

Indeed it would be hard to argue against the surging Weidman occupying the top spot in the pound-for-pound rankings if he gets past “The Phenom,” as he would own two wins over Anderson Silva and one over arguably the hottest fighter in MMA right now in Belfort.

Inevitably the question of White’s previous statement about Barao arose; to which White said Barao would be No. 2:

“If he beats Vitor, Barao’s f—ing No. 2!”

Well there you have it. Barao has the opportunity to be the king of the mountain for a short while, but a lot of things have to fall into place. He has to finish the notoriously tough Faber in New Jersey on February 1, and then he has to hope Belfort takes the belt from Weidman when they meet up somewhere down the line.

This entire back-and-forth is about as confusing and arbitrary as the whole idea of pound-for-pound rankings. The bottom line is that they are always going to be up for interpretation. It’s hard to think that Jose Aldo, who also defends his belt at UFC 169, would be left out of the conversation if he finishes Ricardo Lamas. After all, that would give him victories over each and every one of the top five contenders at featherweight, which is one of the most talent-laden divisions in the sport right now.

That’s a resume that’s hard to argue with, as is that of UFC light heavyweight titleholder Jon “Bones” Jones, who’s beaten a laundry list of former champions and only has one loss on his record from a disqualification. Barao hasn’t lost since 2005, so this discussion is already a mess.

And it may be a pointless one. But for the sake of argument, who is your number one fighter if White’s extremely hypothetical situations actually come true?

Check out White’s full UFC on FOX 10 media scrum courtesy of UFC.com right here: