White counts to 10 on Conor dishonor UFC boss reduces ire with Mcgregor

An infuriated Dana White appeared ready to sever ties with Conor Mcgregor in the immediate aftermath of a rampage at Barclays Center on Thursday that resulted in the arrest of the superstar fighter.

The UFC president appeared to soften his stance dramatically bytheend of a chaotic UFC 223 event Saturday night in Brooklyn, New York.

“People say to me, ‘Oh, this looks so bad for the sport,’ and everything else,” White said in the wee hours of Sunday morning inside the same arena the incident had taken place. “I agree, it doesn’t look good.

“Butattheendoftheday, there’s a lot worse that goes on in all the other sports, so I’ll take a dolly through a (bus) window any day.”

The dolly Mcgregor threw broke a passenger window and injured two fighters, forcing their removal from Saturday’s card. When asked by a reporter in the hours after the melee whether he wanted to do business with Mcgregor going forward, White’s answer revealed his frustration with the former two-division champion and unquestioned cash cow.

“Would you want to be in business with him?” White retorted before calling the act “disgusting and despicable” and openly wondering whether Mcgregor was on drugs.

He was much more measured at the postevent news conference.

“We talked. It’s good,” White said. “I think that there’s a mutual respect between us and, obviously this week, I had so many things thrown at me. To focus on this show was insane. We’ll get back and we’ll focus on Conor Mcgregor.”

Mcgregor is also receiving some support from the world of embattled celebrities.

Rapper Chris Brown, who has had several high-profile outbursts of uncontrollable rage, seems to understand Mcgregor’s temper.

“We all get crazy sometimes,” he told TMZ.

Singer Justin Bieber also expressed public support for Mcgregor.

“I think Conor will be fine,” Bieber said. “We all make mistakes.”

Mcgregor is free on bond and must return to court June 14 to answer for several criminal charges, though two legal analysts told the Review-journal jail time is unlikely because of Mcgregor’s lack of prior criminal record.

Rousey ‘happy’ for losses

Former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has rarely spoken of the two setbacks that led her to step away from the octagon.

After her starring role at Wrestlemania on Sunday, Rousey apparently was in the mood to reflect on the crushing knockouts administered by Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes.

“It was me versus the world in an individual sport,” Rousey told ESPN. “I thought I would never say this, but I’m so happy I lost those fights because it led me here. This is so worth it.

“Everything really does happen for a reason. I’m just so grateful. I thought I never would be (grateful) for (the losses), but time is a great teacher. I’m just really, really glad I gave it time instead of giving up and feeling it was theendoftheworld.”

Rousey teamed with fellow Olympic medalist Kurt Angle to win a tag-team match at the WWE’S biggest event of the year.

Diaz accepts sanction

UFC star welterweight Nick Diaz accepted a oneyear suspension from the U.S. Anti-doping Agency that will actually expire this month.

The 34-year-old faced discipline for three violations of the whereabouts policy that requires UFC athletes to inform USADA of their location at all times as part of the drug-testing program.

Diaz, 34, violated the policy in both the second and third quarters of 2016 and again in the first quarter of 2017. Three infractions in a 12-month period results in a suspension. His ban is retroactive to April 19, 2017, making him eligible to return to competition in less than two weeks.

Contact Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-277-8028. Follow @Adamhilllvrj on Twitter.

I’ve been at the Reviewjournal for 2½ years, trying to build a Sports section that would make you, the readers, proud.

Last month we received an accolade that shows we might be on the right track. The Associated Press Sports Editors group, which includes sports directors from nearly every newspaper in North America, named the R-J one of the top 10 sports sections in the country in our circulation category.

It marked the first time in almost a dozen years the RJ had been so honored.

The RJ, which competes with papers ranging from 75,000 t0 175,000 circulation, was joined by the Baton Rouge Advocate, The Buffalo News, Indianapolis Star, Milwaukee Journal

Sentinel, The Oklahoman, Omaha World Herald, Philadelphia Daily News, Pittsburgh Post Gazette and Seattle Times for the daily section award.

Our department also was honored for one of the top 10 special sections in our circulation group. The award was for our Golden Knights season preview section published in October, “Face of the Team,” which featured four different collectible covers.

“Review-journal readers have long known that they have one of the very best Sports sections in the country,” Executive

Editor Glenn Cook said. “It’s terrific that APSE has made it official with a top-10 award for the section.”

These awards make us happy, but they also make us hungrier. We’re proud of our accomplishments, but we’re always trying to improve and you can help us be a better Sports section.

Tell me what you think about what we’re doing — good or bad — by phone (702-3872909) or email (bbradley@ reviewjournal.com).

In case you didn’t notice, you received a 36-page Golden Knights Season Review bonus section in Monday’s edition. That included a lot of hard work by our staff, including the Knights coverage team of reporters Steve Carp and Dave Schoen and assistant sports editor Tom Spousta.

We’re not done, though, because Wednesday’s editions will include a 36-page Golden Knights/stanley Cup Playoffs Preview. It will look at the Knights-los Angeles Kings series from all angles as well as the other seven playoffs series.

By the way, if you missed our Season Review section, you can buy it at hundreds of Las Vegas-area retailers for $1.99 or order it through our RJ store, Reviewjournal.com/ Store, for $4.99. Either way, we haven’t forgotten about you.

The city’s newest franchise, the Aces, get started on their first season in Las Vegas when they make the first pick in the WNBA draft on Thursday.

Sam Gordon, who has been covering high schools sports as an intern for the past year, recently became a full-timer and will be the beat reporter to cover the Aces.

Gordon isn’t new to the WNBA. He covered the Minnesota Lynx regularly for the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneerpress while attending the University of Minnesota.

Bill Bradley is Assistant Managing Editor/sports for the Review-journal