{"id":721576,"date":"2026-06-07T19:12:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:12:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721576\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T19:12:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T19:12:16","slug":"dana-white-explains-why-chris-billam-smith-and-ryan-rozicki-gave-no-post-fight-interviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/721576\/","title":{"rendered":"Dana White Explains Why Chris Billam-Smith And Ryan Rozicki Gave No Post-Fight Interviews"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=boxing247.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"660\" height=\"208\" alt=\"Add East Side Boxing as a preferred source on Google\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/google.png\"\/><\/p>\n<p>  <\/a><\/p>\n<p>  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqKAgKIiJDQklTRXdnTWFnOEtEV0p2ZUdsdVp6STBOeTVqYjIwb0FBUAE?ceid=US:en&amp;oc=3&amp;hl=en-US&amp;gl=US\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" style=\"display:flex; align-items:center; justify-content:center;&#010;            width:140px; height:40px; overflow:hidden;\"><br \/>\n    <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"468\" height=\"128\" alt=\"Follow East Side Boxing on Google News\" style=\"height:100%; width:auto; display:block;\" class=\"perfmatters-lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/follow-google-news.png\"\/><br \/>\n  <\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Billam-Smith emerged victorious when Rozicki\u2019s corner stopped the fight due to severe cuts over both eyes, but the damage sustained by both fighters prompted immediate action from Zuffa Boxing president Dana White.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe sent them both to the hospital, they\u2019re both getting checked out,\u201d White said after the event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI got my guy, Dave Lewis, and I said, no interviews, no nothing. I want both these guys to go straight to the hospital. And if there\u2019s anything even remotely serious for either guy, I want them both med-vac\u2019d to London.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>White said fighter safety was the priority following one of the most physically demanding fights on the card.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn 30 years of the UFC, there\u2019s never been a death or serious injury. And it\u2019s important for me to keep that run alive, especially with boxing. A lot more traumatic brain injury things happen in the sport of boxing than they do in MMA, so I\u2019m crazy about the health and safety side of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Billam-Smith later reassured fans that his trip to hospital was precautionary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have been taken to hospital but it is very precautionary.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am absolutely fine, they are just going to do some tests but all is well.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>By Sunday, both fighters had been released from hospital and were recovering.<\/p>\n<p>A photograph posted by Zuffa Boxing showed Billam-Smith and Rozicki together after the fight, with the visible damage on both men highlighting why White was unwilling to allow either fighter to remain at the arena for media duties.<\/p>\n<p>While Billam-Smith kept his place among the leading contenders in the cruiserweight division, the immediate story after the fight was the toll the contest took on both men and the precautions taken to ensure their safety.<\/p>\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">ABSOLUTE WARRIORS \ud83e\udee1 \ud83e\udd4a<\/p>\n<p>Nothing but respect between Chris Billam-Smith and Ryan Rozicki! <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/hashtag\/ZuffaBoxing07?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">#ZuffaBoxing07<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/5CoPqJGLdG\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/5CoPqJGLdG<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Zuffa_Boxing (@Zuffa_Boxing) <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/Zuffa_Boxing\/status\/2063593512306631029?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow\">June 7, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Billam-Smith emerged victorious when Rozicki\u2019s corner stopped the fight due to severe cuts over both eyes, but the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721577,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-721576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721576"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721576\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}