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Fans spotted Dana White's 'classy' gesture to Alex Pereira following his big win over Jamahal Hill at UFC 300.
Pereira made light work of the returning Hill, putting him away in the very first round in their main-event clash last weekend.
He stopped the former champion to defend his UFC light-heavyweight title and appeared to aim a dig at long-time rival Israel Adesanya, who was in attendance.
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Despite not displaying his Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Pereira was awarded his black belt by Glover Teixeira inside the Octagon moments after his stunning victory.
'Poatan' wore the jiu-jitsu black belt around his waist as he was presented with the UFC title by White.
However, the UFC boss did not wrap the belt around Pereira's waist, instead putting the title on his shoulders.
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And he even acknowledged the black belt as they shared a warm embrace.
White's respectful move was praised by fight fans online.
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Former UFC fighter Tim Kennedy wrote: "Last night @danawhite didn’t cover @alexpoatanpereira new black belt that was awarded to him by @gloverteixeira at the end of his total fight, total class. Respecting the art, supporting the athletes, while building the business is a tough act to balance. Great work Dana."
A second tweeted: "People hate on Dana but he’s easily the best commissioner across any sport."
A third added: "This is the stuff that you wouldn't see, but makes a world of difference."
Pereira has won three fights in a row since moving up to the 205lbs division.
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Speaking to Joe Rogan, he called for a heavyweight fight on next month's UFC 301 in Brazil.
“I talked a lot about fighting in Brazil if I won this fight, I won this fight, I’m not hurt nothing happened, I know there needs to be a lot of promotion behind a fight, but I want to have a fight at heavyweight [at UFC 301]," he said.
But White poured cold water on the Brazil star's heavyweight request as he referenced UFC heavyweight champions Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall, who holds the interim belt.
"So, when you think about him [Alex Pereira] moving up to heavyweight, you’ve got [Jon] Jones, you’ve got [Tom] Aspinall, and the list goes on and on in that heavyweight division," he explained.
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"The heavyweight division is nasty, and I don’t think that’s the right move for him.
"He looked damn good tonight in the division that he’s in so I think he might want to stick around there for a minute,
"I don’t know, these are things that we’re going to talk about for the next 15 Tuesdays, you know what I mean, but we’ll get it figured out [eventually]."
Topics: UFC, Dana White, Fan Reactions
Nasir Jabbar