Dana White: Tyron Woodley vs. Stephen Thompson 2, Michael Bisping vs. Yoel Romero likely

NEW YORK – UFC President Dana White doesn’t like to match-make on fight night, but he sure had a lot of ideas about potential scraps after UFC 205.

White revealed the likely direction for two UFC divisions, telling MMAjunkie a rematch between welterweight champ Tyron Woodley (16-3-1 MMA, 6-2-1 UFC) and Stephen Thompson (13-1-1 MMA, 8-1-1 UFC) should happen after the two fought to a majority draw.

“You rematch them,” White said at Madison Square Garden in New York City, which hosted the Saturday pay-per-view event. “It was a draw, and the fight was ridiculous. It was a ‘Fight of the Night.’ Do it again.”

Indeed, Woodley and Thompson secured $50,000 bonuses for their work. But that leaves one apparent contender in limbo. Demian Maia has won six straight in the welterweight division and recently bested onetime title challenger and interim champ Carlos Condit.

White said he’ll keep his spot, but may have to wait.

“(Maia will) get the next shot if he wants to fight somebody else,” the UFC executive said. “I hate to make fights, but (the rematch) makes sense.”

Another fight that makes sense to the promoter is a middleweight title bout between champ Michael Bisping (30-7 MMA, 20-7 UFC) and Yoel Romero (13-1 MMA, 8-0 UFC), who knocked out ex-champ Chris Weidman (13-2 MMA, 9-2 UFC) in vicious fashion on the pay-per-view main card.

Bisping wasn’t exactly impressed by Romero’s performance, flipping middle fingers at the fighter when cameras found him at the FS1 broadcast table. The champ already has said he won’t fight Romero because of a previous positive test for performance enhancers, which was later linked to a tainted supplement.

With the benefit of the mic, Romero was considerably more polite after his win, but promised they would meet soon.

“I didn’t see that (interaction between them), but yeah, that’s the fight that makes sense,” White said. “He beat Chris Weidman tonight. I don’t know when, but that’s the fight.”

In the women’s strawweight division, Joanna Jedrzejczyk’s (13-0 MMA, 7-0 UFC) win over Karolina Kowalkiewicz (10-1 MMA, 3-1 UFC) left little doubt as to her dominance at 115 pounds. While the tough Kowalkiewicz requested a rematch after rocking the champ in the fourth round of their rematch, White suggested a title eliminator is the better idea.

“I think we do Claudia Gadelha and Karolina,” referring to Jedrzejczyk’s rival and opposing coach on “The Ultimate Fighter 23,” who lost a rematch to the champ earlier this year.

The one division White isn’t in the mood to forecast is the lightweight division, where Conor McGregor (21-3 MMA, 9-1 UFC) now reigns after taking the strap from Eddie Alvarez (28-5 MMA, 3-2 UFC) via second-round knockout. Although White said Khabib Nurmagomedov verbally abused him for the opportunity while simultaneously beating down Michael Johnson, and Tony Ferguson earlier this month put on a showstopper against ex-champ Rafael dos Anjos, there’s no word on what might come next.

“Good problem to have,” White told MMAjunkie when asked about Ferguson.

The one thing White will confirm is that he hasn’t softened his stance on one position: Conor must give up a belt.

We’ll see how that one plays out.

For complete coverage of UFC 205, check out the UFC Events section of the site.

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