Dana White notebook: Matt Hughes' recovery, St. Louis PPV event, UFC in Russia

ST. LOUIS – Following Sunday’s UFC Fight Night 124, UFC President Dana White spoke to reporters about a variety of subjects.

You can check out the full scrum video above.

Here are some of the topics he discussed.

Hughes’ return

UFC Fight Night 124, which took place place at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, had a special guest: UFC Hall of Famer and local product Matt Hughes, who appeared at a UFC event for the first time since a car-train accident this past summer.

After a remarkable recovery from the life-threatening accident, Hughes got a large ovation as he walked to cageside with his traditional “A Country Boy Can Survive” walkout music.

White, of course, was there to greet him.

“It was super emotional for me,” White said. “Matt Hughes is a guy, much like Chuck Liddell, who’s been to my house on holidays, and my kids hang with his kids. We kind of grew up together in this sport, and tonight was a big night for me.

“And Dan Lambert – people in MMA know who Dan Lambert is – but he’s very close to Matt Hughes. So we’ve kind of been keeping each other in the loop while this whole horrible tragedy happened with him. And for the three of us to be together tonight, with Matt’s wife, it was awesome. Very cool.”

St. Louis to get PPV

It took more than 24 years for the UFC to make its St. Louis debut. In fact, the UFC had been to the state of Missouri just once before (2017’s UFC on FOX 24 in Kansas City).

For an FS1 card, UFC Fight Night 124 drew a pretty solid crowd – a 10,052 attendance and $812,995 live gate.

The city, which used to be a frequent stop for Strikeforce, could now be a regular host city for the UFC, according to White.

“The crowd was awesome in St. Louis,” he said. “This place is so great, man. I love the crowd. The whole place was screaming at me to bring a pay-per-view back here, and we will absolutely bring a pay-per-view back here. I loved it.”

“When we leave and get further out in the year and start planning dates, St. Louis is definitely on the books. One thing I love about this city, obviously it was a tough week for us with the card changes. Bot only did it not affect – the ticket sales went up. They didn’t go down. No returns. This city wanted the UFC, and they were an awesome crowd tonight, and I will reciprocate with a pay-per-view, and we’ll be back.”

UFC in Russia?

Nothing is official, but where there’s smoke, there’s often fire. And those reports of a UFC debut in Russia? White suggested there could be some validity.

This past week, Russia’s RT.com reported the UFC has booked the 35,000-seat Olympic Stadium in Moscow for a Sept. 15 show.

“I’ve been telling you guys for a long time that Russia is an important market to us,” White said. “I want it. I want it to happen. So we’re goofing around out there trying to figure out what we can do.”

The UFC would have no shortage of Russian fighters, including top UFC lightweight contender Khabib Nurmagomedov, to book for the potential card.

Earlier topics

In addition to the topics above, White also addressed the following subjects:

• UFC plans Tony Ferguson-Khabib Nurmagomedov title fight; Conor McGregor would be stripped
• Dana White on Uriah Hall after UFC Fight Night 124 weigh-in miss: ‘He doesn’t take it serious
• UFC boss rips Kamaru Usman’s UFC Fight Night 124 post-fight speech; Usman clarifies
• UFC working on Cris Cyborg vs. Amanda Nunes: ‘The fight everybody wants to see’

For more on UFC Fight Night 124, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.