UFC president Dana White isn’t sure whether or not he’ll attend Friday’s Game 5 between the Canucks and Bruins.

“I’m thinking about it,” White admitted Thursday at the opening press conference for UFC 131. “But I don’t want to get killed.”

White, 41, who grew up in Boston, said he plans to be impartial during the Stanley Cup final and will do his best not to anger Canucks faithful.

“I’ve got a big mouth and I talk a lot of smack, but I’m not messing with this whole hockey thing. It’s like religion to you guys.”

The UFC has followed major events before, White added, but never one that had meant so much to a city.

UFC’s most recent foray to Vancouver, which runs Saturday night at Rogers Arena, did not see the same frenzied 30-minute sellout that welcomed UFC 115 to the city last summer.

Tom Wright, president of UFC Canada, said the deep Canucks run undoubtedly took a significant amount of discretionary money out of the entertainment market.

He said UFC 131, which boasts a heavyweight tilt between Junior dos Santos and Shane Carwin, still has between 500 to 1,000 tickets to sell in each price category. He said he expects 14,000 to 15,000 fans will take in the event Saturday night.

White, however, said he was happy with the gate and pledged that the UFC would return to Vancouver again in the future.