Dana White addresses conspiracies surrounding UFC 279: “You’re literally out of your mind”
UFC president Dana White has seen everything when it comes to running the UFC, fighters not respecting their contracts, fighters missing weight, fighters getting injured right before their fights, etc.
But UFC 279 might be one of the craziest fight weeks he’s ever been a part of, not only dealing with a fighter missing weight but also having to cancel the pre-fight press conference due to an altercation and re-arrange most of the main card with just over 24 hours before the event.
The original matchups were Khamzat Chimaev vs Nate Diaz as the headliner, Li Jingliang vs Tony Ferguson as the co-main event, and Kevin Holland vs Daniel Rodriguez. After Chimaev missed weight by 7.5 pounds White went live later that day to announce the new matchups having Diaz against Ferguson headlining the card with Chimaev against Holland in the co-main event.
The night before the weigh-ins, an altercation between Chimaev and Holland took place which ended in the press conference being canceled.
Originally, UFC fans felt that Diaz being given Chimaev as his farewell fight was the promotion’s way of getting back at him for bashing them online for months in attempts to get the last fight of his contract booked
There has been speculation about the altercation that happened backstage before the pre-fight press conference along with the failed weight cut were all planned to set up a fight between Diaz and Ferguson, which would of course be much more favorable for the Stockton-native’s last fight than facing “Borz”.
The UFC president of course quickly shut down any ‘conspiracies’ regarding anything of this sort telling reporters in the post-fight press conference that those people are “literally out of their mind.”
White stated that: “If you’re dancing around the question that there was some conspiracy theory that… there’s some f—ng lunatics on the internet that think that this was all staged and planned and whatever. If you think that the crazy dudes that we had here this week could be orchestrated into something that would be… you’re literally out of your mind.” (H/T Bloody Elbow).
White later confirmed during the press conference that the change did not negatively affect the company stating “not only was not one ticket refunded, the day that all the craziness was going on, we sold 250 tickets that day” which extends their sell-out streak to 25.
