Dana White Calls Out Sean Shelby For Letting Stephens Push Klose
Dana White is none too pleased with matchmaker Sean Shelby at the moment.
Last Saturday’s UFC Vegas 24 event saw Robert Whittaker cruise to a victory over Kelvin Gastelum. However, the event didn’t go off without a hitch. The planned co-main event was to see Jeremy Stephens take on Drakkar Klose in an exciting lightweight match-up. But an incident at the weigh-ins the night before prevented that from happening.
When Stephens and Klose came face-to-face on Friday, ‘Lil’ Heathen’ gave his opponent a shove. It was hard enough that the unsuspecting Klose was diagnosed with a concussion and cervical sprain. Despite his best efforts to go though with the fight, Klose was pulled from the card just minutes before the first fight took place.
With White away for a family event, Shelby was overseeing the weigh-ins. In an interview with TSN, White said he believes Shelby should have seen the altercation coming (H/T MMA Junkie).
“He was coming in hot, and it’s Jeremy Stephens. He’s a savage,” White said on Monday. “I mean, yeah, we’re not standing there to look good and take pictures. We are there to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“Sean Shelby missed that one. Sean Shelby, you know, Sean and I see the thing differently,” White said. “I saw it on social media and called him immediately. I was at my daughter’s … I was in Orlando at the ESPN cheerleading competition. I saw the thing happen on social media and I called Sean and was like, ‘Dude, where was your head on that one?’”
While it remains unclear Klose is going to be forced to the sidelines for, here’s hoping he’s able to make a quick recovery and the UFC can rebook the bout ASAP. The stylistic matchup between the two was already near guaranteed to produce fireworks, so who knows what could happen between the two now that there’s legitimate beef involved.
Do you agree with Dana White that Sean Shelby dropped the ball?
