"All hell broke loose out here" - Dana White admits the promotion "didn't do a good job of" handling UFC 279 backstage fight
Dana White took full accountability for his company's lack of response to the backstage brawl between Khamzat Chimaev, Kevin Holland, and Nate Diaz.
The UFC 279 pre-fight press conference was supposed to take place earlier today. However, an altercation between Chimaev and Holland, which later escalated after Diaz got involved, led to the cancelation of the event.
Moments later, the UFC boss held a media scrum to answer questions regarding the incident. During which, White admitted that the UFC was partly to blame for failing to de-escalate the tension between the fighters.
"Let me just start off by saying I'm not telling everybody what went on back there... But, you know, [there were] multiple crazy... I don't even know what to call it. In 22 years, or however long I've been doing this, I never had an incident like today where all hell broke loose out here. We stopped it, but we didn't do a good job of not letting it happen."
Catch Dana White's comments in the clip below:
Dana White explains decision to call off UFC 279 presser
Dana White took to the stage to apologize to fans and media members after he decided to pull the plug on the event. However, the UFC president is adamant that he ultimately made the right call "for everybody's safety."
"I could see where this was going...You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure out where this whole press conference was headed. There were so many people with all the camps that once this started it would have been a bad – you know, now I have to start looking at an event going off on Saturday if this continues. So, we had to shut it down."
Watch the video below:
White is yet to announce if suspensions and/or sanctions are to be doled out to the fighters involved in the melee. Fortunately, though, he confirmed that the weigh-ins and the main event would go ahead as scheduled, but with greatly increased security.
Khamzat Chimaev will meet Nate Diaz in the main event of Saturday's UFC 279 pay-per-view event. Meanwhile, Kevin Holland will fight Daniel Rodriguez on the same card.