"I was gonna refund everybody's tickets and go to Abu Dhabi" - Dana White reveals considering pulling out of UFC London two weeks ago
Dana White revealed that he was considering a change of venue just two weeks ahead of UFC London. The UFC boss claimed that he planned to refund tickets and shift to Abu Dhabi.
Although the roof of the O2 arena was shattered by the Eunice storm last month, White revealed that it wasn't the root of his problems. While he did not delve into the details, White claimed that it broadly revolved around the ease of doing business. The 52-year old told reporters during the post-fight scrum:
"We had some problems, I was considering pulling out of here two weeks ago. I was gonna refund everybody's tickets and go to Abu Dhabi...there are certain things, you know. The world's a naughty place right now, man. It's not as easy to do business. And I said, 'I'm just not gonna play games, man. I'm gonna go to places where I am able to go and just run my business and do what I wanna do."
Additionally, Dana White revealed they the UFC will most likely stage a card in France this year. He also expressed interest in returning to London in the future.
Watch the UFC London post-fight press conference below:
Dana White was extremely impressed with UFC London
While Dana White might have faced some initial hurdles, the UFC London fight card played out very well for the company. The UFC president claimed that the event was the biggest fight night in the history of the promotion. On a night that will go down in history, White doled out nine performance bonuses, one for every finish on the card.
Historic night at #UFCLondon 🤑 https://t.co/gi8yCKbJd4
Six of the nine fighters winning bonuses were from the UK. White was left so impressed overall that he is considering a return to London at the earliest. He said:
"This is the greatest batch of talent we've ever seen in the history of the UK and tonight we were going to find out how they'd do. And they killed it. We have so many options now, so many things we could do. That's why we're going to go home and I'm going to figure out immediately how to come back here. I don't know where we'll go or what we'll do yet. But like you said, we have nothing but options."