Dana White Cancels UFC 279 Press Conference As It Starts Due To Brawls/Chaos Backstage
Well that was fuckin weird!
Literally hours after my interview with UFC President Dana White today, where we discussed backstage fights and whether or not fighters get into it at the UFC Performance Institute more than we think, a massive backstage brawl broke out at the UFC 279: Diaz vs Chimaev press conference causing Dana to cancel the event just minutes in while fans booed him into bolivian.
Check out that interview by the way, it was a fun chat....
In a media scrum afterwards, Dana said he's never seen anything like the shitshow backstage today in his 22 years of running the UFC, but that he'll make sure it never happens again. He then confirmed the early reports that allegedly, Kevin Holland (who is fighting Daniel Rodriguez on Saturday) got into it with Khamzat Chimaev, which then spilled over into the Diaz camp getting involved - and if you know anything about the Diaz Army, you know they roll deep. There coulda been dozens upon dozens of people involved. Luckily, it seems nobody was seriously hurt, and the show will go on this Saturday.
Details other than that have been few and far between.
Kevin Holland is the only one to comment so far, and he essentially made his first comment a Manscaped ad....
….respect for knowing how the content game works there.
Ariel Helwani says punches, kicks, and bottles were thrown - but luckily, there were no flying chairs/biting involved. That only happens backstage in AEW.
UFC Embedded is sure to be an interesting one tomorrow! Again - check out my latest with Dana White below, it's a quick 10min watch!
UPDATE: Some more info from Ariel Helwani….