LAS VEGAS – It’s been a wild day for the UFC, and that includes its president Dana White.
The UFC 279 pay-per-view, which is set to go down on Saturday night in Las Vegas, had a major shake-up that left the card with three new matchups. On Friday morning, Khamzat Chimaev missed weight by 7.5 pounds for his highly anticipated bout against Nate Diaz in the main of the card, and that forced the UFC to reshuffle the deck.
“It’s been a hell of a night and a hell of a morning,” White said on Friday evening on ESPN SportsCenter’s Instagram account. “It’s not by coincidence that we stack guys the same weight on the same card in case anything goes wrong, but yeah, it worked out.
Dana White previews the new #UFC279 card and announces that the co-main event will be five rounds 🙌 pic.twitter.com/oUOR25a1z1
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) September 9, 2022
“Obviously, when something like this happens, you got guys that trained for another guy for a long time. Getting these guys to agree to different fights can be a little tough sometimes, but we got ’em all done, they’re locked in.”
Now, after hectic negotiations with six fighters, the UFC landed with the following bouts: Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson, Chimaev vs. Kevin Holland, and Li Jingliang vs. Daniel Rodriguez.
Despite the UFC not getting its way with the original matchups and being forced to draw new ones, White is still happy with the end product and believes this was the best outcome given the circumstances.
“Nate Diaz and Tony, like you said, the fans have wanted to see this one forever,” White said. “It’s gonna happen now before Nate leaves the UFC.
“Yesterday, there were a lot of questions about what happened. Kevin Holland and Khamzat Chimaev actually got into it yesterday backstage. Ironically, they will now fight on Saturday night, and ‘Leech’ vs. Rodriguez is also a fun fight. So, it literally couldn’t have played out any better.”
