Dana White may be forced to eat his words after telling UFC fans to hold their judgement on a slate of fights at the Apex.
The promotional boss was in Saudi Arabia during the week for a rare Power Slap event that was completely independent of a UFC fight week. He appeared alongside model Nina Drama on her Kick Stream, where he was subject to a chat that were keen on trolling the sport’s kingpin.
And when fans questioned why the promotion were putting on two ‘so bad’ cards in a row in the weeks between two big pay-per-view shows, he was enraged. However, halfway through the run of Apex shows, he may be proven wrong.
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Dana White raged over UFC fans questioning Apex events
Dana White made an appearance with Nina Drama at Power Slap in Saudi Arabia, where he was asked about the quality of upcoming UFC cards. After the controversy of the UFC 321 finish, the promotion needed a strong return to form, but drew the short straw by having back-to-back Apex fight nights.
“Dana why is tonight and tomorrow’s UFC so bad?” One viewer asked, quickly catching White’s eye and angering him.
“Let me ask you a question, how is it bad when it hasn’t even happened yet?” He responded. “Shut the f— up. Watch it tomorrow and if it’s bad, tell me it’s bad.”
Dana White’s declaration is likely not to work out
Unfortunately for the UFC boss, his statement is off to a dodgy start after a fairly disastrous show last night. There were some controversies that briefly made the event interesting, but almost all the talking points have been to do with issues surrounding officiating and betting patterns, not knockouts.
There was a knockout in the main event that excited the small Las Vegas crowd, but the highlight of the night was a heavyweight showdown which was marred by yet another eye poke controversy. After Tom Aspinall’s controversial no-contest in Dubai, his teammate Ante Delija returned to action.
He looked to have knocked out Waldo Cortes-Acosta, but the result was immediately overturned due to the stoppage being an eye poke, not a knockout. Seconds later, he was stopped by the Dominican, who went on to call out Aspinall.
There was also controversy over suspicious betting patterns for one undercard fight, where Yadier del Valle choked out Isaac Dulgarian within a round. Fans were suspicious about the result immediately, and news of betting patterns has caused further controversy.