Another day brings yet another brawl, yet another fan finding themselves punched in the face. But to UFC CEO Dana White, it’s no big deal.
In this instance, it was Merab Dvalishvili and UFC lightweight Dennis Buzukja who clashed with a Shavkat Rakhmonov fan in the crowd after they had supported Aljamain Sterling during the prelims. Security managed to contain “The Machine” backstage, but Buzukja threw punches with the fan, who later mingled with Merab’s upcoming opponent, Umar Nurmagomedov.
“This isn’t his first altercation,” White remarked about the situation. “I don’t know if you guys noticed at the press conference yesterday too—somebody yelled something while he was in the middle of a conversation. He looked like he was trying to see who said that. Like what? You’re gonna run over there and fight this guy, too?”
“It’s just the way he is,” White continued. “He’s built that way. And I don’t know if you saw, but he wasn’t sitting in the regular fighter section. We had to move him over. I had to shift the other two guys at our table as well. We try to diffuse these situations before they happen, and tonight we had a solid game plan. I didn’t expect him to end up in a fight while walking out with Aljamain.”
“Later on, I referred to him as my mini Strickland without the mouth,” White said. “What can you do? Let them purchase the pay-per-view, I guess. I have no idea. But you can’t keep brawling with the fans. It’s going to cost you a fortune. This is the fight business, and these things happen. We have to handle it.”
“Tonight, we made an effort,” he added. “We took Islam [Umar], positioned them cageside, relocated Merab to the other side, and had Umar and his crew placed in the middle, but we still encountered issues… We do our best.”
When asked about Dvalishvili’s very vocal desire to avoid facing Nurmagomedov as his first title challenger, White noted the fighter’s initial hesitance. He ultimately agreed to the fight, but it was clear he was not enthusiastic about it. Was fear a factor?
“I don’t think any of these guys are afraid of anyone,” White responded. “I’m sure there are specific fighters they would prefer to wait to face for various reasons. But Merab is literally fighting people in the stands, okay? He’d get into a fight right in the middle of the fighter section, which is why we moved him over to the left.”
“I wouldn’t say that any of these fighters are afraid of anyone or any match. However, they are a paranoid bunch. They always feel there’s some sort of conspiracy against them, whether it’s us or others, or if we create bouts that fans want to see. They win or lose those fights on their own, but they perceive a conspiracy. They constantly think someone is out to get them.”
“Maybe that’s what they need in order to maintain that mental edge to go out and perform as they do,” White concluded.
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