When the Lightweight champ and the then Pound-for-Pound number 2 fighter complained about the lack of promotion he felt for UFC 284, a good chunk of the MMA world took notice. Though Dana White tried to refute his claims back then, recent developments show us that the Dagestani may have been right all along.
In his complaint, the 155 lber said, “I see that it is not such big promotion. Dana White himself has some problems; he does not pay much attention to this fight. In terms of pay-per-view, yes, more could have been done. I only saw Volkanovski once, in Sydney. A tour could be organized around the world, a conference could be held in America.”
UFC President is known for not being able to handle criticisms well especially when it’s coming towards him. And he responded by pushing the blame off himself and trying to attack Makhachev instead. The initial accusations made it sound like he was more concerned with the Power Slap League and Chandler vs McGregor fight.
Dana forgot Makhachev’s name while talking about the fight, “You know, when you talk about legacy, if Volkanovski could pull this off, it’s obviously massive, and if uh …if uh …[forgets Makhachev’s name] yeah, could pull it off, he is on his way to building an incredible legacy.”
As if forgetting the champion’s name was not enough, Dana also fired back at the AKA prospect, “First of all, the event sold out. Right? You couldn’t get a ticket if you wanted to get a ticket in Perth. And this thing is trending right now to be the biggest pay-per-view event in Australia, which, it’s like six percent behind the Conor McGregor [vs. Dustin] Poirier 3 fight. It’s probably going to break the record”
In the past, many fighters who got into the bad side of Dana claimed facing issues in their careers. Do you think the same will happen with Islam Makhachev?
