Which White House fight fell through? Dana White dismisses UFC theory
· Yahoo Sports
Dana White has dismissed a report that Ilia Topuria vs Islam Makhachev was originally meant to take place at this summer’s UFCWhite House event.
On Saturday night, the card for an unprecedented event on 14 June was confirmed, with Topuria defending his lightweight belt against interim champion Justin Gaethje in the main event.
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In the co-main event, Alex Pereira will face Ciryl Gane for the interim heavyweight title, with regular champion Tom Aspinall waiting in the wings – but still suffering from an eye injury caused by Gane’s eye pokes in October.
UFC president Dana White (AP)Many fans have expressed disappointment in the card, after promises that it would be the greatest in UFC history. Some fans craved a match-up between pound-for-pound No 1 Makhachev and No 2 Topuria, for example, as well as a dream fight between Pereira and all-time great Jon Jones.
Over the weekend, Marca journalist Irati Prat actually reported that Makhachev vs Topuria had been planned for the White House event. The report followed comments by White earlier in the week, when the UFC president said a fight had fallen through at the 11th hour.
But at the UFC 326 post-fight press conference on Saturday, White denied that Makhachev vs Topuria was the bout that collapsed. The American, 56, even denied that the contest was ever planned.
“That’s not true [that Makhachev was going to fight Topuria],” said White. “It was never Islam vs Topuria. Don’t worry about what fights are being made; we announce which ones are made and which ones will be happening.
“I told you there were some weird circumstances [as] the reason that fight fell out [...] All the boys went back to the office and literally were there ‘til 9 in the morning, and that’s how Gaethje ended up on the card. And Topuria wasn’t originally supposed to be on the card either, so he got the call, too.
Ilia Topuria is the reigning UFC lightweight champion, and a former featherweight champion (Getty Images)Justin Gaethje (left) almost finished Paddy Pimblett multiple times in their interim-title fight (Getty)“I don’t know [when Makhachev will return]; he’s got some hand issues, I know that. I don’t know how serious the hand issues are or how long that will keep him out, but yeah, he’s injured.”
That same evening, Gaethje had claimed: “Two days ago, I got a call and they said, ‘You’re definitely not fighting on the White House card, so I was like: ‘Oof.’ And then yesterday, I got a call and they said: ‘You might hear something, you might be on the White House card.’ I was like, ‘How are you gonna do a complete 180 turn on me?’, and then today, I found out that I was on it. I didn’t know if I was main event or not.”
At the UFC 326 post-fight press conference, White did say: “That is true [that Gaethje was brought in on late notice].”
Topuria has long called for a showdown with Makhachev, but so far the dream fight has eluded him.
Islam Makhachev (top) with coach and friend Khabib Nurmagomedov, a UFC icon (AP)Topuria vacated the featherweight title last February to move up and challenge for the lightweight belt, which Makhachev held at the time. However, the Russian gave up the lightweight strap last May and set his sights on welterweight gold.
In June, Topuria knocked out Charles Oliveira to win the vacant lightweight title. Then, in November, Makhachev dominated Jack Della Maddalena to claim the welterweight belt.
With Topuria subsequently taking a break from MMA due to personal reasons, the UFC booked an interim-title fight between Gaethje and Paddy Pimblett. The American dominated the Liverpudlian for a points win in January.