Dana White is no stranger to seeing his athletes get into skirmishes before UFC events, but he’s stunned that RAF hasn’t figured out how to contain things on their end after another incident this week.
Ahead of RAF Abu Dhabi, Usman Nurmagomdov and several members of his crew attacked Merab Dvalishvili while the former UFC bantamweight champion was doing an interview. The PFL lightweight champ delivered a cheap shot that started things off, and a melee broke out that left Dvalishvili and his teammate
bloodied and bruised.
That incident reportedly led to Nurmagomedov, and seven others, getting sentenced to six months in jail.
Ahead of UFC 334 in New York City, White was asked about the latest incident that involved his fighter as a victim, and one of the sport’s top free agents.
“Anywhere the whole Khabib crew shows up there’s usually going to be some fights going on, or Khamzat and all these guys,” White told EuroSport. “And, the RAF, there’s literally a fist fight at every one of these things.”
White and the UFC have allowed their athletes — most notably Arman Tsarukyan and Khamzat Chimaev — to compete consistently for RAF in wrestling matches. Tsarukyan, himself, has been involved in a couple of brawls this year with Georgio Poullas and Dillon Danis, while Chimaev and Danis stirred a brawl up following their June matchup at RAF 10. Additionally, Belal Muhammad attacked Colby Covington during the RAF 11 post-event press conference in July.
For the UFC CEO, he hopes this latest incident can get RAF to re-think things moving forward.
“Well, the RAF guys, you would think they would learn after a couple of these and figure out how to stop this from happening,” White said. “People always ask me, ‘Oh, isn’t this good for you?’ No, it’s never good.”
Not above criticism, White says he’s had to learn his biggest lesson along the way, and it was during, arguably, the most viral moment in UFC history following Khabib Nurmagomedov’s submission win over Conor McGregor.
“We’re in the fight business,” White explained. “If you don’t handle your business right, that’s the kind of stuff that’s going to happen at your event. It happens. And normally what we do is we know that there’s beefs and we do our best. Last one that happened with Khabib’s crew and Dillon Danis, I completely blame myself for that. I knew he was there. I messed up on that one, not my team.
“So, yeah. It’s not good. Not good, don’t like it, and, obviously, it’s super dangerous. And to do it in a place like the Middle East? And what if any of you get seriously injured?”
