‘VERY WEIRD WATERS’

UFC Press Conference Canned After ‘Big Sh*t Show’ Between Fighters Backstage

President Dana White explained to a booing crowd that he was calling off the event “for everyone’s safety.”

A “big shit show” of an altercation between multiple fighters backstage at UFC 279 forced Dana White, the league’s president, to call off a highly anticipated pre-fight press conference in mid-session on Thursday. The conference was to be held in advance of 279’s main event, a welterweight bout between fan-favorite antihero Nate Diaz and undefeated rising star Khamzat Chimaev. White, looking stricken, said he was “in very weird waters” as he announced the cancellation to a booing crowd. He added, “We’ve never had an incident like today. All hell broke loose out here. I don’t know. I don’t even know how to—We stopped it, but we didn’t do a good job of not letting it happen.” It not immediately clear which fighters were involved in the incident, but neither Diaz nor Chimaev made their scheduled appearances at the conference. Minutes after the scrapping, Kevin Holland—another fighter who had been backstage—posted to Twitter, seemingly in reference to a Wednesday tweet mocking Chimaev: “Just so everyone knows. I offered that clown a free beard trim.”