Dana White is taking the heat for the UFC’s promotional scrubbing of former heavyweight champ Francis Ngannou.
Ahead of UFC 305 earlier this month, the promotion’s Countdown show showed a clip of Israel Adesanya speaking at the event’s pre-sale press conference, saying that opponent Dricus du Plessis discredited him and Kamaru Usman. However, the actual line said at the presser included “the three kings,” and included Ngannou — but those things were left out of the clip, which led to speculation about if the UFC was trying to erase Ngannou from the history books after making the choice to leave the UFC and sign with PFL.
White was asked about it at the press conference and said he wasn’t aware, but he’d look into it. According to Kevin Iole, who asked the question, White called him and realized that had happened, and also saying the onus is on him.
“My production team are a bunch of rock stars and they are truly f*cking awesome,” White told Iole. “I make it so hard on them sometimes with some of the crazy shit I say and it’s tough. When you asked me about that, I didn’t know anything about it. But someone was editing that and made a conscious decision, thinking it was the right thing to do, that that’s what we would’ve wanted, what I would’ve wanted.
“I didn’t know about it and that was nothing that ever came across my desk. I’m in charge of everything production related, so at the end of the day, the fact that it happened falls on me 100 percent. It’s my responsibility and I accept it. Blame me for that. I put them in such a tough spot sometimes saying all this crazy shit, it’s hard for them.
“Whoever was editing it, they thought that was the right decision and did what they thought I wanted. That’s not what I wanted and had I known that, I would have not authorized that. But that’s on me. Totally on me. I already called Israel Adesanya and apologized for it.”
Adesanya spoke about it prior to his submission loss to du Plessis at the UFC 305 media day after a social media clip of the omission went viral.
The first rule of UFC Fight Club: don’t mention Francis Ngannou’s name…
— AFeldmanMMA (@afeldMMA) August 13, 2024
Here’s a look at the clip from the UFC 305 Countdown episode versus what Adesanya actually said at the UFC 305 Pre-Sale Press Conference.
It’s no surprise, but the UFC’s attempt to erase Ngannou from its… pic.twitter.com/PZpA7UAtSe
“You can’t erase Francis’ legacy in the UFC,” Adesanya said. “It’s part of what we’ve done. It’s forever in history, in stone. So trying to whitewash it or just not talk about it is silly.
“I know he’s fighting for the PFL right now, but it’s still history. You can’t just turn a blind eye to it. I’m sure they’ll fix it eventually. This is how business goes with the UFC.”
