White: NYSAC Have Been Great
UFC president Dana White is probably the only man in New York giving praise to the commission following UFC 223’s wild ride.
While Conor McGregor has been dominating the headlines over the past couple of days following his UFC 223 fighter bus brawl, there’s been another entity knocking fights off the Brooklyn card like flies: the New York State Athletic Commission.
They’re the ones who killed the Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Max Holloway replacement fight on weigh in day off nothing more than a general look at Holloway. Then of course there was the ridiculous game of musical chairs we witnessed following that to get a replacement for the replacement, ending with Al Iaquinta stepping in. But if Dana White didn’t like how the commission handled the situation, he’s being awful charitable in public.
”[Holloway] got to 160 and apparently the commission didn’t like how he looked and didn’t want him to continue cutting weight,” he told reporters during a media scrum. “And if that’s the way they feel, it’s the way I feel too.”
”It’s definitely interesting dealing with New York,” he added. “Very different from everywhere else. But these guys just had a situation here not too long ago so I think they’re overly cautious, which they should be. But I can tell you, you know me. If I think something not’s right - they’ve been very fair with us and worked - look at all the stuff that’s happened.”
”We’re still here, we’re having an event, the gate’s still where it was and everything’s good, so ... they’re different and they have their own rules and regs, but they’ve been great to us.”
That ‘situation’ White is referring to is the borderline criminal handling of the post-fight medicals for Dagestani heavyweight boxer Magomed Abdusalamov, who suffered brain damage and is now paralyzed. While White presented the NYSAC’s behavior surrounding UFC 223 as cautious, I’d consider it to be more of the kind of rigid and unreasonable behavior that created the Abdusaloamov tragedy in the first place.
But hey, tomayto, tomahto.
