Ilia Topuria is headlining the UFC White House card in a lightweight title unification bout against Justin Gaethje but Dana White shut down reports that he was originally supposed to face Islam Makhachev instead.
After the full UFC White House card was announced at UFC 326 on Saturday, rumors immediately began swirling on all the various fights that the promotion was supposedly working on before the event was confirmed. The biggest potential matchup was Makhachev facing Topuria, which would have been a massive fight for the card, but White shut that down rather emphatically during the Zuffa Boxing 4 post-fight press conference on Sunday.
“That’s not true,” White said about Makhachev vs. Topuria. “That is true [Justin Gaethje wasn’t originally on the card]. It was never Islam versus Topuria. Don’t worry about what fights are being made. We announced which ones are made and which ones will be happening. I told you there were some weird circumstances.
“The reason that fight fell out and it wasn’t up on stage with Mick [Maynard], Hunter [Campbell] and Sean [Shelby], it was at Power Slap that the fight fell apart that night and all the boys went back to the office and were there until literally 9 in the morning and that’s how Gaethje ended up on the card. Topuria wasn’t originally supposed to be on the card either. So he got the call, too.”
During the Power Slap event on Friday, White said that a fight booked for the White House fell apart at the 11th hour and his team was scrambling to figure out the final lineup for the historic event planned for Sunday, June 14 as part of President Donald Trump’s America 250 celebration.
Speculation immediately started on what fight wasn’t happening and Gaethje later stated that he was specifically told on Thursday that he wasn’t competing at the White House. On Saturday — just hours before the announcement was made — Gaethje revealed he got confirmation that he was on the card and he would be facing off against Topuria in a lightweight title unification bout.
White confirmed that version of events but not because the UFC was trying to book Topuria against Makhachev. Instead, it appears that both Topuria and Gaethje were late additions to the event.
As far as Makhachev goes, the reigning UFC welterweight champion is currently observing Ramadan but he’s also nursing an injury that could potentially delay his return to action.
“He’s got some hand issues,” White said about Makhachev. “I know that. I don’t know how serious the hand issues are or how long that will keep him out but he’s injured.”
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