Dana White says he wasn’t focused on Most Valuable Promotion’s MMA event, and his former heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou when dropping a blockbuster announcement.
During the Rousey vs. Carano event earlier this month — and while Ngannou was walking to the cage to face Philipe Lins in the featured bout — White went live on social media to announce the UFC 329 lineup, and the return of Conor McGregor after a five-year layoff to face Max Holloway in a main event rematch. The card takes place July 11 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas.
After Saturday’s Brand Risk 14 card at the Meta APEX, White as asked about the timing of his announcement, which also happened in the middle of UFC Vegas 117.
“Not a coincidence, I had a f*cking fight here that night,” White told Fred Talks Fighting. “Anybody who thinks that I gave a shit what was going on anywhere else is out of their f*cking minds.”
The McGregor vs. Holloway rematch has been rumored and in the works for several months, and had become one of the worst kept secrets in the MMA news cycle in years. In fact, Holloway recently said on a Twitch stream that he had to keep the fight a secret for nearly six months before it was announced because of the magnitude of the bout, and also — very likely — because it needed to cross the finish line.
White adds that the fight was only announced at that time because that’s when it was officially locked and loaded.
“We announced it as soon as we got it done and we were in the middle of our event,” White explained. “I don’t give a f*ck what those guys are doing. Are you kidding me?”
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