The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) has experienced perhaps some of the most chaotic few days of the promotion’s history as of late. Now UFC President Dana White has come forward with his reaction to the highly anticipated fight card of UFC 223 going through yet another main event change up.
UFC 223 is set to go down inside the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York this Saturday, April 7. The night’s main event was initially set to see Tony Ferguson and Khabib Nurmagomedov battle it out for the undisputed UFC lightweight title. However, much has changed since then.
The chaos began when Tony Ferguson was pulled from the fight after tearing his LCL just six days before the event. The fighter tripped over a cable at a recent media event, causing the injury. Ferguson vs. Nurmagomedov has now been booked and ultimately cancelled a staggering total of four times.
UFC featherweight champion Max Holloway stepped up on severely short notice to replace Ferguson in the night’s main event. However, the fighter has since been deemed unfit to finish his weight cut by the New York State Athletic Commission.
On just over 24 hours notice, Al Iaquinta has now been locked in to fight Khabib Nurmagomedov for the main event of UFC 223. The replacement opponent for Nurmagomedov’s replacement opponent, being Iaquinta, will not be eligible for the lightweight title.
However, Nurmagomedov will become the new lightweight champion if he defeats Iaquinta. Nurmagomedov made championship weight, as Iaquinta did not.
Taking to Twitter, UFC President Dana White has decided to offer his thoughts on the aggressively changing UFC 223 headliner.
“WOW what a week. Thank you Ragin Al for demanding this fight and thank u Khabib for being willing to fight ANYONE all week!!!”
WOW what a week. Thank you Ragin Al for demanding this fight and thank u Khabib for being willing to fight ANYONE all week!!! pic.twitter.com/oDqC30FdES
— Dana White (@danawhite) April 6, 2018