Backstage Scuffles Lead to UFC 279 Press Conference Cancelation

Chaos ensued ahead of the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s latest pay-per-view press conference.

On Thursday night, the UFC staged its regular press conference for fans and media ahead of its marquee show. UFC 279 will go down on Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, and as is tradition two days before the fights, the promotion brought all the fighters together to place on stage and take questions, followed by a staredown, for the last gathering before the ceremonial weigh-ins on Friday. Things did not go according to plan, as the UFC’s streamed press conference cut in unexpectedly, with president Dana White trying to keep things together. On the stage with him were only main card combatants Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez.

“Absolute s---show back there,” an exasperated White remarked when asked about what just happened. “Ask them [Holland and Rodriguez] questions.”

After a brief topic for Holland – who was allegedly involved in beginning a series of events that spiraled out of control for the organization – White was then questioned again as to the sudden change for the conference’s format.

“Yeah yeah, yeah, there’s lots of crazy s--- going on back there, yeah…we got it handled, talk about the fight,” he replied.

The fighters only answered questions for about three minutes until they respectfully squared off, and White then took center stage again. A brief wait led to White signaling for the staff to bring the next fighters out, and co-headliner Jingliang Li prepared to take the stairs. Instead of that, he was ushered out, when UFC personnel apparently informed White that things had spiraled out of control.

“Yeah, this ain’t gonna happen,” White said. “I apologize, everybody. I am in very weird waters here, this has never happened in the history of this company. Trust me when I tell you, this is the right decision not to do this press conference right now…for everybody’s safety, this is the right decision.”

TSN aired a live broadcast of the post-event scrum with White, who filled in a few details while leaving a lot of information unknown. He explained that the weigh-ins will still go on as planned on Friday, just with a larger number of security forces in place. He also mentioned that every fight is still intact, and the event’s status is not in question.

“It’s the business that we’re in,” he mentioned, before admitting things were a little wilder than he would have preferred. “There’s legitimate beef with people I didn’t even realize had legitimate beefs…all hell broke loose back here today.”

White confirmed the entire situation arose from a dispute between Kevin Holland and Khamzat Chimaev, who have a history with one another. In his backstage scrum, he pointed out there were multiple altercations involving many different groups of people, as it devolved into chaos. It is unclear the total number involved, or if anyone suffered any damage from it. He did say that former UFC fighter-turned-coach Tiki Ghosn placed himself in harm’s way to break up some of the fighting, and he was kicked, slapped and struck with flying objects including water bottles.

“If it wasn’t for Tiki, we’d have been in big trouble. Where you at, Tiki,” White asked. “Tiki took a couple for the team and he’s not even on the team. Yeah, Tiki took a couple water bottles to the head, and a couple slaps…kicks…thanks, Tiki.”

The camps for the headliners exceeded numbers that the UFC security team was prepared to handle, with Nate Diaz’ crew rumored around 75 people alone. Chimaev also came with an entourage of his own, and when scuffles began to break out, it took everything the UFC staff had as well as White himself to cool things down.

“Between Diaz’ team and Khamzat’s team, you had 100 people here…you’re already off to a really bad start. If anything goes wrong, you’ve got 100 people that you can’t control,” White said.

“This is the craziest press conference we’ve ever had,” White admitted. “This needed to be canceled.”

Just so everyone knows. I offered that clown a free beard trim. I don’t know anywhere in the US that would offer that service free! I am precise I promise I would not knick him. At your service just like the hotel staff bro. https://t.co/Hiwwm40fg7

— Kevin Holland (@Trailblaze2top) September 9, 2022

After the conference was shut down, a jovial Holland posted on Twitter to hint about what happened.

“Just so everyone knows,” he wrote, “I offered that clown [Chimaev] a free beard trim. I don’t know anyone in the US that would offer that service free! I am precise I promise I would not knick [sic] him. At your service just like the hotel staff bro.”