This has never happened in UFC history: Dana White on mass brawl

On September 8 in Las Vegas at UFC 278, before the fight between fighters Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz, there was a mass brawl involving almost a hundred people.

According to journalist Ariel Helvani, the Swedish fighter Khamzat Chimaev initiated the incident. First, he kicked an American, Kevin Holland, leaving his press conference backstage. When this brawl was stopped, Chimaev’s team quarreled with the camp of his opponent from the USA, Nate Diaz. After cursing, fists and water bottles were used. Helwani spoke about this in a video on his Twitter account.

Before the start of the second press conference, current UFC president Dana White came out from behind the scenes and announced that the event was cancelled.

“This has never happened in the history of the promotion. The press conference is canceled for security reasons.” he announced.

According to White, this brawl was “one of the many” that began at the same time, and the organizers simply did not have enough security to stop all the participants in the fight. White said Tiki Gon, a former UFC fighter who has now become a manager, was involved in settling the situation.

“If it wasn’t for Tiki, we’d be in trouble” White said.

Khamzat Chimaev also posted a video on Twitter, where he said that “Diaz got his” and advised him not to joke with him anymore.

In turn, Kevin Holland reacted to the brawl with Chimaev, writing: “Strange, but I felt nothing.”

So far, no sanctions from the organization threaten the fighters, since out-of-the-ring fights happen periodically among fighters, but the UFC will do everything to prevent this from happening again.

“When you know that you have guys who don’t like each other, you make sure they are isolated, you have a lot of security,” President White added.