UFC APEX – UFC CEO Dana White told reporters following DWCS that the reason the UFC ended up at The Sphere on Mexican Independence weekend was because the MGM gave the date for the Canelo Alvarez card.
“Listen I said props to Al Haymon. He slid right in there before we were even done with the weekend and took the date from use without MGM even telling us,” White told reporters at his post-fight press conference on Tuesday night.
“I told you before. Bill Hornbuckle’s trying to fix this whole thing. That’s why he gave me The Sphere this year. Sure we’ll get it figured out.”
Haymon runs Haymon Sports LLC which created Premiere Boxing Championships (PBC) which has a deal with Alvarez for three fights including the Sept 14 fight against Edgar Berlanga the same night as UFC 306 also known as Noche UFC.
White takes issue with MGM, who runs T-Mobile Arena, and described the relationship as disrespectful.
“When I say MGM it’s the guys who run the arena who have been literally disrespecting us since day 1 of the relationship. So now Bill Hornbuckle, the guy who runs MGM, had to get in the middle of this thing and try to fix it. That’s how I ended up at The Sphere,” he said.
“It’s a one and done. We’ll be back with MGM and hopefully Bill can figure this thing out between us and the f*cking guys that run the arena.”
On top of taking the date at the arena MGM is also guaranteeing the gate for the Alvarez-Berlanga card.
“Extra kick in the balls? Yeah that’s what they do. This is what these guys have done for the last however many years. It’s f*cking crazy,” White said.
“There’s a documentary coming out. I lay this sh*t all out in the documentary. You’ll hear every detail of what has happened with us and the MGM over the last 23 years. It’s f*cking crazy. You’ll be like ‘what?’.”
The relationship seems to have been on a sour note since day one.
“I just think that the guy who runs the arena has been a complete douchebag to us for 23 years,” he said.
White said he tried to get the date following Noche UFC in 2023, but was told it was already gone.
“They got the date. After that event I told my guy Pete ‘Get this date locked up next year again.’ It was already gone. Never called us, never asked us, never said ‘hey we’re giving the date away’. Never said f*ck you. Never said anything. We called and it was already gone,” he said.
“Listen Haymon and Canelo are just doing their thing. Props to them. Good for them that you guys could actually slide in and steal the date from us that easily without a phone call, without anything, good for you. I would too if that’s what I could do.”
When White said Hornbuckle is working on fixing the relationship between MGM and the UFC the obvious question would be if there was an out for the promotion to move on to other places.
“Our deal will be up eventually and we’ll have to figure that out,” he said.
As Noche UFC and Alvarez-Berlanga gets closer questions of who will win the weekend have been popping up from fans and media alike. White wasn’t sure exactly who would do the bigger numbers on Mexican Independence weekend.
“Who knows. MGM’s guaranteeing the gate. Who knows what the gate will really be. What I’m focused on, on that weekend, is putting on a show that nobody’s ever seen before. This show is so complex, and there’s so many different moving pieces to this, this thing being seamless and going off the way that I want. I’m more focused on that than any of this other MGM bullsh*t,” said White.
Noche UFC takes place at The Sphere on Sept 14 headlined by the UFC bantamweight champion Sean O’Malley defending his title against Merab Dvalishvili and co-headlined by the trilogy between flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and former champion Valentina Shevchenko.
