UFC boss Dana White placed the blame solely on himself for the massive brawl that marred UFC 322 on Saturday at Madison Square Garden after he failed to have the culprit removed from the arena before it began.
The UFC returned to New York for its annual November pilgrimage, in which Islam Makhachev won his second championship by capturing the welterweight belt from Jack Della Maddalena in the main event.
Before that, however, a huge scrap broke out on the floor in the fighters’ section as longtime MMA agitator Dillon Danis made his presence felt, getting into it with Makhachev’s supporters as bodies flew across the floor and into barricades, spilling into press row as security and NYPD officers swarmed.
White says he was told about Danis’ presence before the brawl, but declined to have him removed at the time.
“I blame myself for that, actually,” White said in his post-event news conference. “They came back and told me right before I walked out for the main card that Dillon Danis was here, and he was moving around, sitting in fighter seats and not sitting in his own seat that he had a ticket [for].
“They said, ‘You want us to throw him out of here? And I said, ‘he has a ticket?'” White said. “And they said ‘yeah, [Jorge] Masvidal said he’s going to f— him up on sight.’ And I said, ‘well where’s Masvidal sitting?’
“He said, ‘well he’s six or seven rows away from Masvidal.’ I said, ‘well if the guy has a ticket, let him sit in his seat and let him do what he’s doing and keep an eye on him.'”
“It never even crossed my mind, as stupid as this could be, that the entire Muslim Brotherhood was here tonight in the first five rows for Islam, and as soon as it broke out, I was over on the other side, and I go, ‘f—, I know exactly what that is,’ I knew it.”
White said that will be the last time Danis is welcome at a UFC event.
“You will never see Dillon Danis at a UFC fight ever again,” White proclaimed. “You’ll never see him at another fight.
“So they called me from downstairs and said, ‘we got him down here if you want to press charges and have him arrested.’ And I said, ‘no.’
“It’s just the fight business, man, you know how I feel about this s—. And I could have prevented this tonight, and I messed up.”