Dana White shuts down rumor of Israel Adesanya vs. Khamzat Chimaev headlining UFC Saudi Arabia

Dana White says the Israel Adesanya vs. Khamzat Chimaev won’t be headlining UFC Saudi Arabia in June as a photo seemed to indicate.

On Tuesday afternoon, a photo went viral that showed the Kingdom Arena website showing Israel Adesanya vs. Khamzat Chimaev as the main event of UFC Saudi Arabia. Immediately, many fans took to social media to share it and wondered if it was legit. However, it was later revealed that the website was fake and the real arena website does not even have the UFC’s June event on their schedule.

Following the photo going viral, UFC CEO Dana White took to his Instagram stories to shut reports down of the fight happening and also took a jab at MMA media.

https://twitter.com/mma_orbit/status/1760066598281605128

“Not happening. It was a fake post. All the MMA Media that ran with it are the problem. Absolute CLOWNS,” White wrote.

The UFC is expected to go to Saudi Arabia for a Fight Night card in June. It was originally supposed to happen on March 2, and reports came out that the event was postponed because it wasn’t good enough, which White says wasn’t the case.

“Yes, we moved the card. I know there has been a lot of talk about that the card wasn’t good enough. We never even proposed a card to them, we didn’t tell Saudi Arabia about one fight. So, that’s all bullshit. Bullshit. We never even proposed a card to them. What we wanted to do, every time the UFC puts on an event, we want to blow the doors off the place,” White said. “We want people to be excited. It was our first fight ever in Saudi Arabia, and a couple of fights that we wanted to line up, they weren’t ready to go, so we pushed the card back because we are going to deliver. Never once, was one fight proposed to Saudi Arabia and they were like no this wasn’t good enough.”

As of right now, there are no fights reported for UFC Saudi Arabia in June but Dana White makes it clear that Israel Adesanya vs. Khamzat Chimaev will not be the main event of that card.

With that, it’s uncertain what will be next for Adesanya or Chimaev, but the two won’t be fighting one another.