Dana White takes blame for UFC editing out Francis Ngannou mentions, apologized to Israel Adesanya

UFC CEO Dana White has apologized to Israel Adesanya and taken the blame for the editing error on UFC Countdown which removed a reference to Francis Ngannou.

Ahead of UFC 305, Adesanya took aim at the UFC Countdown video as the episode removed a reference to Ngannou. Of course, Dana White and Ngannou had a feud, which is why many thought it was on purpose. But on Tuesday after the Contender Series, the UFC CEO said he had no knowledge of the editing mistake.

“I don’t know about this,” White said. “If that’s true, and that was done, and it was something that we produced, then somebody in the company made that decision. Listen, you know me. If I said we did it, I’d say ‘Yeah, f*ck him,’ and ‘This is why we did it.’ I know nothing about it. Nobody ever asked me about it, and this is the first we’re hearing about it.”

White then said he would look into it, and after looking into it, the UFC CEO spoke to MMA journalist Kevin Iole and took blame for the incident. He said someone did edit the name out, which they shouldn’t have, while White also called Israel Adesanya to apologize.

“My production team are a bunch of rock stars and they are truly f*cking awesome,” Dana White told Kevin Iole after the DWCS 68 post-fight news conference. “I make it so hard on them sometimes with some of the crazy sh*t I say, and it’s tough. When you asked me about that, I didn’t know anything about it. But someone was editing that and made a conscious decision, thinking that was the right thing to do – that that’s what we would have wanted, what I would have wanted.

“I’m in charge of everything production-related, so at the end of the day, the fact that it happened falls on me 100 percent. It’s my responsibility and I accept it. Blame me for that. I put them in such a tough spot sometimes saying all this crazy sh*t, it’s hard for them. Whoever was editing it, they thought that was the right decision and did what they thought I wanted. That’s not what I wanted, and had I known that, I would have not authorized that. But that’s on me – totally on me. I already called Israel Adesanya and apologized for it,” Dana White added.

It is interesting that Dana White did take all the blame, but it was nice of him to call Adesanya and apologize for the editing mistake.