Dana White details “total mishap” which lead to Khabib Nurmagomedov being removed from UFC 249

Dana White has revealed the mishap which caused Khabib Nurmagomedov to be removed from the UFC 249 main event.

It’s been public knowledge for a while now that Nurmagomedov would not be able to compete at UFC 249, where he was scheduled to defend his UFC Lightweight Championship against Tony Ferguson with the fight being arranged for the fifth time – and subsequently falling apart for the fifth time.

Now, in an interview with ESPN, the UFC president Dana White has spoken about the issue that prevented Khabib from making his way over to the United States for the fight.

“I could go on for 10 minutes telling you how that whole thing fell apart, but the reality is that’s nobody’s fault” White said. “Every day when I got up, the rules changed. Every day. Things were shutting down, things were closing down. Many people thought this would be impossible for us to pull off. I’m always of the mindset that nothing is impossible, we’ll get this figured out, when there’s a will there’s a way. He got caught up in Russia, it was a total mishap. We all made mistakes in that one and nobody is to blame for that. It is what it is. The fact that we can even pull off an event right now – this is the hardest thing we’ve ever done.”

While some are praising White for putting this card on, as well as any future events that occur during the coronavirus pandemic, others believe this is one of the biggest mistakes he’s made during his time with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

As a result of Nurmagomedov no longer taking part in the event, Tony Ferguson will once again have to “earn” the right to fight for the title, despite the fact he’s clearly already proven himself on multiple occasions.

What do you think of this explanation from Dana White?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 4/6/2020.