Dana White sounds off on the “f**king lunatics” who claim the UFC 279 card shuffle was staged

UFC President Dana White has a message for those who think the UFC went full-on WWE this weekend.

UFC 279 had quite the last-minute switcheroo. Khamzat Chimaev vs. Nate Diaz, Tony Ferguson vs. Li Jingliang, and Kevin Holland vs. Daniel Rodriguez were all planned for the event. Chimaev ended up missing weight and as a result, Diaz was booked to fight Ferguson, Chimaev took on Holland, and Jingliang fought Rodriguez.

On top of that, there had been a fracas that occurred involving multiple fighters featured on the card before a scheduled pre-fight press conference. The UFC was going to only allow two fighters at a time for the presser, but ultimately decided to cancel it.

This led some conspiracy theorists to claim that the UFC staged the whole thing in order to draw more interest in the UFC 279 PPV. During the UFC 279 post-fight press conference, Dana White addressed those who believe the UFC changed plans on purpose (h/t MMAJunkie).

“There’s some f*cking lunatics on the internet that think this was all staged and planned and whatever,” White told MMA Junkie and other reporters at the UFC 279 post-fight news conference. “If you think that the crazy dudes that we had here this week could be orchestrated into something that would be … you’re literally out of your mind. This all happened and we had to deal with it. I just couldn’t wait to get tonight over with.”

Ultimately, Diaz defeated Ferguson via fourth-round submission, Chimaev submitted Holland in the first round, and Rodriguez picked up a split decision victory over Jingliang.

This may have been Diaz’s last fight with the UFC. He fought out of his contract and plans to go into another sport, likely boxing. He did mention that he never had any plans to not return to the UFC, so perhaps his journey with the promotion is simply on hiatus.