Dana White Agrees With Sara McMann, Admits Octagon Canvas Needs Changing

Following her razor close split decision win over Lauren Murphy this past Saturday, former women’s bantamweight title challenger Sara McMann complained there was sand all over the Octagon canvas and that she slipped multiple times on the slick canvas.

McMann commented in the post-fight press conference about it saying:

“I didn’t like the canvas, and there’s sand on it,” McMann said post-fight. “I found sand all over my body and I had a little bit of sand in my eye. I’ve fought on canvases like that before. … I don’t know about the other fighters, but I was really struggling because I use a lot of dynamic movement. I really push hard off my feet when I was standing and then I drive a lot off my toes. I think it got a little bit in my head that I slipped a couple times on my feet. When I was pushing, my legs were slipping out from under me.”

UFC President Dana White agreed with McMann and admitted that the UFC has been working on a better design for a canvas for years.

He spoke to MMAJunkie.com

“We’ve been working on it forever. We’ve literally been working on that forever.”

“The sandy stuff is that spray that we spray on there that makes it sticky,” White said. “It does, it gets all sandy. It just happened to all the girls on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ We are actually looking at a couple of different options for that right now too. We’re trying some new things.”