UFC president Dana White is not too keen on imposing behavioural guidelines for a possible rematch between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor.
UFC 229 will go down in history as one of the most infamous fight cards of all time. All of it can be traced back to Conor McGregor’s bus attack at UFC 223 in April, through the trade of tirades with Khabib Nurmagomedov during the build-up, all of which punctuated by the post-fight brawl between the two camps.
A rematch is expected to draw big (if not bigger) numbers, although it is not expected to take place sooner than later. And when asked if the UFC would be imposing any behavioral guidelines to avoid things from spiralling out of control like how it did last October 6th, company president Dana White had this to say.
“Well my philosophy on this stuff is that this a fight,” White said during a Q&A with ESPN in Australia on Monday. “Since the beginning of time people have said mean things to each other in a fight, no matter what. Muhammad Ali called Joe Frazier an Uncle Tom, back when that was one of the worst things you could say to a guy.
“He called him a gorilla; ‘it’s gonna be a thriller and a chiller when I get the gorilla in Manila,’ and things like that. And for the rest of his life, he [Frazier] hated Muhammad Ali, hated him for the things that he said about him.
“This is not the nice business, this is the fight business,” he added. “This wasn’t the first time that mean things were said to another person and it won’t be the last.”
White also mentioned that an immediate rematch is not worth thinking about right now, given that both Khabib and McGregor would still need to deal with the Nevada Athletic Commission on December 10thto discuss possible sanctions for the UFC 229 melee.