Dana White was very cheerful this past weekend. After an eventful card he had plenty to gloat about including the demise of Jake Paul’s Madison Square Garden boxing event.
At the UFC 277 press conference following the event, White was asked about the cancellation. He was previously very critical of both Paul and Rahman. The event was set to take place in the Madison Square Garden – where UFC will be holding UFC 281.
“I’m not going to sit up here and be happy or gloat that their fight fell out. I mean, both those guys, I’m sure put in a lot of hard work and a lot of training to get ready for this fight, spent money to get ready for this fight.”
“But I will say this, just because you’re an accountant here doesn’t mean you know what the f**k goes on here. And doesn’t mean that you can run a fight promotion company.”
“And now I think that Jake Paul probably needs to get some different people around him. If he’s got to stay in the sport. He needs to be with guys that actually really know how to put on fights.”
White is clearly referencing Nakisa Biderian here. Bidarian is a Co-Founder of Most Valuable Promotions along with Jake Paul. Prior to that, Bidarian was a UFC Chief Financial Officer / Executive Vice President, Strategy & Business Ventures from 2011 until 2016.
Biderian wasn’t pleased with the comments and responded.
“Had zero to do with ticket sales,” Bidarian said on his Instagram story.
“We already sold more tickets, more gate than Ryan Garcia just did at Staples Center. We were going to be top-10 in gates since 2005 at MSG.”
“Jake Paul was taking a big challenge. All of his fights have been from about 188 to 191 pounds, and all of his opponents — outside Nate Robinson — have been plus or minus one to two pounds of him. That’s all it is.”