UFC has been under fire from a well-known MMA journalist for making misleading claims about the upcoming UFC 284 event in Perth, Australia.
Dana White’s promotion of the forthcoming super event between Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev was disputed by Ariel Helwani. He pointed out that it is incorrect for the bout to be billed as the first-ever meeting in history between the No. 1 and No. 2 pound-for-pound fighters in the world.
Helwani tweeted:
“Makhachev x Volkanovski is an INCREDIBLE fight. I can’t wait for it. It’s the best of MMA right now. But it bothers me that the UFC keeps saying it’s the first time 1 v 2 p4p have fought. That is not true. Jones x DC was legit 1 v 2 p4p. That was back in 2015. C’mon now.”
Helwani also brought up the point that the UFC shouldn’t be using such claims to hype bouts. He said that the previous competitors had earned such respect and distinction.
Helwani added:
“I know 99.9999% of you don’t care and you’ll say I’m whining but this stuff matters to me. History matters, and respecting history matters even more. No need to make things up for the moment. Jones and DC have earned that respect.”
Helwani also noted that technically Leon Edwards is ranked at #2 at Pound for Pound rankings.
Since Jon Jones and Daniel Cormier were atop of P2P rankings at the time, the MMA Hour host was correct in his argument.
When talking about the impending lightweight title match between Alexander Volkanovski and Islam Makhachev at UFC 284, Dana White ended up forgetting Makhachev’s name.
This was a jab at Makhachev, who previously criticized UFC accidentally in an interview he gave in Russia. Makhachev isn’t taking it to heart though, and pointed out that plenty of people get his name wrong and he’s not taking it personally.