After knocking out Darren Till last Saturday (March 16, 2019) st UFC Fight Night 147 in London, England, Jorge Masvidal came to blows with Leon Edwards backstage at the O2 Arena (see it here).
Afterward, many believed “Gamebred” would face some sort of disciplinary action or fine from Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), since the promotion serves as its own athletic commission at some events overseas.
It was even speculated that Jorge may have to forfeit some, if not all, of his post-fight bonus money totaling $100,000. Much to his delight, Masvidal was not penalized and will face no further disciplinary action from UFC. That’s according to company president Dana White, who says he’s more upset at his staff for not preventing the scuffle.
“I do blame my staff. There’s never a scenario where you let guys walk up to each other like that backstage,” White told Yahoo! Sports via MMA News. “We have enough people backstage that, that shouldn’t happen, including security. I’m super disappointed in my whole crew for that one. These guys are fighters, they’re in the heat of the moment, he just won, he’s got the adrenaline pumping and [Leon Edwards] comes by plus Masvidal is ‘that guy’.
“For anybody backstage in my staff to let these guys walk up to each other is just ridiculous. As soon as he walked up the stage with his hands behind his back, 10 people from the UFC should have jumped in there. That stuff shouldn’t happen.”
Dana took a trip back in time to compare the incident to the post-fight brawl with Conor McGregor and Khabib Nurmagomedov at UFC 229. That brawl, though, spilled over into the crown and then back inside the Octagon.
And while “Notorious” was attacked from behind and Dillon Danis had to dodge a flying ‘Eagle,” Dana feels his staff and secuiry that night were on point and prevented it from exploding into something much bigger.
“It’s the fight business. Sometimes people overreact,” White said. “I thought a lot of people overreacted on the Conor [McGregor] and Khabib [Nurmagomedov] thing. We had that thing contained like that, we knew that was a possibility that could happen and we were ready for it. These things happen,” he added. “It’s the fight business and our job is to make sure these things don’t happen on stage, behind the scenes, but sometimes it does. Sometimes things escalate and blow up.”
That’s why Dana says the fault is all on his staff who couldn’t react quick enough to prevent Masvidal from handing out a “three piece and a soda.”
“These people that fight for a living are different than normal people. These people function on a whole different level than normal human beings do,” White said. “When you understand what’s here [in the head] with a professional fighter, as an organization, it’s our job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
Some things, though, simply can’t be prevented.