White Apologizes For Ngannou Erasure

White apologized to Israel Adesanya over a clip during UFC 305 Countdown that edited mention of Ngannou out of Izzy’s speech.

Dana White is denying he had anything to do with Francis Ngannou’s erasure from a UFC 305 countdown show, while at the same time taking full responsibility for it happening.

Ngannou has been persona non grata within the UFC since leaving the promotion in January 2023. Since then we’ve witnessed several snubs in official UFC programming, from ignoring his place as one of the first Cameroonians to compete in the organization to full blown quote-editing to delete mention of Ngannou from a statement given by Israel Adesanya.

Adesanya wasn’t happy with the sketchy behavior and called the UFC out on it. But UFC CEO Dana White didn’t hear about any of it.

“If that’s true and that was done and it was something that we produced, then somebody in the company made that decision,” White said during a Contender Series post-fight press conference. “You know me, right? If I said we did it, I’d say, ‘Yeah, f— him and this is why we did it.’ I know nothing about it. Nobody ever asked me about it, and this is the first we’re hearing about it or I would tell you.”

White then reached out to reporter Kevin Iole following the event to take responsibility.

“My production team are a bunch of rock stars and they are truly f—ing awesome,” White clarified. “I make it so hard on them sometimes with some of the crazy s— I say and it’s tough. When you asked me about that, I didn’t know anything about it. But someone was editing that and made a conscious decision, thinking that was the right thing to do, that that’s what we would have wanted, what I would have wanted.”

“I didn’t know about it and that was nothing that ever came across my desk,” he continued. “I’m in charge of everything production-related, so at the end of the day, the fact that it happened falls on me 100 percent. It’s my responsibility and I accept it. Blame me for that. I put them in such a tough spot sometimes saying all this crazy s—, it’s hard for them.”

“Whoever was editing it, they thought that was the right decision and did what they thought I wanted. That’s not what I wanted and had I known that, I would have not authorized that. But that’s on me. Totally on me. I already called Israel Adesanya and apologized for it.”

White may not have specifically asked his team to remove Ngannou from the UFC 305 Countdown show, but it’s standard business procedure to remove fighters like Ngannou that have angered UFC brass from any and all mention in promotional material.

This goes back all the way to former middleweight champion Frank Shamrock, who left the UFC shortly after White took control of the company. Since then we’ve seen it with several others, most notably Randy Couture.

When White says he puts his staff in “tough spots saying all this crazy s—,” he may be referring to past instances where people have reportedly been reprimanded and even fired for not adhering to expectations when it comes to keeping various names off the broadcast.

Considering this is all very well documented, this latest statement feels like a bit of a dog and pony show in a time where the UFC is about to head to court over alleged monopsony antitrust violations. Even if it is, here’s hoping it signals the end of the practice, because it really is petty and not necessary at all.