Sijara Eubanks discusses her heated interaction with Dana White over her UFC 230 title shot that was granted to her, then quickly taken away.
In MMA, as in life, sometimes you need to stand up for what you believe in – even if that means yelling at your boss. Sijara Eubanks is one such person. After all, she was scheduled to fight Valentina Shevchenko for the vacant UFC women’s flyweight title at UFC 230 in early November. But then it was taken away, through no fault of her own.
As a guest on The MMA Hour, Eubanks discussed how she found out about the opportunity. But it was how she found out that the opportunity had been taken away from here that is much more interesting (transcribed via MMA Fighting):
“I remember I signed a bout [agreement] on a Monday and we had just under five weeks left [until UFC 230],” said Eubanks. “Then I found out on a Tuesday – I remember my cousin was flying up from Florida because he comes to all of my fights. He was like ‘bro your fight is cancelled’ and I’m like ‘I would know if my own f—king fight was cancelled’ and he was like ‘no I think your f—king fight is cancelled.’ Then I go onto Twitter and my f—king fight is cancelled.
“So for eight days I was preparing to fight for a UFC flyweight title.”
This led her to track down UFC president Dana White and give him an earful:
“I hit up Ali (Abdelaziz) and Ali didn’t answer at first,” said Eubanks. “So my heart dropped. I figured Ali kind of found out the same way I did. So when he didn’t pick up I knew it was bad news. Then I started blowing him up and he picked up said ‘I’m sorry.’ I was like ‘Let me speak to Dana White. I want to speak with Dana. Ali put Dana White on the phone.’ So I ended up speaking with Dana. Well, more like yelling at Dana. I have a pattern of yelling at Dana I guess.
“So I was just screaming at Dana. I let him know ‘not only are you taking this away from me but you’re taking this away in a f*cked up kind of way. I’m going to tell you and I’m going tell everybody that you all f*cked up. You passed up on what was going to be the biggest upset in women’s MMA history.’ I was going to put Valentina on her ass. I was going to show up and show out at Madison Square Garden. I was going to get my f—king belt and I was going to shut everyone the f*ck up and have a blast. I was like ‘you all passed up on something f—king major. You dropped the f*cking ball major. That’s your f—king fault and you’ve got to fix it.’”
Somewhat surprisingly, White apparently took it well. In fact, Eubanks said that White was pretty impressed with the tirade:
“He thought it was great,” said Eubanks. “I was in a parking lot pacing and screaming with veins coming out of my forehead. At the end of it, he tried to say a few things but I kept barking. So at the end of it, he laughed and said ‘I love it and I love you. Let me see what I can do.’ From the little I’ve interacted with him and from what I now about him, I knew he’d like what I said and he was happy with the way I reacted. I think if I had just rolled over and taken it, I would have gotten f—ked over pretty bad. So I let him know I’m not that type. I’m not gong to take it like that…I think he liked what I said and he did right by me.”
Eubanks will now fight Roxanne Modafferi in what will probably amount to a number-one contender bout on November 3rd in MSG.