The Chechen leader came out in full support for Magomed Ankalaev after the Dagestani fighter earned a split draw at UFC 282, missing his chance at the light heavyweight title.
UFC 282’s main event between Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev ended in a split draw. It’s not a result anyone wants to see, but some took things harder than others. Ankalaev himself was pretty upset, and apparently made the UFC unhappy over comments that he’d never fight in Nevada again given the horrible judging in the state.
Also upset was Ankalaev’s friend and patron and Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov. He accused the UFC of some sort of conspiracy to screw Ankalaev out of his rightful win due to his association with Russia.
“Dana White, what happened to you?” Kadyrov wrote in a message released on the leader’s Telegram. “You were a normal, principled man, and today you took the championship belt out of the ring without handing it to the clear winner. Or has politics entered the UFC ring and requires you to referee dirty? It’s a sport, Dana. Be honest.”
Kadyrov went on to suggest White be more like ACA fight league president Mairbek Khasiev, who is known for entering the ring to cancel boring fights. He also overturns decisions he disagrees with. Clearly in this case he would have done ‘the right thing’ and awarded Magomed Ankalaev the win?
“Take an example from Mairbek Khasiev, (ACA league), who stops any [judging] in the league, any bias, demanding objectivity and not mixing sports with politics,” he said.
Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov called out UFC President Dana White following the split draw in the UFC 282 main event.
The result saw Kadyrov’s fighter (Ankalaev) denied a UFC title, which the dictator ironically blamed on “politics” before demanding UFC change the result pic.twitter.com/zN3LMvXgI7
— Karim Zidan (@ZidanSports) December 11, 2022
“Hey, Dana White, were are you going?” the message ended. “Save the face of the league, your own face. Admit your mistake, give the belt to the real winner, and apologize for this show. Save your league’s reputation.”
Of course, if White had arbitrarily decided Ankalaev was the worthy winner of the split draw, the league’s reputation would have gone down in flames. No one would have respected Ankalaev as champion, and it would have brought disrepute to the belt of a division that’s already looking a bit deficient on some areas right now, what with the title picture musical chairs going on at the moment.
We guess Kadyrov isn’t excited for Jamahal Hill vs. Glover Teixeira at UFC 283.