Bellator champion and “The Diamond” teammate, Johnny Eblen, alleges UFC announced a fight between Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis without even agreeing to terms first.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) habit of occasionally playing a bit too fast and loose with fight announcements came back to bite the world’s leading mixed martial arts (MMA) organization in the butt yesterday after three officially promoted bouts turned out to lack signed contracts.
Dominick Reyes first revealed that he hadn’t signed a contract to face Carlos Ulberg at UFC Atlantic City — that fight is off anyway because of a life-threatening blood clot. The March 30, 2024, show in southern New Jersey also lost its main event between Sean Brady vs. Vicente Luque.
ESPN reported that Brady is injured and also never signed a bout agreement. Both those fights were being promoted by UFC as “official” since early January.
Then there’s the big one: Dustin Poirier vs. Benoit Saint-Denis at UFC 299. The high-profile pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event scrap was announced Jan. 10, 2024. “The Diamond” waited three weeks before piping up and telling media, “There was no contractual agreement before the fight was announced and we couldn’t come to terms.”
Poirier’s training partner and Bellator Middleweight champion, Johnny Eblen, happened to be giving an interview with Shak MMA as the news broke. He shared his thoughts on the subject … and did not hold back.
Things are HEATING up in Miami @DustinPoirier vs @BenoitSt_Denis is going down at #UFC299 pic.twitter.com/8Z9cog13D0
— UFC (@ufc) January 10, 2024
“I just think it’s kind of horses—t,” Eblen said bluntly. “Because I know how much money the UFC makes and they can make that fight happen but they’re choosing not to because they’re being stingy, in a way. And the fact that no contract was signed and they were willing to f—ing announce it? It is f—ing beyond me, man. That’s never happened to me.
“Not even a verbal agreement, Dustin said!” he continued. “Dustin said, ‘Yeah that sounds good but we gotta get this deal worked out.’ But that’s not a verbal agreement. A verbal agreement is ‘Hey, you do this, this, and this, I’m in.’ And they’re like ‘Okay yeah we’ll do this, this, and this.’ ‘Okay I’ll fight him.’ And then you do the contract and then you sign the contract. There wasn’t even a verbal agreement on his end, so….
“I think it was kind of crazy to me that they were even willing to promote it to this degree and then let it backfire like this,” Eblen concluded.
“I think it’s horseshit because I know how much money the UFC makes and they could make that fight happen. But they’re choosing not to cause they’re being stingy…”
Bellator middleweight champion Johnny Eblen defends teammate Dustin Poirier after his #UFC299 fight fell through pic.twitter.com/9D38bZCz4p
— Shakiel Mahjouri (@Shak_Fu) February 1, 2024
Fortunately for those who had purchased very expensive tickets to UFC 299 on March 9, 2024, things got resolved quickly. Four hours after announcing the fight was off, Poirier returned to social media and claimed the whole thing was a “misunderstanding.” You can take that at face value, or you can assume UFC was willing to finally come to Poirier’s terms after calling their bluff on social media.
Either way, Poirier vs. Saint-Denis is back on.
Hopefully, UFC stops announcing fights before ink hits a contract moving forward. We’re not holding our breath, though — it happens more than fight fans might expect. The promotion has even left fights like Paulo Costa vs. Robert Whittaker on the advertised UFC 284 card for weeks despite Costa repeatedly saying he never agreed to it.
It’s not something UFC CEO, Dana White, is happy the “scumbag” mixed martial arts (MMA) media is reporting on, because promoting unsigned fights is a pretty big no-no in combat sports. So, we encourage UFC to dot those “I’s” and cross those “T’s” and not be so “stingy” at first when it comes to top guys like Poirier.
“The Diamond” knows what he’s doing.
To checkout the latest and greatest UFC 299 fight card and rumors click here.