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“We all made some bad decisions that got him stuck in Moscow. It wasn’t just him, we all did. I take responsibility for that too.”
Fans were furious with Khabib Nurmagomedov for pulling out of UFC 249, but Dana White wants to remind everyone that it wasn’t Khabib’s fault.
White takes full responsibility for the events leading up to Nurmagomedov’s withdrawal from UFC 249 and says it was the UFC’s fault that ‘The Eagle’ got stranded in Russia due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m sure you saw today, Khabib posted, ‘Hey, as soon as Ramadan is over, I’m ready to roll,’” White told BT Sport ahead of UFC 249 (h/t MMA Fighting). “There was a lot of questioning Khabib, people were saying ‘Oh he got trapped in Russia’ or whatever; what he said is absolutely true. None of us saw coming what happened and how fast it was rapidly changing and the world was literally changing by the day. We all made some bad decisions that got him stuck in Moscow. It wasn’t just him, we all did. I take responsibility for that too.”
Many fans are still disappointed that Khabib-Ferguson fell through but White believes Ferguson vs. Gaethje will serve as the perfect replacement.
“It happened, and you know what we get out of that? We get Gaethje versus Ferguson, which is gonna be absolutely ridiculous.”
UFC 249: Ferguson vs. Gaethje takes place Saturday, May 9 at the VyState Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida.