Photo by Steven Ryan/Getty Images
According to Dana White, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas requested a live broadcast feed of the Jorge Masivdal-Nate Diaz fight as the Canelo Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev card was happening.
On the same night as UFC 244 took place in New York, Las Vegas scheduled the WBO light heavyweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev. UFC president Dana White thought it would be “f—ng nuts” for Golden Boy Promotions to go head-to-head with the first-ever “BMF” title fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.
Broadcaster DAZN did give way and allowed UFC 244’s headliner to end before airing their own main event title fight. But as revealed by White during the presser, the MGM Grand got in touch with him for a live broadcast of the Masvidal-Diaz fight.
“So we were sitting there, and MGM called and said that. ‘you guys are halfway through your co-main event right now,” White told reporters during the post-fight scrum. “People are losing their minds here,’ or whatever. ‘Can we show the Diaz fight at the MGM?’”
“And I was just like, ‘Holy sh-t! This is crazy! This is getting crazier by the minute!’ I woke up and dreamed all this, that it could happen,” he continued. “It was nuts. And of course, we said yes, and they did and wow.”
Nothing short of an unprecedented move here by the MGM Grand and DAZN. This is what #CaneloKovalev spectators are watching on the big screen in Las Vegas while the main event holds off for #UFC244 to finish.
: @GregGelbr pic.twitter.com/6lSEPCmN6q
— Brian Campbell (@BCampbellCBS) November 3, 2019
It was a surreal moment for White, but it did not stop him from throwing shade to rival promoter Oscar De La Hoya, whose Golden Boy Promotions put up the Canelo-Kovalev matchup.
“They’re not showing my main event at their cards because somebody won and somebody lost,” he said. “It’s a much bigger picture than that.
“And you guys know how I am or whatever, I f—ng hate Oscar De La Hoya. I hate this guy. He’s a scumbag, he’s a snake. And I’ve told him not to go on this night, he did what he wanted to do, and here we are.
“I respect Canelo, and I respect all the other fighters and the guys who participate in the sport of boxing,” he added. “And we got it worked out yesterday to where fans could see both fights. It’s a crazy, crazy thing for me.”
The headliner fight between Masvidal and Diaz was action-packed and lived up to the hype. It did, however, end anti-climactically when the doctor called a stop to the fight at the end of round three because of the injury above Diaz’s right eye.