At the UFC 308 press conference in October, undefeated fighter Dorobshokh Nabotov stole headlines when he made the most of his time on the mic. Speaking directly to UFC President Dana White, he called for an opportunity to prove himself inside the Octagon and after listing his accomplishments, he was called down from the crowd and onto the stage where he shook hands with the boss.
An undefeated fighter from Tajikistan just asked Dana White for a UFC contract at the UFC 308 press conference and Dana said yes and brought him on stage
— FULL SEND MMA (@full_send_mma) October 24, 2024
It was later announced that Nabotov would be offered the chance to fight on Z-Fight Night, the South Korean MMA promotion which is owned by MMA legend, Chan Sung Jung, AKA “The Korean Zombie”. The promotion is set to host it’s second event on December 14 in Goyang on the same night as the UFC’s final event of 2024 in Tampa.
White said that they would be attending the card in order to record a new episode of “Looking For A Fight”, a UFC series where White often travels alongside Matt Serra and Din Thomas to visit some tourist attractions, dine on some local delicacies and most importantly, head to a fight card that features a few interesting fighters. If Nabotov had looked impressive in his fight against Brazil’s Matheus Camilo, it’s likely that he would have been offered another big opportunity right there on the night.
However, travel plans have been changed as a result of what is happening in South Korea right now. On Tuesday, South Korea’s President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, sending heavily armed forces into the streets which has led to significant protesting and unrest. Though opposing parties were able to cancel Yoon’s declaration just six hours after it began by voting against it, this difficult situation is still far from over.
In a post put up on the promotion’s Instagram, Z-Fight Night announced that White will no longer be attending their event as a result.
“Due to the declaration of martial law in South Korea on December 3, Dana White, who was scheduled to attend ZFN 02 on December 14, will unfortunately no longer be able to attend the event. We sincerely apologize to everyone who was looking forward to his visit. ZFN will do its best to invite Dana White to a future event. Thank you for your understanding.”
It appears that the event will be streamed live on UFC Fight Pass so Nabotov will still have a big opportunity to impress people from the UFC that will be tuning in to see how he performs.