UFC President Dana White shut down questions about a fight-week altercation between fighters Jorge Masvidal and Kevin Holland during a UFC 287 pre-fight press conference.
A fight-week altercation between Jorge Masvidal and Kevin Holland was expected to raise questions at the UFC 287 pre-fight press conference, but Dana White didn’t entertain any discussion around it. An incident at the host hotel in Miami led to UFC security separating Masvidal and Holland. Videos surfaced that showed the welterweights in a shouting match, though there was apparently no physical interaction between the fighters. When Masvidal was asked about the incident during the press conference, he dismissed it with expletives, prompting Holland to fire back at him.
White shut down further inquiries about the incident, focusing instead on the upcoming fights. Masvidal is set to battle Gilbert Burns in Saturday’s co-main event, while Holland is scheduled to scrap with Santiago Ponzinibbio. White also dismissed a question aimed at Ponzinibbio regarding Holland’s focus on the fight after the altercation with Masvidal. Previously, Holland was involved in a separate altercation with Khamzat Chimaev that led to White cancelling the entire UFC 279 pre-fight press conference over safety concerns, which could have been on White’s mind when tensions rose between Masvidal and Holland.
When the focus shifted back to UFC 287 fights, White addressed his declaration that Colby Covington will receive the next title shot at welterweight champion Leon Edwards after serving as the main event backup at UFC 286 in London. Both Masvidal and Burns said that an impressive win on Saturday could upset those plans, but White doubled down on Covington as next in line for the title shot, much to the dismay of a vocal crowd in Miami. Masvidal, who’s been ordered to stay away from Covington after allegedly assaulting him back in March, didn’t hold back on expressing his disdain for the decision.
White was also disinterested in discussing the recent UFC-WWE merger that will see the MMA promotion join forces with the professional wrestling organization run by Vince McMahon, with the new company falling under the Endeavor ownership umbrella. The new company, valued at over $21 billion, is set to go public later this year. White preferred to focus on the upcoming fights, asking for relevant questions instead of entertaining inquiries about the merger or WWE.