Dana White Admits the UFC is Making Mistakes with Mexican Fans
“We’re making a lot of mistakes right now and I know we are.” -UFC President Dana White
UFC President Dana White has had his eye on Mexico and Mexican talent for some time. A month ago, when Alexa Grasso won the UFC flyweight title, he praised her and all three current belt holders that hail from Mexico. He spoke about the UFC Performance Institute (UFC PI) being built down there and is very happy about the timing everything is coming into place, yet they are still not holding an event there.
The UFC last held an event in Mexico in September 2019 at the Mexico City Arena. The main event was Yair Rodriguez versus Jeremy Stephens, with the co-main event featuring Grasso against Carla Esparza. With Grasso as champion, Rodriguez as interim featherweight champion, and Brandon Moreno as flyweight champion the timing could not be better to go all in on Mexico. So why aren’t they?
White said, “We’re <expletive> it up, that’s why.”
White had mentioned the UFC PI a few times at the UFC 287 post-event press conference, which prompted the question about a return to Mexico especially with the Mexican champions on the roster now and White admitted the UFC is dropping the ball.
White elaborated, “For the first time ever, we got three Mexican Champions. Why did we not do a Cinco de Mayo fight? We’re trying to fix it. We’re making a lot of mistakes right now and I know we are, and we’ll get our sh*t together. I promise you.”
It won’t be anytime soon though, the UFC is coming to Newark, New Jersey on Cinco de Mayo weekend for UFC 288 but the UFC PI in Mexico won’t be ready until sometime in September. September 16 is Mexico’s Independence Day and does fall on a Saturday this year, but with the UFC trying to get back to their pre-pandemic travel schedule it might be too soon to get anything for that date.
See White’s complete post-UFC 287 media comments above.
