UFC CEO Dana White got everyone in the MMA community’s attention on Wednesday night, August 28.
White took to IG Live and teased a handful of bombshell announcements. Usually, White doesn’t make his announcements live, and this session on IG wouldn’t qualify as an announcement as there were no hardline confirmations.
However, White did share promising vibes about the near future of dealings with Conor McGregor, Max Holloway, Charles Oliveira, and Alexander Volkanovski. “Wait, I think that was Max Holloway,” White said while staring at the bustling chat gathering during the opening moments of his IG live session.
“I’m good, brother. How are you? Got Max Holloway in here? Yes, how are you, Max Holloway? Actually, Max, we were talking about you today. We got some good stuff for you, Max.”
White responded directly to Holloway, the former UFC featherweight champion who has a chance to regain his title on October 26 at UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi when he challenges the current king, Ilia Topuria. Originally, Holloway’s BMF title wasn’t supposed to be on the line when he challenges for Topuria’s belt.
Perhaps that’s what White referred to when he said he has some “good stuff” for him. “Talked about Conor [McGregor] today too,” White continued. “Got Conor news coming up.”
Just a few weeks ago, White told the media he didn’t have new information on McGregor, which was likely the case. However, things can change, and if so, the UFC 310 card set for the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on December 7 is the last and most likely spot for McGregor to face Michael Chandler finally.
The two men were supposed to fight at UFC 302 in June, but an injury forced McGregor out of the event. With Anthony Smith already saying that he has signed an agreement to face Dominick Reyes on that show, and with Petr Yan angling to face Deiveson Figueiredo at the event, we have the makings of a potentially strong pay-per-view event to close out the year.
“We got [Charles] Oliveira news coming up. We got [Michael] Chandler news coming up. We got Max Holloway news coming up. All that good s*** coming soon. Oliveira versus Volkanovski? We got some news coming out for both of those guys too, real soon.”
White rounded out the big-name teasers with mentions of Charles Oliveira and Alexander Volkanovski. The two all-time greats and surefire Hall-of-Famers are coming off losses in their last fights. Volkanovski was knocked out in each of his last two fights by Islam Makhachev and Topuria, respectively.
Here’s a look at the segment:
Oliveira lost a narrow decision to Arman Tsarukyan in his previous fight. Could those two be headed for a dream matchup at 155 pounds? It’s possible, and chances are, White will drop the news–whatever it is–in a much more official post.
Stay tuned for more information on what will be an eventful fourth quarter for the UFC.
