There are some UFC stars who have regularly provided Dana White with a headache and Nate Diaz is certainly one of them.
It’s very on brand for both him and his brother to be involved in some kind of altercation with other fighters, as proven by Diaz’s recent brawl on the set of ‘ALF Reality’.
The fan favorite has had many high profile clashes with other athletes, including the time when Diaz slapped Khabib Nurmagomedov.
Another fighter who tends to bring drama with him is the undefeated Khamzat Chimaev, who appears to have settled down a bit in recent years.
From the moment that Diaz and Chimaev were booked to face each other at UFC 279, the fans knew that there was no way that this fight would go ahead without some kind of issue along the way.
Dana White ended the UFC 279 press conference early following backstage fighting
Even before the UFC 279 press conference could get underway, there was drama involving the fighters that were waiting to go up on stage.
Dana White and his staff tried to persevere by coming up with a new system which would split the athletes up, but that fell apart once Nate Diaz arrived and reignited the tension.
Following a quick conversation with his security team, White announced at the press conference that the best move would be to wrap things up early, before things got out of hand.
“Yeah, this ain’t going to happen. I apologize, everybody. I am in very weird waters here. This has never happened in the history of this company.
“Let me tell you this is the right decision not to do this press conference right now. Yeah, I hear you. I’m with you. But for everybody’s safety, this is the right decision. I apologize.”
In an interview with MMA Fighting, Li Jingliang, who was also set to appear at the press conference, gave his version of what happened backstage, describing it as “complete chaos”.
‘The Leech’ stated that things kicked off between Khamzat Chimaev and Kevin Holland but the situation was eventually defused when the call was made to split the fighters into pairs to bring them up on stage two at a time.
Holland and Daniel Rodriguez made it up, but meanwhile, tensions quickly escalated again when Nate Diaz and his team arrived and immediately got into it with Chimaev following a fight week that was packed with drama.
Bottles were thrown before White said that the event was a wrap, ending the UFC 279 press conference after just two fighters had spoken to the media.
- READ MORE: Ilia Topuria’s former coach assesses whether major change will impact his UFC 317 preparations
The UFC 279 controversy was far from over following the press conference
UFC 279 was one of the most dramatic fight weeks in the history of the promotion and the press conference was just the beginning.
Khamzat Chimaev missed the welterweight limit by 7.5 pounds for his fight with Nate Diaz which led to a major reshuffling in order to try and save the card.
Chimaev ended up facing Kevin Holland at middleweight while Holland’s original opponent, Daniel Rodriguez, faced Li Jingliang.
Jingliang was originally set to face Tony Ferguson who instead fought Diaz in the five-round main event in Las Vegas.