Dana White has confirmed that there were no injuries in the bizarre fence collapse that stifled Merab Dvalishvili’s ring walk last night.
The UFC boss has seen it all in his decades with the sport’s top promotion, but only once before has he witnessed a near-disastrous fence collapse like last night’s UFC 316 main event incident. It didn’t hinder the champion too much, as he submitted Sean O’Malley minutes later in the third round of their rematch.
Dvalishvili also noted that he was almost knocked out by the fan who fell on top of him, but that he continued on as a ‘professional’. And he went on to defend his bantamweight title, also confirming a lack of injuries.
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Dana White reacts to fence collapsing at UFC 316
Dana White was sitting cageside with President Donald Trump as Merab Dvalishvili began his walk to the main event. Challenger Sean O’Malley was already prowling the octagon when the fence came down and a fan fell just next to the champion as he was emerging from the tunnel.
“It was our second one in 25 years,” White told Bloody Elbow when asked about the incident that happened moments before the main event kicked off. “Everybody was hanging over the edge and it collapsed. Everybody was alright, thank God, this one was a low one, not a high one.”
It seemed that just one fan actually fell in the incident, which could have been disastrous if not for security saving the day. Bloody Elbow has confirmed that there were no injuries as a result.
Merab Dvalishvili claims he was ‘almost knocked out’ during UFC 316 fence incident
Merab Dvalishvili was more talkative on the incident, joking that he was closer to being knocked out during that moment than in the fight. He told Bloody Elbow at the post-fight press conference: “That’s funny.
“What happened was I was walking and people try to touch me and I try to jump and touch them and I guess they pushed the barrier and it went up. They almost kicked me in the head and knocked me out before I walked in.
“The barrier got broke or something because people pushed and then security pushed me against the wall. I was like ‘alright bro, I’m a fighter, let me go’. Thank God they told me after everything was good and nobody got hurt.
“I saw what happened and I’m just a professional, there was nothing I could do at that time. I cannot really help people, this happened and I had to make it to the octagon because I was fighting. I’m grateful [the fans love me].”