Khabib Nurmagomedov won’t be fighting at UFC 209 this Saturday night after suffering complications during his weight cut, but Dana White believes the fight could’ve been saved.
The UFC boss spoke to FS1’s Megan Olivi during the UFC 209 weigh-in show and explained Khabib did not tell anyone in the UFC about his admittance to the hospital.
“Basically, his team had decided to take him to just some random hospital here in Las Vegas instead of picking up the phone and calling our doctor and calling Brianna (Mattison), who runs all the medicals,” White told FS1, as transcribed by MMAFighting.com. “They went rogue and went out and did their own thing. Had they done this thing the right way, the fight probably could have been saved.”
After Nurmagomedov went to the hospital, his interim lightweight title fight against Tony Ferguson was called off. According to White, Khabib was six pounds away from reaching weight before he started feeling ill.
“It’s never good, White said. “If you’re doing it and things are going bad, it’s bad on your kidneys, it’s bad on your liver. It’s just bad all the way around. He’s doing better now. Obviously, he’s OK. He’s gonna be fine. But yeah. It’s never good.”
White also said during a press conference that he’ll decide what to do with the Nurmagomedov-Ferguson fight after UFC 209 is complete.
Thumbnail photo via Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports Images
