Ilia Topuria’s manager has come to save the day. Why? On Friday, Dana White claimed one of the fights from the June 14 White House card was canceled. The very next day, the entire card was revealed, which is headlined by Ilia Topuria and Justin Gaethje. It followed a report from Irati Prat of MMA Marca, claiming Islam Makhachev was initially facing Topuria on the card. But the fight fell apart, allowing Gaethje to come into the picture. 

On Sunday, however, Dana White caught wind of the report during Zuffa Boxing 4’s post-fight press conference. He outright denied the report, claiming that the fight was never booked and that Islam was injured. Naturally, with conflicting reports, no one knew who to believe. So, Topuria’s manager, Malki Kawa, appeared in an interview with the Anik & Florian podcast on Monday, setting the record straight. 

Was Dana White right? Was Islam Makhachev fighting Ilia Topuria?

“I’m going to tell you guys the truth,” Kawa said. “There’s a lot of misinformation out there, but the reality of it is that it all came together Friday night at midnight… We were told that Ilia was not going to be on the card earlier [last] week. Then we get a call that said, ‘Hey, if we can make a fight, you can fight Islam or Gaethje.’ The bigger the fight, the more money it is… [So], we were focused on getting an Islam fight.” 

“So when you hear Dana say, ‘Well, that was never a fight,’ [it] was because it was talked about, but there was no agreement to fight anybody… [On] Wednesday, I got asked, ‘Would you guys want to do this or that? And we said, ‘Absolutely.’ They gave us a number. We said, ‘Absolutely not.’ And then we didn’t hear anything after that… So, Friday night early, I went to bed. I’m thinking we’re not on the card. 

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“It’s just not happening. They haven’t called me. They’re announcing they’re going to announce it by Saturday,” Kawa continued. “Literally 12 midnight till almost 11:00, 11:30 the next morning, it was just non-stop negotiating between [me, Hunter, and Topuria].

Ilia Topuria’s manager added that he also made it clear to Hunter Campbell that if they don’t really intend to add ‘El Matador,’ he would leave for Spain. And that would mean if the UFC changes its mind about not putting Topuria on the card, the negotiations would change drastically. Regardless, he utterly refuted the idea that a fight against Islam Makhachev was finalized before getting canceled.

“I don’t know which fight fell apart,” Kawa added during the interview. “I can’t call it Islam. Islam is injured, right? So that fight wasn’t something that was a done deal, and then it fell apart, [and] Gaethje stepped in. It was one of those, like, ‘Hey, if we can make Islam fight, do you want to do that? If not, you guys can do Gaethje, right?’ We had our choice, and we said yes to Islam, and we said yes to Gaethje. It was more about the numbers and the money.”

It’s also worth noting that even Justin Gaethje wasn’t sure he would be part of the card. Initially, he had been told that he wouldn’t be included, but later received a call saying he might be. On Saturday night, he finally got confirmation from the UFC, Gaethje told After Last Fight. In other words, the matchmakers spoke with many fighters during the process but ultimately settled on specific names. 

That doesn’t necessarily mean everyone they contacted was ever guaranteed a spot on the card—they were simply options the promotion considered. The situation was similar to Jon Jones, whom Dana White also said was never actually scheduled to appear on the card. However, matchmakers did speak with him about a potential fight against Alex Pereira before Ciryl Gane was ultimately chosen.

In Jones’ case, however, Ariel Helwani reported that the UFC really wanted to include him on the card. But they couldn’t reach an agreement—financially. As for the fight that was canceled, it still remains a mystery, something Dana White wanted to avoid discussing. In any case, despite the chaos in the lead-up to finalizing the card, many aren’t happy, so much so that some have revealed what’s missing from it.

Conor McGregor and Jon Jones: Names missing, says Chris Weidman

Former UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman believes the UFC White House card is missing the magic. He feels it should feature some of the promotion’s biggest stars, specifically Jon Jones and Conor McGregor. Reports confirm a main event between Topuria and Gaethje. But Weidman told The Bohnfire podcast with MMA Junkie’s Mike Bohn the historic setting deserves even bigger names at the top of the card.

“If it [were] me, I would love to see a Jon Jones or a Conor McGregor. All the biggest names on there,” Weidman said. “Topuria and Gaethje, yes. But just for the most eyes and visibility and making it a huge event, to have those monster names [Jones or McGregor] on there… that’s kind of what the expectation is.”

Both McGregor and Jones had been pushing for their spot on the card. But didn’t make the cut, even though the man he wanted to fight, Michael Chandler, got a spot. Meanwhile, White, at least publicly, was against Jones’ participation from the very beginning because he couldn’t trust him. 

That being said, the announcement has been made. And it doesn’t really matter who was approached or which fight fell through. Yet, wouldn’t it be funny if someone among the fighters White chose pulled out?