UFC CEO Dana White has addressed the controversy surrounding a quote from Israel Adesanya in the latest Countdown episode being edited to remove any mention of Francis Ngannou.
The lead-up to this past weekend's UFC 305 pay-per-view was heated after Adesanya took issue with some of middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis’ past comments regarding his status as the “real African” in the UFC. The Nigerian-New Zealander accused the South African of downplaying his achievements, as well as others who came before him like welterweight veteran Kamaru Usman and former heavyweight kingpin Ngannou.
The promotion unsurprisingly included that storyline in its Countdown episode for UFC 305. But while much of what was said by "The Last Stylebender" surrounded the "three kings," the UFC eliminated one from the equation.
During UFC 305 fight week, AFeldmanMMA posted a video on X showing Adesanya speaking about Usman and Ngannou, who joined him as the “three kings” hailing from Africa who simultaneously held UFC titles a number of years ago. The quote came during the UFC 305 on-sale press conference weeks before the event.
Accompanying that clip was the same moment shown on Countdown, but heavily edited to remove any mention of the “three kings” and Ngannou.
That drew heavy backlash throughout the community, with Adesanya himself speaking out against the promotion's apparent attempts to erase the Cameroonian's legacy and part of history in the UFC.
White Addresses Ngannou Erasure: 'Somebody In The Company Made That Decision'
During the press conference following this week's episode of Dana White's Contender Series, the UFC CEO was asked about the controversy surrounding the promotion's Ngannou erasure by Kevin Iole.
White and other senior UFC figures close by insisted they weren't aware of the editing of the quote to remove "The Predator," with White suggesting it had to have been an employee acting of their own volition.
I don't know about this. Do you?" White asked UFC staff who were present. "It was something that we produced? Are you sure that we produced this? What show was it on? Like Embedded or something? I don't disagree with that (Adesanya's criticism). But literally everybody who's sitting in here right now, including our head of PR, doesn't know about it. When did Israel say it, post-fight? We'll find out what happened.
If that's true and that was done, and it was something that we produced, then somebody in the company made that decision," White continued. "Listen, you know me. If I said we did it, I'd say, 'Yeah, f*ck him and this is why we did it.' I know nothing about it, nobody ever asked me about it, and this is the first we're hearing about it.
It evidently didn't take long for Iole to receive a follow-up statement, posting an update on social media. According to the veteran reporter, White took full responsibility for the controversy and quickly called Adesanya to apologize.
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"I had asked @danawhite tonight about the UFC scrubbing @francis_ngannou out of the Countdown show for #UFC305 tonight. He said he’d look into it. Just called me and took full responsibility. His complete answer will be in my story upcoming shortly.
"I should also had here for full context that Dana said he’d already called @stylebender to apologize," Iole wrote."
It remains to be seen whether Ngannou will also be receiving an apology. It was, after all, his legacy being erased...