Dana White thinks the rule needs one distinction and nothing else. The Nevada Athletic Commission fined Max Holloway, Paddy Pimblett and Gable Steveson $2,500 each on August 26 for climbing out of the cage after their wins at UFC 329. All three left the Octagon before the results were announced. The money came out of purses the commission had withheld until the hearing.
White was asked about it after DWCS 90 by MMA Junkie.
It’s one of those tough things because these guys get so excited. When you’re caught up in the moment, when you think about how hard they train, they’re gone from their families, they cut weight, they do all this stuff, and then they win, they’re not thinking about fines or any of that stuff.
His line is about intent.
What I think should happen is if you jump out of the cage to do something violent, then you should get fined… The perfect example is Khabib (Nurmagomedov) when he went after (Conor McGregor). Those type of things. But if you just get overly excited and you jump out of the cage, I don’t think that’s a big deal.
That is the same night the commission keeps pointing to. Khabib Nurmagomedov went over the cage at Dillon Danis, McGregor’s cornerman, after UFC 229 in 2018, setting off a brawl that ended with people in police holding cells at T-Mobile Arena. Chairman Dallas Haun and commissioner Anthony Marnell were both on the commission then.
White does not think the two belong in the same conversation.
This is pretty much common sense. This isn’t some —- big executive decision that needs to be made that they need to call and talk to us. It’s pretty simple. If a guy jumps over the cage with bad intentions toward another fighter or somebody in the crowd or something like that? Yes, fine the —- out of them. But if they don’t, then they shouldn’t.
The three celebrations were nothing like it. Holloway went to his family at cageside after Conor McGregor’s knee gave out in the opening seconds of the main event. Pimblett submitted Benoit Saint-Denis in 52 seconds in the co-main and shook White’s hand. Steveson won his UFC debut by first-round TKO over Elisha Ellison.
Marnell wants the commission to ask the UFC to help enforce the rule, with heavier fines if that comes up short. Pimblett’s manager, Graham Boylan, would rather see it scrapped.
For the record, this rule needs to be changed. Yes, it’s the fight game, and systems need to be in play to make it all work, but this rule does nothing to support that. It’s 2026. Apply a little common sense.
Daniel Cormier has called the rule absurd as well. Diego Lopes and Mayra Bueno Silva were fined the same amount for the same thing previously. The commission meets again on September 30 in Las Vegas.
