Backstage fights between UFC stars causes pre-fight press conference for UFC 279 to be cancelled

Saturday night is going to be chaotic and the main card fighters tested it out backstage before a pre-fight press conference was supposed to go down.

Nate Diaz, Khamzat Chimaev, Tony Ferguson and Li Jingliang were involved in a backstage altercation which led to UFC President Dana White having to come out, have Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez talk for a few minutes, attempting to bring out the next pair of fighters.

Unfortunately, this led to White getting word about more that happened backstage and decided to cancel the pre-fight press conference for the safety of the fans.

UFC press conference canceled before it started. Unclear at this time why. pic.twitter.com/O5QJFHBth4

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 8, 2022

White would confirm with reports moments later that the two fighters that initially started it were Holland and Chimaev.

Early word is Khamzat Chimaev and Kevin Holland initially got into it and the whole situation got out of hand. Then situation spilled over to Nate’s team. Lots of chaos. More coming in. Developing,

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) September 8, 2022

Holland would tweet after going backstage following the press conference where he said this about Chimaev.

Just so everyone knows. I offered that clown a free beard trim. I don’t know anywhere in the US that would offer that service free! I am precise I promise I would not knick him. At your service just like the hotel staff bro. https://t.co/Hiwwm40fg7

— Kevin Holland (@Trailblaze2top) September 9, 2022

Chimaev push kicked Holland in the chest. Chimaev was reacting to things Holland has said recently and it set him off.

Once that was broken up the Chimaev-Diaz part of the story popped off and then the bottles started flying.

Chimaev would post to his Instagram story following the altercation.

Khamzat IG storypic.twitter.com/NNVrj8G1On

— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) September 9, 2022

The translation from the Chimaev video is “Told them not to play with us, Kevin got what he deserved, so did Diaz.”

Mike Heck of MMA Fighting reported that Paulo Costa made his way in the arena and it was Costa and Chimaev who sparked the chaos starting rather than Holland and Chimaev as was previously reported.

Jose Youngs of MMA Fighting was told by two separate sources that the Diaz crew have been trying to get to Chimaev’s hotel this past week.

White also said this was the first and final time something like this will happen, also let everyone know no one will be fined or suspended due to them being in the sport that they are and knowing what comes with it.

We will update this story with any news we receive on this situation as it unfolds.

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