Dana White was asked Wednesday whether the UFC had considered contingency plans for UFC 333, given the escalation in the Gulf. He gave a four-word answer.
“Nope. We’re going,” White told CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri after the Season 10 finale of Dana White’s Contender Series.
Asked whether he had spoken with Abu Dhabi authorities, he said: “We go.”
The Context He Did Not Mention
White did not himself name a security concern, and that distinction matters. The question was prompted by Houthi strikes on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh on October 10 and 11, which killed at least 14 people and injured more than 300.
Those strikes hit Saudi Arabia. UFC 333 is in the United Arab Emirates, roughly 850 kilometers away, and there has been no reported strike on the UAE.
So the premise of the question was regional rather than local. White answered it as a logistics question, and on those terms he is right.
He Pointed at the Company He Is Keeping
“Yeah, I mean, I’ll be there with UFC,” White said. “Power Slap’s going there twice. The WWE is going there. So yeah, we’ll all be there.”
That is the real answer. The Gulf entertainment calendar is booked solid with American properties, and none of them are moving. Riyadh Season postponed the Six Kings Slam tennis exhibition from October to December, but Canelo Alvarez versus Christian Mbilli is still set for Riyadh on October 31.
White is not making a security assessment. He is noting that everyone else is going too.
The Card Is Too Big to Move Anyway
UFC 333 runs Saturday, October 24 at Etihad Arena on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi. Early prelims start at 10 a.m. ET, prelims at noon, main card at 2 p.m. Fourteen bouts.
Alexander Volkanovski defends the featherweight title against Movsar Evloev. Petr Yan defends the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili in the third fight of their series, with Dvalishvili having won in March 2023 and Yan taking the rematch at UFC 323 last December.
Also on the main card: Lone’er Kavanagh against Ramazan Temirov at flyweight, Alexander Volkov against Rizvan Kuniev at heavyweight, and Aaron Pico against Losene Keita at featherweight. Keita replaced Arnold Allen in September after Allen withdrew, and he comes in off a knockout of Muhammad Naimov at UFC Paris that earned a Performance of the Night bonus.
The prelims carry Azamat Murzakanov against Dominick Reyes and Nikita Krylov against Abdul Rakhman Yakhyaev at light heavyweight, Abus Magomedov against Cam Rowston, and Grant Dawson against Nurullo Aliev.
Two Title Fights Do Not Get Rescheduled
That is the practical reality behind the bravado. A card with two championship bouts, a trilogy fight, and 14 total bookings cannot be relocated on nine days’ notice without unraveling every contract on it.
White’s answer was never going to be anything else. The useful information in it is that the UFC has not been advised by anyone in Abu Dhabi to reconsider, because a promotion facing that advice would have hedged rather than said “we go.”
October 24 is the date. Volkanovski and Yan are fighting. The rest is noise.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.