Movsar Evloev claims Dana White criticized his fight with Arnold Allen, but the UFC CEO wasn’t even paying attention to the fight.
Evloev faced Allen in a featherweight matchup at UFC 297 in January of this year. Evloev maintained his perfect record with a unanimous decision victory, but the bout failed to live up to the hype as the Russian worked his way to victory with takedowns and positional control.
White was clearly unimpressed with Evloev’s performance and expressed his thoughts in the post-match press conference.
“That game kind of sucked the wind out of the arena…That was the least interesting game anyone’s ever seen,” White said.
Evloev disputed White’s criticism of the fight, which apparently didn’t get the UFC manager’s full attention. Evloev claims American Top Team founder Dan Lambert told him he saw White watching the NFL playoffs during the game.
In the final round, Allen caught Evloev in a front headlock and landed a series of knee kicks that were considered fouls, but the Russian’s hands intermittently went in and out of the canvas. Evloev believes White’s attention may have been drawn to the pause in the game and that he may have been watching the game from that point on.
“Then, for some reason, my husband said this.” [my last fight was not fun]. Maybe he wanted to stimulate me in some way, maybe he wanted to suppress my championship aspirations a little bit,” Evloev said. Badaev’s Podcast. “Because he already understands that I’ll be around. Then I talked to Dan Lambert after the game…he said, ‘Mohsah, I’m going to be with Dana during your game. I was sitting next to White, and he was watching American football.”He had apparently placed a bet somewhere on my game, when there was still a minute left. Maybe he didn’t watch my games enough.
Evloev said he then discussed the UFC CEO’s criticism with White.
“Yes, he pitched in and looked at it, but like I said, it wasn’t the coolest match of the night, it wasn’t the most fun match,” Evloev said. “I told Dana, ‘I’m not here to entertain you, I’m here for the belt.’ I’m going to win the belt, so what happens. ”
