Dana White has officially signed off on a contingency plan for the UFC 334 title fight, The Sun reported Wednesday. The plan covers one scenario, the one every matchmaker loses sleep over: an emergency that threatens the championship bout before anyone walks to the cage.
That’s what is on the record right now. The Sun’s report confirms White’s approval and the purpose of the plan. What we have doesn’t name a backup fighter, identify which belt is on the line or explain how the contingency works during fight week. Until someone with a name attached fills in the blanks, anything more is a guess, and I’m not putting a guess in your inbox dressed up as news.
The timing fits a week where White has been in the headlines for reasons that have nothing to do with backup plans.
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A busy week for the boss
Big John McCarthy, who hasn’t refereed a UFC event since 2017, told Ariel Helwani why, and pushed back on White’s version of how officials get picked. “I went and worked for Bellator, and Dana White was absolutely pissed about that and said, ‘I don’t want him.’ And he doesn’t need me. That’s fine,” McCarthy said, per a clip Helwani posted on X. He added that the promotion submits names for officials it feels comfortable with, “which they should be able to do.” That’s a referee answering a question straight, which I’ll take every time.
White is also getting the Netflix treatment. Page Six reported a documentary about him is in production and expected in early 2027, directed by Gotham Chopra. The project started as a film about Las Vegas before it turned into a story about White. Vegas has that effect on people.
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And Fedor Emelianenko, never one for small talk, reiterated to MMA Fighting that he has never been impressed with White’s business tactics.
The kind of guy contingency plans are built for
If you want to know what a fighter who takes the call looks like, look at Greg Foster. The 34-year-old (9-1) earned a UFC contract on the Dana White’s Contender Series season finale with a unanimous decision over Jason Asher, then went straight from the cage to an ambulance. He took that fight at 155 pounds on less notice than usual, while his mother was recovering from a car accident that left her with a fractured neck and pelvis, eight broken ribs and a collapsed lung. He won on her birthday and called her from the ambulance.
Foster told MMA Fighting’s José Youngs he plans to return to featherweight for his UFC debut. “At the end of the day, you’re going to have to kill me,” he said. Every promotion needs a roster full of guys who talk like that.
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Quick take
I’m all for this. A title fight that falls apart on a Thursday is a pay-per-view refund waiting to happen, and the fighter who cuts weight, sits in a hotel room and maybe never throws a punch is doing the company a real favor. My one ask is simple. Announce the name. A contingency plan with no face on it is a press release, and the alternate who makes weight for a fight that might never happen should at least get to hear his name read out loud in fight week.
