Dana White Reveals Grudge Keeping the UFC Out of Brooklyn’s Barclays Center
Dana White has revealed that the UFC will never book the Barclays Center despite having so many events in New York every year.
The UFC just celebrated 10 years of legal mixed martial arts in New York with Saturday night's UFC 334 card at Madison Square Garden, yet one major Big Apple arena remains noticeably absent from the promotion's calendar.
Speaking at the post-fight press conference in Manhattan, UFC CEO Dana White shut down any rumors that the organization might finally return to Brooklyn’s Barclays Center in 2027. As it turns out, White is still holding onto a six-year-old grudge stemming from the days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when the venue backed out of hosting the originally scheduled UFC 249 lightweight title clash between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
"They pulled out on me during COVID," White said. "I said, 'Don’t do this to me, I’ll never come back there if you do this to me.'"
True to his word, White has kept Brooklyn frozen out ever since. Before the pandemic halted live sports, the UFC visited Barclays Center three times, debuting there with UFC 208 in February 2017, returning for UFC 223 in April 2018, and last stopping in for UFC Fight Night: Cejudo vs. Dillashaw in January 2019, where Henry Cejudo stopped TJ Dillashaw in 32 seconds.
Loyalty Drives the UFC’s Schedule
While Barclays Center paid the price for pulling the plug in 2020, other partners reaped the rewards of standing by the promotion when nobody else would. This is also the reason why there are so many UFC Abu Dhabi cards, because during COVID, Abu Dhabi was the only place that allowed the UFC to keep hosting events, with White rewarding loyalty.
Those pandemic-era "Fight Island" events on Yas Island turned Abu Dhabi into a staple of the UFC's annual schedule, complete with major pay-per-view and Fight Night cards every single year since. Meanwhile, Madison Square Garden remains the UFC's exclusive New York City home, and until White lets go of 2020, Brooklyn fight fans shouldn't hold their breath.
