UFC commentator Jon Anik recently predicted a featherweight title rematch between newly crowned champion Petr Yan and former kingpin Merab Dvalishvili will serve as the co-main event for the UFC: White House event on June 14th, but one of the fighters has now claimed that it won’t be possible.
In a new interview Dvalishvili claims that while the fight may well happen next, it won’t go down on the lawn of the White House due to his opponent’s nationality.
“The only thing the UFC told me is that I’m next for the belt,” Dvalishvili told Bet25. “They said there will be a trilogy between me and Yan, and they also told me that our fight will not happen at the White House on Trump’s birthday in June. Because [Yan] is Russian and that’s impossible.”
If true it’s an intriguing insight as it could also potentially rule out the likes of welterweight champion Islam Makhachev and middleweight titleholder Khamzat Chimaev, who both come from republics of Russia in Dagestan and Chechnya respectively.
However, it’s worth noting that previous comments from Dana White had suggested that he was open-minded about who would be able to fight on the card.
“One of the things with me is, unlike tennis and basketball and all these other things, my sport is a global sport, and there’s guys from all over the world that are talented,” White said in an interview last year about booking fights for the White House event.
“I’m not looking for America vs. [the world], you know…every American to win. Whoever wins, wins.”
As the event draws ever closer though, the political pressure that comes with celebrating the 250th birthday of the United States by having fighters literally walk through the Oval Office on their way to the Octagon situated on the White House lawn, might be starting to hit home.
Or maybe Dvalishvili just has his wires crossed and it’s still all just business as usual behind the scenes.
Either way, we shouldn’t have too much longer to wait until we start to get some signs as to how the card is going to shape up, with White having claimed that the matchmaking process would begin after the conclusion of UFC 324 this weekend.
