Whoops! Dana White forgets Islam Makhachev’s name while promoting UFC 284

Dana White has been accused of prioritizing the promotion of his Power Slap league over UFC 284, and a recent gaffe isn’t really helping his case.

Following UFC Vegas 68, White was asked how Power Slap was performing. While the ratings might look kind of bad at first glance, Dana assured the assembled media that Power Slap is killing it where it matters: online, and via specific demographics.

“I mean, the social media and digital is insane. I don’t know if you guys have looked at that, but on TikTok we average 10 million views per post. And to put it into perspective, the WWE does 1.5 million, the UFC does 770,000, the NFL does 545,000, we’re pulling 10 million.”

“When you look at the TV show and the spot that we’re at and everything, everything that they put on that network coming from AEW has failed. We hold 47 to 50 percent of the AEW crowd and we’re number two every night, with men in all of cable behind the NBA.”

Later on, the subject of UFC 284: Makhachev vs. Volkanovski came up. White unleashed another promotion spiel, but biffed it at the end by forgetting Islam Makhachev’s name. Watch that right here:

“I don’t think it’s ever happened, the number one and number two pound-for-pound,” White said. “I mean, it’s a monster fight and the gate alone out there is gonna be a [Madison Square Garden] type gate. And the pre-buys for pay-per-view are … if I had my phone I’d walk you through every one of the things.

“It’s beating all the fights of its type and it’s probably going to beat the record for pay-per-view in Australia and New Zealand. The UFC, our record, which was Conor and somebody. But it looks like it’s going to break that record. It’s a monster fight.”

“When you have the number one and the number two pound-for-pound guys in the world fighting each other in their prime, it’s never happened,” he continued, but this is where things go off the rails. “So when you talk about legacy? If Volkanovski can pull this off, it’s obviously massive. And if … if, uh … you know … um yeah … can pull it off, it’s … he’s on his way to building an incredible legacy.”

Funny enough, Islam Makhachev himself had some comments regarding the lack of promotion for UFC 284. While his manager insists those were taken out of context, it’s pretty amusing to now have Dana literally forget Islam’s name.

But let’s cut Dana some slack. At this point the UFC is well known for laying the track down in front of the train a week at a time. We won’t be able to say for sure whether UFC 284 is getting under-hyped until fight week commences and the well-oiled promotional machine does its thing.

Who knows, Alexander Volkanovski versus you know um yeah could end up being one of the biggest events of the year.