What appears to be a flawed decision to move two UFC champions with a deep connection to California out of a planned Jan. 26 Honda Center super-fight and shift them to Brooklyn makes business sense, UFC President Dana White said Friday.
The UFC launches its $750-million, five-year-deal with the ESPN Plus streaming service Jan. 19 with the showdown between bantamweight champion T.J. Dillashaw of Yorba Linda and Los Angeles-raised flyweight champion Henry Cejudo.
But tying that fight with separate undercard bouts featuring Greg Hardy and Rachael Ostovich has misdirected the attention this week, away from the quality of the main event and toward the insensitivity of placing a man convicted of domestic violence on the same show with a woman healing from a brutal attack allegedly at her husband’s hands.
Featherweight champion Max Holloway and former women’s strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk have eyed UFC 231 on Saturday in Toronto as their chance at redemption.
Holloway took the first step by making weight at 144.5 pounds. Jedrzejczyk, moving up in weight to face former Muay Thai rival Valentina Shevchenko for the women’s flyweight title, says she’s ready too.
“People might not think 10 pounds is much of a difference, but yes it is … the weight and power of the punches … I’m going to be a completely different animal,” Jedrzejczyk said.