Movsar Evloev: Dana White Was Watching Football During My Fight with Arnold Allen

Movsar Evloev claims that while Dana White criticized his fight against Arnold Allen, the UFC CEO wasn’t even paying close attention to the bout.

Evloev took on Allen in a featherweight matchup at UFC 297 this past January. While Evloev maintained his perfect record with a unanimous decision win, the fight failed to live up to the hype, as the Russian cruised to victory through takedowns and positional control.

White was clearly unimpressed with Evloev’s performance and voiced his thoughts during the post-fight press conference.

“That fight sucked the wind right out of the arena… That was the least fun fight anybody’s ever seen,” White said.

Evloev took issue with White’s criticism of the fight, which apparently didn’t have the UFC boss’ full attention. Evloev claims that American Top Team founder Dan Lambert told him that he saw White watching the NFL playoffs during the bout.

Allen caught Evloev in a front headlock in the final round and landed a series of knees that were deemed illegal, as the Russian’s hand intermittently moved on and off the canvas. Evloev believes White might have watched the fight from that point onward, as the pause in action may have grabbed his attention.

“Then, for some reason, Dana said that [my last fight was not fun]. Maybe he wanted to stimulate me somehow or dampen my championship aspirations a little," Evloev said on the Badaev podcast. "Because he already understands that I’m close. Then we talked with Dan Lambert after the fight… He said, ‘Movsar, I was sitting next to Dana White during your fight, and he was watching American football there.’ He apparently placed a bet somewhere on the time of my fight. He may not have even fully seen my fight. Maybe he somehow drew attention to my fight after there were illegal blows, when there was still one minute left.”

Evloev said he has since spoken to White regarding the UFC CEO’s criticisms.

“Yes he threw it in, noted it, but as I said, it was not the coolest fight of the evening, not the most fun,” Evloev said. “I told Dana, ‘I’m not here to amuse you, I came here for the belt.’ I’ll take the belt, and then we’ll see.”