CEO of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Dana White has apologized Farid Basharat after his comments about the undefeated Bantamweight’s surprise exit from the promotion saw him potentially in trouble.
“When guys’ contracts are up — and it’s not the first time it’s happened — guys aren’t good to deal with, or matchmakers don’t want to deal with them, which could be rejection of fights or whatever the reason is,” White said after UFC Edmonton. “If you go 16-0 with seven wins in the UFC and you don’t get re-signed, surely there is a reason.”
Basharat vehemently denied rejecting the fight and accused White of potentially damaging his reputation with other promotions. “Insane” pointed to the injuries and extreme weight differences he accepted during his UFC tenure as proof that he was never difficult to work with.
“When I talked to the media that night and talked about the reasons why you can’t re-sign, I didn’t say that about him,” White explained. “I said, ‘Well, it’s happened before.’ There’s a lot of reasons guys don’t get re-signed. I wasn’t talking about him specifically.
“I saw his response video on my Instagram and I was like, ‘Oh, I didn’t want to do that to this kid,'” White continued. “And I saw that he had said something like, ‘If you’re not going to re-sign me, don’t try to hurt my career. And in no way, shape, or form was I trying to do that.
White insisted there are no personal or professional issues between the UFC and Basharat, predicting the undefeated 29-year-old will have no trouble finding another promotional home.
“I don’t have any issues with him, personally or professionally, and I’m sure with his record and what he has going on, he’ll get signed somewhere,” White said.
Could Basharat finally return to the Octagon?
“I wouldn’t say in the near future,” White said. “We just let him go. But I’m not saying there’s no way he could come back to the UFC.”
White’s apology clears Basharat of allegations surrounding his departure. However, it still leaves the biggest question unanswered: Why did the UFC allow an undefeated, ranked contender to walk away in the first place?
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