LAS VEGAS, NEVADA — Dana White confirmed Jared Gordon was pulled from his fight because of his media day interview.
At UFC Vegas 74 media day, the Lightweight veteran turned heads when he admitted he suffered a concussion during his “No Contest” against Bobby Green at UFC Vegas 71 (watch highlights) several weeks ago, but it went away before being booked against Jim Miller.
It didn’t go away enough because Gordon was pulled from his fight two days prior to showtime and replaced with Jesse Butler, who got starched in 23 seconds (watch highlights). After UFC Vegas 74, which took place last night (Sat., June 3, 2023) inside UFC Apex in Las Vegas, Nevada, White spoke about Gordon’s situation.
“When you come in here on press day, and you announce that you had a concussion six weeks ago, and you healed yourself from the concussion, you’re done,” White told MMAmania.com. “We’re not going to let you fight with a [concussion]; yeah, we pulled them because he should have told us that six weeks ago.
“You know what I mean?” White continued. “You should have shown at least the company and your opponent some respect, and at least did that six weeks ago. You’re not an f—king doctor. You didn’t cure yourself from a concussion.
“So what did he do?” White added. “Did he get a concussion? Was he self-diagnosed? Or did he go to a doctor, and did a doctor diagnose him with a concussion? You have to be honest when you get injuries. And of course, the minute we hear about it- no fight is worth keeping on if it’s going to risk somebody’s health, safety, longevity, whatever it might be, we will pull you out in 2.5 seconds.”
White revealed this isn’t the first time that this has happened.
“We spend the money to make sure that we have healthy guys competing, you know, but when a guy comes in and starts saying- you know, we’ve dealt with this in the past. Guys have come in media week and said crazy sh-t about what happened in their training camp and stuff like that, and we yank them. That’s absolutely consistent with what we’ve always done,” White concluded.
Gordon, 34, must have walked under a ladder because he has had horrible luck over the past six months. First, “Flash” was robbed of a win against Paddy Pimblett at UFC 282 in Dec. 2022, and then in his next fight, he was doing very well in against the aforementioned Green before a clash of heads led to him getting knocked out.
Then, to end it all, he was yanked from his fight against a UFC legend this weekend.
For complete UFC Vegas 74: “Kara-France vs. Albazi” results and play-by-play, click HERE.
