Dana White Blames Sean Shelby for Not Preventing Shove That Injured Drakkar Klose

Tonight’s Jeremy Stephens x Drakkar Klose fight has been canceled, per the broadcast.

Klose suffered an injury as a result of this push at yesterday’s official weigh-ins, per sources. Specific injury details not disclosed at this time. pic.twitter.com/ImbpMQxHur

— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) April 17, 2021

Last week, UFC on ESPN 22 lost a fight due to an incident that occurred at weigh-ins.

On Friday, Jeremy Stephens shoved Drakkar Klose during their face-off, which resulted in Klose having to withdraw from the fight. Klose said that he immediately felt his hand go numb and his neck tighten up after the shove, and the next day he suffered from nausea and a migraine. His team revealed that the fighter was diagnosed with a “brain concussion” and “sprain of cervical neck” as a result.

According to Dana White, matchmaker Sean Shelby was to blame for not preventing the weigh-in altercation between Stephens and Klose.

“Sean Shelby missed that one. Sean Shelby, you know, Sean and I see the thing differently,” White told TSN. “I saw it on social media and called him immediately. I was at my daughter’s [event] … I was in Orlando at the ESPN cheerleading competition. I saw the thing happen on social media and I called Sean and was like, ‘Dude, where was your head on that one?’”

While shoving incidents at weigh-ins are not all that uncommon and sometimes serve to build extra hype for a fight, White believes Shelby should have known better considering the participants.

“He was coming in hot, and it’s Jeremy Stephens. He’s a savage,” White said. “I mean, yeah, we’re not standing there to look good and take pictures. We are there to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

The UFC is expected to rebook Stephens vs. Klose as soon as possible.

“He’s a young, healthy guy. He’ll get better,” White said. “But it’s unfortunate and it should have never happened.”