MMA News Roundup: Dana White & Co. Forced to Make Changes at UFC Saudi Arabia, Conor McGregor Exposes Oscar De La Hoya, Ryan Garcia Begs for UFC Fight

Missed out on the hottest MMA news? Well, we have just the right thing to help you out with the latest edition of the daily roundup. There have been some noteworthy moments in the last 24 hours, and today we will start with UFC’s maiden event in Saudi Arabian soil. The event’s been shaken up with a couple of changes. Then, we will shift our attention to Conor McGregor, who unloaded some words of fury on Oscar De La Hoya.

Finally, this compilation will end with the news of Ryan Garcia, who appeared desperate in an appeal he made to UFC CEO Dana White after he was slapped with a 1-year suspension.

The UFC Saudi Arabia card gets shaken up

Dana White’s woes with UFC matchmaking do not seem to go away as another fighter pulled out just two days before the UFC on ABC 6 Fight Night goes live. Joilton Lutterbach, who was supposed to take on the Dagestani Sharaputdin Magomedov, has now been removed from the card. He failed a drug test and interestingly admitted on social media to having juiced himself up three months ago, unaware that he’d ever sign with the UFC. Lutterbach’s been replaced by Antonio Trocoli, who’s a debutant as well.

Meanwhile, the second change might be just a minor one because Kelvin Gastelum found his way back to the 185-pound weight class. However, it’s not only him because Dana White decided to make his fight against Daniel Rodriguez a middleweight one. Gastelum weighed in at 184.5 lbs during the weigh-ins while his opponent weighed in at 185 lbs on the dot. Now, let’s have a look at some Conor McGregor news.

Conor McGregor goes off on Oscar De La Hoya

Conor McGregor missing out on making his comeback because of an injury has been a tough thing to digest for his fans. People are afraid that he may never fight again, but that’s not what Conor McGregor decided to speak about when he shared a now-deleted tweet this time. Instead, the Irishman re-ignited his beef with Ryan Garcia, and even took aim at his promoter, ‘Golden Boy’ Oscar De La Hoya.

McGregor was seemingly angry with the agreement Ryan Garcia’s side had with the New York State Athletic Commission, where the 25-year-old had to pay a fine of $1 million, with De La Hoya reportedly getting some percentage of the fine. Conor McGregor wrote, “How are Golden Boy Getting a cut of the fine? Their fighter was dirty. And they get a cut of the fine? Huh?”

The first-ever dual-weight champion joined Devin Haney, who raised the same issue on his social media handles. Now, the fight between ‘The Dream’ and Garcia has been overturned into a no-contest, and what did ‘KingRy’ do? Well, he requested UFC’s head honcho, Dana White.

What is Ryan Garcia’s request to Dana White?

Ryan Garcia will have to wait on the sidelines till he hits the first-anniversary mark of the Devin Haney fight, after which he will be eligible to compete again. But what will he do in the meantime? Well, the 25-year-old has just the right idea in mind. Following the suspension announcement, Garcia took social media by storm when he claimed, “I am headed to the UFC,” on X, hinting at a possible switch to MMA. ‘KingRy’ really seemed desperate about it.

What does Dana White do? Well, he hasn’t shared any response yet with the big Saudi event coming up. Nevertheless, Ryan Garcia has always spoken about his wish to hop on the MMA train and jump inside the Octagon after hanging up his boxing gloves when he turns 26 years old, which isn’t too far away. Could that be the path that he goes along? Well, we will have to wait and see.