White Admits UFC Should Return To Mexico: ‘We’re F—ing It Up’

The more Dana White talks about there being no upcoming event in Mexico scheduled, the more he seems to realize that’s really dumb.

The UFC may be heading back to Mexico soon after all.

Fans were left rolling their eyes after the UFC revealed there were no immediate plans to head back to Mexico, despite the promotion currently having three Mexican champions. The flyweight belt is held by Brandon Moreno, the women’s flyweight belt is held by Alexa Grasso, and the interim featherweight belt is held by Yair Rodriguez. If there was any time to bring a big show back to the country, it’d be now.

Apparently UFC president Dana White agrees with that statement, and he’s looking to make things happen.

“As the world starts opening up, there’s a lot of places we gotta go,” White said at the UFC 287 post-fight press conference when asked why there was no urgency to return to Mexico. “But you’re not wrong. For the first time ever, we got three champions [from Mexico]. Why did we not do a Cinco de Mayo, why did we not do this. We’re f—ing it up. That’s why. We’re f—ing it up. We’re trying to fix it.”

That’s a refreshingly candid response from White, who may be a straight shooter but doesn’t often admit to making mistakes as plainly as this. The promotion hasn’t been to Mexico since February 2020 and hasn’t held a pay-per-view there since 2015 when UFC 188: Velasquez vs. Werdum went down. You can blame the COVID-19 pandemic for the past few years, but that excuse doesn’t exactly hold up as more time goes on.

White also added that the UFC Performance Institute in Mexico would be opening in September, so that seems like an ideal time to bring a show back to the country. Yair Rodriguez vs. Alexander Volkanovski is already booked for UFC 290 in July, but an event with Brandon Moreno or Alexa Grasso would certainly sit nicely at the top of a fall 2023 card.

Perhaps the UFC is learning after missing an opportunity to bring an event to Africa during the reign of “The Three Kings” — Kamaru Usman, Francis Ngannou, and Israel Adesanya. Now only Adesanya remains as champion, and the UFC is finally looking into an event at Dakar Arena in Senegal for a historic first event on the continent. No dates are being discussed at this time, but it’s just nice to know they’ve started really opening their minds to the idea.