Banned Questions - UFC 296 Edition

Mitchell's knockout, Power Slap approval, Vicente Luque and more

UFC CEO Dana White spoke to the UFC access media following Saturday's UFC 296 pay-per-view card in Las Vegas. The concept behind the column is twofold. The first idea is to present questions I would ask if I was among the hand-selected media allowed to attend UFC events. The second idea behind "Banned Questions" is to give the media members who the UFC taps to attend its events some ideas on providing their readers, fight fans, and, in some cases, the UFC fighters, with more information.

Now, on to UFC 296 banned questions.

Bryce Mitchell passed all his tests

By now, many of us have seen, and heard, the knockout Bryce Mitchell suffered at the right hand of Josh Emmett. It was a scary knockout that left Mitchell unconscious and, according to Dr. Brian Sutterer, suffering a post-traumatic seizure following a brain injury/concussion. After the event, White said that Mitchell had “passed all his tests” and had been released from the hospital, which was great news. However, the media in attendance asked no follow-up questions of White after he made that statement.

I understand wanting to get past the ugly part of the sport, the brain injuries that occur on almost every fight card, which is, of course, not a UFC-only issue, but that’s not something a journalist should do, especially a journalist who covers MMA as their primary beat.

Here are some follow-up questions that White could have fielded:

What type of testing is done in cases like this?

Do all fighters have a baseline they are judged against (for instance, the NHL requires all players to undergo a SCAT5 test before the season)?

If there is no baseline testing, why not?

How long will Mitchell be medically suspended?

What testing must Mitchell undergo before he is allowed to train/fight again?

What safeguards does the UFC have in place for fighters who have suffered brain injuries/concussions during a UFC event?

Again, this is not a UFC-only issue. All major promotions with fighters under contract should require baseline testing at signing, or once yearly, and fighters should meet those baselines before they are allowed to compete. Not taking that step leads to proclamations about caring about fighter health and safety ringing hollow.

Power Slap Approval

With the announcement that the California State Athletic Commission has approved Power Slap, other states will likely follow Nevada and California's lead in 2024. White said that five to seven states will be "opening up" to Power Slap in the coming year.

No one asked which states, which was a follow-up that should have been asked, so those covering the commission beat could have reached out to those states to find out the status of that approval process

Vicente Luque

It was a bit of a surprise to hear White announce that the UFC had booked Ian Garry to face Geoff Neal at UFC 299 and not Vicente Luque, who Garry had been set to meet at UFC 296 before illness prevented Garry from competing on that card. White said, “We offered Luque a bunch of fights, he turned them all down.”

No one asked the most basic questions about this statement, which would have been, “Who, when, where, and why?”

Also, there are questions about whether and how much Luque was paid for UFC 296.

Unasked questions

Pay and Anti-Trust

I don’t expect that White would have answered questions about the reporting that was recently done on UFC fighter pay, but that doesn’t mean those questions shouldn’t have been asked.

Fighter pay and the anti-trust lawsuit are two of the most significant topics in MMA right now. To ignore those subjects is telling.

Drug Testing Policy

The UFC is moving away from USADA in 2024. Since the UFC made that announcement in October, we have heard next to nothing about what the new drug testing policy will entail. Many questions need to be asked and answered about this switch. It was shocking that White did not get a single question about that change.

A Question that remains unanswered

New drug testing czar and possible conflict of interest

The UFC will have a new drug testing program as of January 1, 2024. George Piro is the man in charge of that program, who the UFC has said will have complete control. As UFC fighter Matt Brown pointed out, Piro has or had a relationship with one of the biggest MMA gyms in the world, American Top Team. That relationship needs to be questioned by the UFC media, and the UFC needs to address it, especially with the amount of power Piro will have on January 1.

Brown made some excellent points that also need to be addressed.

“What I watched of that press conference, that was probably the one thing that turned me off the most,” Brown said. “So the UFC decides George Piro’s in charge. Nobody else has any say. The UFC decides this. Then when they ask about his credibility and integrity and everything, their answer is basically, ‘Trust me, bro.’ I just didn’t like that.”