Footage has been released of the UFC 279 backstage brawl which forced the promotion to cancel a press conference for the first time in its history.
Khamzat Chimaev and Nate Diaz were scheduled to appear at the press conference in Las Vegas on Thursday night but UFC boss Dana White announced the event was cancelled because of safety concerns. The brawl started when Chimaev confronted Kevin Holland, who is also competing on the card, and kicked him in the chest.
A separate altercation then broke out between Chimaev and members of Diaz's team, with water bottles being thrown amongst the hostility. White revealed four of the six fighters due to speak at the press conference were involved. "All hell broke loose," he said after the incident. "We stopped it, but we didn’t do a good job of not letting it happen. There were multiple things going on at the same time. It wasn’t just one thing that erupted and it happened.
