Dana White Gleams Over UFC 294 Changes: "It had 10 million views"

When speaking to media members Friday afternoon, the UFC CEO was ecstatic about the UFC 294 switch-ups.

In an impromptu media scrum Friday afternoon outside the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada, UFC CEO Dana White spoke about his PBR bull-riding ventures, along with the colossal changes made to the main and co-main event of UFC 294. 

As noted, Islam Makhachev will now rematch Alexander Volkanovski for the lightweight title. At the same time, Kamaru Usman will move up in weight to challenge Khamzat Chimaev at middleweight, with the winner receiving a title shot against recently crowned champ Sean Strickland.

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White, 54, said both bout switches might end up making the card better in the long run and pointed to the metrics of his Instagram page as a potential reason.

"But look at the buzz and excitement," White said. "You know what I mean? The energy, what does that tell you? It tells you they made the right choice, and this is the type of stuff that we, as fight fans, love, and get excited about."

White said the newfound interest carried over to his social platforms.

"So, yesterday, when I posted the video of the announcement, it had 10 million views in like 10 hours," White said. "That answers all the questions [about the excitement]."

UFC 294 will be the second UFC PPV event in Abu Dhabi featuring Makhachev, as he won the lightweight title from Charles Oliveira inside Etihad Arena last October.

As expected, the event will start at a special time of 10 a.m. ET/7 a.m. PT, followed by the ESPN+ pay-per-view at 2 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.

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