On the same night as UFC 244 took place in New York, Las Vegas scheduled the WBO light heavyweight title fight between Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev. UFC president Dana White thought it would be “f—ng nuts” for Golden Boy Promotions to go head-to-head with the first-ever “BMF” title fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz.
Broadcaster DAZN did give way and allowed UFC 244’s headliner to end before airing their own main event title fight. But as revealed by White during the presser, the MGM Grand got in touch with him for a live broadcast of the Masvidal-Diaz fight.