As we now know, Calvin Kattar did survive his fight against Max Holloway last year, but Dana White wasn’t so sure that would be the case while watching the fight.
One year ago immediately following the Holloway/Kattar fight, UFC President Dana White said thought the main event between Max Holloway and Calvin Kattar should’ve been stopped after the fourth round.
In a video the UFC uploaded, it showed White freaking out thinking Kattar might die due to all the damage he sustained.
After the fourth round, White spoke to UFC executive Hunter Campbell and said he wanted Kattar to the hospital immediately after the fight.
“He took so much f*cking punishment in this fight, I’m freaking out a little bit, man. I don’t know. I don’t like it. This reminds me of the kind of fight where the fight’s over, and he walks out back and f*cking dies. I think that f*cking Herb Dean should’ve stopped it before the (fifth) round. He was wobbling all over the f*cking place,” White said on the UFC’s Grand Stage video.
“When we had him up against the cage, that’s when he had him,” Campbell said.
“He should have stopped the fight right there,” White said.
Kattar’s Manager Explains Non-Stoppage
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68679516/1296753048.0.jpg)
Weeks later, Kattar’s manager, Tyson Chartier, offered the following explanation for why the fight was not stopped:
“It definitely did [get close to us stopping it],” Chartier stated to MMAFighting. “I’m sitting in the corner and every time things were getting really bad, Calvin’s back was to us, and we see Max, and we see Herb. There was a couple of times when we were like, ‘F*ck, is he gonna stop it?’ And I was hoping Herb would stop it. And then all of a sudden we saw he wasn’t going to stop it, we were like, ‘Should we throw in the towel?’ And then I’m thinking we’re gonna throw in the towel, and then Calvin would crack him. Then he would get off the fence and start landing shots. Like, damn it!”
“It definitely did [get close to us stopping it],” Chartier stated to MMAFighting. “I’m sitting in the corner and every time things were getting really bad, Calvin’s back was to us, and we see Max, and we see Herb. There was a couple of times when we were like, ‘F*ck, is he gonna stop it?’ And I was hoping Herb would stop it. And then all of a sudden we saw he wasn’t going to stop it, we were like, ‘Should we throw in the towel?’ And then I’m thinking we’re gonna throw in the towel, and then Calvin would crack him. Then he would get off the fence and start landing shots. Like, damn it!”
“There was one point in the fourth round where I looked at Jake [Mainini], the Muay Thai coach, and I was like, ‘Dude, Max is getting tired.’ It was crazy because he was beating us up, but you could see it in his eyes like, ‘Ughh,’ and then he tried to wrestle, tried to take us down, he was getting tired from beating us up and then Calvin landed a good shot again and the round ended.”
The good news was that Calvin Kattar ended up healing up his injuries and there was no significant life-altering damage. However, “The Boston Finisher” did sustain a plethora of injuries.
Tonight will be the first time he competes again since absorbing a record number of strikes from “Blessed.” He will be featured in the UFC Vegas 46 against another top-level striker, Giga Chikadze.
