How Dan Ige turned Dana White's "cold shoulder" into respect over a few hours despite cornering blunder at UFC 303

Dan Ige made history by accepting and competing in the shortest notice fight in modern UFC history. Ige was scheduled to face Chepe Mariscal at UFC Vegas 94 (July 20, 2024).

Meanwhile, the UFC 303 (June 29, 2024) card saw multiple fights fall apart due to injuries. The organization booked a featherweight bout between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes to serve as the new UFC 303 co-headliner. However, just hours before the UFC 303 co-headlining match, Ortega pulled out and Ige stepped in to fight Lopes.

Dan Ige's UFC story arc has been marked by hard work and perseverance. He worked his way up the regional circuit to earn a shot to compete in the UFC-affiliated DWCS (Dana White's Contender Series). He fought at a DWCS event in July 2017, beating Luis Gomez via third-round submission. Despite the win, UFC CEO (then-UFC president) Dana White didn't immediately sign him to the UFC.

As indicated in a recent ESPN report, after the DWCS event in 2017, UFC exec Hunter Campbell praised Ige and suggested that a UFC contract was on the horizon. Ige was competing as a fighter and also assisting Dominance MMA founder and CEO Ali Abdelaziz back then. Abdelaziz set up a meeting for him with Campbell at a New York nightclub, wherein he was offered his first UFC deal.

Dan Ige made his UFC debut in January 2018 and established himself as a staple of the organization's featherweight division. Nevertheless, Ige has now opined that in his 17-fight run with the UFC thus far, he feels he's established a bonafide connection with Dana White only after his latest fight at UFC 303.

'Dynamite' highlighted that he was proud of his performance at UFC 303 and was elated to see the crowd and White give him an ovation:

"I've never had that real respect from Dana. I've always kind of felt like just a 'Hey, what's up, kid?' cold shoulder from him a little bit. But he was super respectful after this fight."

Dan Ige notably underlined that Dana White and Hunter Campbell were both incredibly respectful and appreciative of him after the UFC 303 fight.

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Dan Ige's extraordinary UFC 303 journey that earned him the respect of Dana White

Brian Ortega was unable to cut to featherweight, and his fight against Diego Lopes was changed to a lightweight bout. After the UFC 303 prelims began on fight night (June 29), Ortega withdrew from their matchup. Lopes was left without an opponent, and UFC 303 was bereft of a co-main event.

Fortuitously, Dan Ige was in town. The UFC featherweight, who trains at Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, was relaxing at home after taking a deep-tissue massage.

Ige was preparing for his July 20 fight. He'd just finished training for the weekend and was planning to rest and recover till Monday. 'Dynamite' was self-admittedly "zenned out," and it wasn't until later that he saw the 10 missed calls he'd received. His manager, Ali Abdelaziz, had called his wife Savannah Ige, who then notified him.

Following that, Dan Ige called Abdelaziz and was informed that he could fight Lopes at UFC 303. Ige said yes to the offer and spoke to his coach, Eric Nicksick (head coach at Xtreme Couture). Nicksick, who was also set to corner Roman Dolidze at UFC 303, drove down to their gym and picked up Ige's protective cup for the newly-scheduled fight.

Moreover, Nicksick called former UFC middleweight champion Sean Strickland, who was on his motorbike in the desert. Strickland got to the arena and joined in as a part of Ige's corner. As for Ige, he made a 20-minute drive to the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, where the UFC 303 event was underway.

After arriving backstage through a VIP room, he met UFC CBO (Chief Business Officer) Hunter Campbell. He then weighed in at 164.5 pounds, whereas Lopes weighed in at 161 pounds.

Apparently, Campbell was instrumental in making the Ige-Lopes fight materialize. Ortega's team sent him a text about his withdrawal at 3:41 pm PT on fight night. Campbell swiftly connected with Ali Abdelaziz, and then the two of them tried to get Dan Ige who was relaxing and steering clear of his phone. Thankfully, they did talk to Ige, and he got to the arena and even weighed in.

Initially, there were doubts about whether the commission would let such as short-notice fight come to fruition. Thankfully, Campbell had that figured out. The lawyer and UFC CBO was aware of an NSAC (Nevada State Athletic Commission) regulation, whereby the NSAC Chair reserves the right to contextually waive certain requirements for a fight.

Since the event was taking place in Nevada, the NSAC was overseeing it. The Nevada Commission licenses and regulates all UFC fights within its jurisdiction. Fighters are expected to submit their latest medical reports, and they weigh in before the day of their scheduled matchup.

Speaking about the Diego Lopes-Dan Ige matchup, NSAC Chair Dallas Haun gave it his stamp of approval after considering multiple factors. Ige was in training for a July 20 matchup, he'd recently submitted his medicals in relation to his fight at UFC Vegas 86 (Feb. 2024), and he and Lopes both fight and featherweight. In addition, he and Lopes weighed around the same at the weigh-ins.

Lopes ended up defeating Ige via unanimous decision in the 165-pound catchweight bout. Both fighters earned bonuses and praise from Dana White.

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Eric Nicksick sheds light on cornering blunder in UFC 303 fight between Diego Lopes and Dan Ige

In the fight's aftermath, Dan Ige asserted that he'd love to compete at the UFC 306 (Riyadh Season Noche UFC) event at the Las Vegas Sphere on Sept. 14, 2024. He even issued a call-out to Ryan Garcia, an American boxing superstar of Mexican descent, to face him at the event which will have a Mexican Independence Day theme. Ige's next fight hasn't been officially announced yet.

Ige and his head coach Eric Nicksick appeared on the Anik & Florian podcast after UFC 303. Nicksick alluded that his fighter did well despite a cornering error during the match. The Xtreme Couture coach recalled telling Dan Ige to simply scrap as if he's defending his family against a home invader.

Furthermore, he noted that during the fight, he advised Ige to throw a front-leg high kick from the southpaw stance. Though the kick landed, Lopes secured a takedown. Nicksick said:

"To be honest with you, I've been having a little bit of sleepless nights 'cause I f**ked up going into round -- In round two, I called for the same side head kick, something that I thought, because no one's ever seen Dan throw it and I knew we had an ace in our pocket where it's like, dude, he throws the same side high out of southpaw very, very well."

He added:

"And I'm like, 'What haven't we ever shown that no one's going to know we have?' And it was the same side high [kick] when Dan was southpaw. And he threw it, and the shin bone landed on this dude's head. But we got taken down."

Check out Nicksick's comments below (1:20:08):