NEW YORK – UFC president Dana White confirmed Thursday that yes, in fact, the winner of the UFC 244 main event will be presented with a “Baddest Motherf****r” belt.
The genesis for the Nov. 2 fight at Madison Square Garden between Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal came when Diaz, after defeating Anthony Pettis last month at UFC 241, proclaimed himself to be the “baddest mother(expletive) in the game” and then issued a respectful challenge to Masvidal, who was seated cageside at Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.
At Thursday’s UFC 244 news conference at The Rooftop at Pier 17, White confirmed that while the company didn’t immediately set about making Masvidal vs. Diaz, the idea took on a life of its own as fans clamored for the matchup.
“When Nate did his interview that night, he basically said ‘this is for the baddest mother(expletive) in the game,” White said. “So, you know, this is one of those fights that, after that interview, started to build a life of its own through the fans and the media. We didn’t seriously start talking about this fight until maybe a couple weeks later in a matchmaking meeting.”
At that point, White said, the idea to actually create a one-off belt to present to the winner – similar to “The Money Belt” given to Floyd Mayweather after his boxing victory over Conor McGregor in 2017 – popped into his head. And next thing White knew, he found himself running over plans with the UFC’s design team.
“I said to my guys, ‘Listen, tell me if I’m crazy, but what if we think about actually having a ‘baddest mother(expletive) in the game belt,’ and my guys loved it, and we started talking about it, and we went into the design team at the UFC. We started to design it,” White said.
The belt isn’t finished yet. But White promised it will be done in time for UFC 244 at Madison Square Garden, which will be the 500th event in company history, just 10 days shy of the company’s 26th anniversary.
“I will physically have that belt when I come back to New York,” White said. “It will be ready.”
To hear more about the ‘BMF’ belt and all the highlights of the UFC 244 press conference, watch the video above.
