Dana White has blasted his own production team after newly signed Zuffa Boxing star Shakur Stevenson (25-0, 11 KOs) was identified on screen during the UFC 329 broadcast as Jalen Williams, a guard for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
“I just paid Shakur Stevenson a shit load of money and for some reason we can’t figure the celebrity thing out. They put him up as an OKC NBA player. Are you kidding me?,” White said.
It is not the first time the UFC has made this kind of error. At the Sphere in Las Vegas, Terence Crawford appeared on screen identified as Kendrick Lamar. White acknowledged the pattern without attempting to defend it.
“We are the absolute worst to ever do the celebrity thing. When we put celebrities up, we are the worst,” White said.
For Stevenson, being introduced to a national audience on one of the year’s biggest cards as an NBA player was far from the debut moment Zuffa Boxing had in mind.