Former Bellator title challenger Austin Vanderford scored a big win in his Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) debut at UFC Seattle last night (Sat., Feb. 22, 2025) when he stopped Nikolay Veretennikov in the second round with strikes from inside Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Wash (watch highlights).
Immediately after the fight, Veretennikov, who was annoyed with the stoppage, pushed Vanderford, causing security to intervene and break them up.
UFC CEO Dana White was asked about the post-fight scuffle and didn’t seem to mind the situation.
“Listen, yeah, it’s never good when you go over [and push someone]. But you know, I don’t know why he went after him,” White told MMAMania.com during the UFC Seattle post-fight press conference. “I understand he was upset with the referee. And when you watch that fight, if you look, I get why he was upset. He was blocking a lot of the shots. He was blocking; he was still trying to get out of there.”
“If a guy is taking a number of just unanswered shots, and he’s laying there on the ground- He was defending and moving around, and so I understand why he’s upset,” White added. “But yeah, you know how we are here. He went over and pushed the guy. What should we do?”
Paul Daley was infamously banned from the UFC after punching Josh Koscheck after their fight, and while a push and a punch are two completely different things, attacking an opponent after a fight is still bad … right?
According to White, Veretennikov’s push was nothing.
“You should see what goes on back here after the fights,” White said. “You guys would f—king be crying forever if you knew what went on. You would be writing all kinds of f—king stories about ‘what are you going to do to them?’ Believe me, that was nothing.”
While Veretennikov didn’t lose his job last night with his post-fight antics, he might be on the chopping block next week now that he is 0-2.
For complete UFC Seattle results, coverage, and highlights click HERE.
