UFC lukewarm on potential return to Boston after UFC Fight Night 26 issues

It might be a little while before Boston fight fans see the UFC’s octagon in their backyard again.

Understandably, UFC President Dana White is not thrilled to return to his former home city of Boston after a series of snafus related to Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 26 event, which takes place at TD Garden and airs live on FOX Sports 1.

“I’d be a liar if I said, ‘No,’” White said during a teleconference when asked if the promotion’s troubles would have an impact on when it returned to the city.

In 2010, the UFC held UFC 118 at TD Garden and drew a healthy $2.8 million dollar gate. Since announcing UFC Fight Night 26, however, the UFC has clashed several times with the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission, which regulates combat sports in the state.

First, it was a law that prevented foreign-born fighters from competing without Social Security numbers. And just this past week, it was a hearing that threatened to scratch UFC Fight Night 26's main event. Both issues ultimately were resolved, but the hassles have White noncommittal on a return.

“It’s a great place to go hang out with my friends and eat, but not a great place to put on fights,” he said.

This past Wednesday, a pair of complaints lodged with the MSAC – and linked to the UFC’s longtime antagonists at a Las Vegas-based culinary union – prompted the commission to conduct a closed-door meeting to decide whether UFC Fight Night 26 headliner Chael Sonnen should be licensed to fight. Sonnen said he wasn’t aware of the meeting until the day it occurred and telecommuted for the hearing.

“[The meeting] confused me more than it upset me,” he said. “I didn’t know much about it. I didn’t have any time to prepare. I got a text message, (and) I called in. I was there to answer questions; I wasn’t asked any questions. It was something that could have caused me a great deal of stress had I known about it.”

Sonnen later added via an email to MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com): “I said hello, got cut off, and then said thanks. It was less than a minute.”

The MSAC cleared the way for the fighter when it issued Sonnen a license to compete against Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. But the episode enraged White, who blasts the union following every anti-UFC action.

“What these guys are doing – for the simple fact that they’re spending union members’ dues to try to hurt the UFC, which has nothing to do with the union members or whatever it might be,” he said. “It’s so transparent and just so ridiculous. They use different organizations on serious issues, whether it’s women or gay rights or whatever it may be, they use different organizations to try to get what they want, and what they want is Station Casinos.”

That’s of course is the Las Vegas casino group owned by UFC executives Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, whose resistance to unionizing the business has prompted a years-long fight with the culinary workers organization.

“If they get Station Casinos, it’s another $10 million a year to the union,” White said. “So they’ll use any dirty tactic and spend as much money as it takes to try to get Station Casinos.”

In this round of the scrap, it looks like it’s Boston that will lose.

For the latest on UFC Fight Night 26, stay tuned to the UFC Rumors section of the site.