Following fighter complaints, Dana White says octagon canvas changes in the works

BANGOR, Maine – After years of the same design and material, company president Dana White has confirmed an improved canvas could soon be headed to the UFC octagon.

“We’ve been working on it forever,” White told MMAjunkie. “We’ve literally been working on that forever.”

White’s comments come on the heels of complaints from UFC women’s bantamweight Sara McMann (8-1 MMA, 2-1 UFC), who on Saturday defeated Lauren Murphy (8-1 MMA, 0-1 UFC) by split decision at UFC Fight Night 47 in Bangor, Maine.

Between her wrestling and MMA careers, McMann is no stranger to stepping on a mat. So when the 2004 Olympic medalist vocalized her concerns about the “sandy” canvas during her bout with Murphy, it raised eyebrows.

“I didn’t like the canvas, and there’s sand on it,” McMann said post-fight. “I found sand all over my body and I had a little bit of sand in my eye. I’ve fought on canvases like that before. … I don’t know about the other fighters, but I was really struggling because I use a lot of dynamic movement. I really push hard off my feet when I was standing and then I drive a lot off my toes. I think it got a little bit in my head that I slipped a couple times on my feet. When I was pushing, my legs were slipping out from under me.”

Despite the compromised fighting environment, McMann gutted out the narrow decision win, which put her back on track following a failed title bid against Ronda Rousey at UFC 170 in February.

Even though she still got the job done, McMann admits the issues with the canvas actually created a mental block that somewhat hindered her performance.

“It shouldn’t have been a problem,” McMann said. “But I’m a little disappointed to say it did get in my head a little bit. It’s not going to in the future.”

If White can do anything to help it, McMann won’t have to worry about encountering this issue again. He said cast members of “The Ultimate Fighter 20” voiced similar concerns during the recent filming of the reality series, and while there’s no easy or obvious solution, the organization hopes to eventually introduce a new canvas that will allow fighters to compete at an optimal level.

“The sandy stuff is that spray that we spray on there that makes it sticky,” White said. “It does, it gets all sandy. It just happened to all the girls on ‘The Ultimate Fighter.’ We are actually looking at a couple of different options for that right now too. We’re trying some new things.”

For more on UFC Fight Night 47, check out the UFC Events section of the site.