Oh, I see, the UFC’s $6M demand to come to Hawaii included a circus

Maybe Dana White should have told the Hawaii Tourism Authority that the $6 million he was demanding to stage UFC 227 in Hawaii this summer was to have included a circus.

Because it sure looks like that’s what New York has gotten from the UFC this week, all three rings worth.

The HTA’s decision to turn down White’s $6 million proposal and make a $1 million counter offer is looking smarter, if not exceedingly generous, with each passing day and each new UFC bizarre episode.

When UFC 223 goes off today — it is still on, isn’t it? — it may be something less than the milestone pay-per-view financial bonanza White, its president, had touted earlier in the week.

Let’s recap here. Conor McGregor, the UFC’s meal ticket and most visible commodity, who wasn’t even on the show, was charged with three counts of assault and one of criminal mischief after it was alleged he threw items, including a hand-truck, at a bus carrying fighters on the card from a press conference at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn, where today’s show is to be held.

Two fighters, Michael Chiesa and Ray Borg, were scrubbed from the card due to injuries supposedly suffered in the bus incident when the handtruck shattered the bus’ side window. Another, Artem Lobov, was yanked amid allegations of being a part in McGregor’s antics.

And, then, Waianae’s Max Holloway, who was to have fought in the main event, was pulled from the show Friday after the New York State Athletic Commission ruled he was medically unfit to participate after attempting a crash diet to make the 155-pound weight.

Nobody disclosed how much weight Holloway, who is the 145-pound featherweight title holder, was trying to drop in taking the fight on six days’ notice. But several MMA websites said he was at 159 pounds Friday.

Holloway, to his credit, quickly posted an apology to Khabib Nurmagomedov, his contracted opponent for the lightweight championship, on Twitter, saying, “I want to keep going, but they are stopping me. Sorry to your team and the fans. You don’t deserve this.”

But the UFC, in its rush to make sure the show went on and PPV bucks went up, did.

Holloway gamely took the fight on short notice despite the overwhelming challenge, which is what some passionate fighters do. Fortunately, the New York State Athletic Commission had Holloway’s best interests in mind, because it sure looks like not many others did.

You shudder to think what might have befallen Holloway had he gone into the octagon with the unbeaten (25-0) Nurmagomedov, his strength seriously sapped by an overzealous, dramatic drop diet regimen.

The 19-3 Holloway, with the requisite two months to train and prepare for the fight, would have likely been a 50/50 proposition to win. But the 11th-hour challenge was so forbidding that oddsmakers quickly established him as a 5-1 underdog.

George Lockhart, the nutritionist advising Holloway’s camp, would not say how much weight Holloway was attempting to cut in the short period, but he told the “Bloody Elbow” podcast, “This is literally tied with the biggest (weight) cut I’ve ever done.”

No sooner had Holloway been declared unfit to fight for the lightweight championship than the UFC reportedly tried to replace him with Anthony Pettis, who also didn’t make weight, and then Paul Felder, who was rejected by the NYSAC because he wasn’t ranked in the top 15. Finally, Al Iaquinta was announced as Holloway’s replacement.

Who knew that for the $64.95 pay-per-view charge you’d get a UFC circus, too?

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.