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The Oregon State Athletic Commission addressed the current status of UFC Portland amid the coronavirus outbreak.
As the coronavirus outbreak rapidly spreads around the world, many governing bodies and sports leagues are preparing (or have already prepared) contingency plans in response to this ongoing crisis, with some outright postponing/cancelling sporting events.
On the MMA front, ONE Championship and ARES FC have postponed cards slated for Vietnam and Belgium, respectively. ONE also hosted an event in Singapore that was closed to the public, due to the virus. As for the UFC, no events have been affected as of yet, but whether that will change remains to be seen.
In just over one month’s time on April 11th, UFC Fight Night: Overeem vs. Harris is scheduled to take place at the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon. Bloody Elbow contacted the Oregon State Athletic Commission for comment on whether there are any plans in place for UFC Portland, and at the moment there is none.
“We will continue to monitor the situation, but there is no impact or contingency plan in place as of now,” the official statement read.
“Should UFC choose to take additional precautions, we will work with them to make further plans. Per standard procedures, Doctors medically qualify each competitor by performing pre-fight medicals to confirm each competitors health for competition, to include a required temperature reading below 100.4 F as standard procedures.”
It should be noted that the statement was made before Oregon governor Kate Brown declared a state of emergency following seven new cases of COVID-19, bringing the current total to 14. Bloody Elbow has again reached out to the commission, but no reply has been issued yet as of publication.
None of those positive tests has occurred in Multnomah County, where Portland is situated. However, there have been eight cases in nearby Washington County, which is still considered part of the Portland metropolitan area.
At Friday’s UFC 249 press conference in Las Vegas, UFC president Dana White provided few details when asked if he had any concerns regarding the outbreak. He also has reassured fans that UFC 249: Khabib vs. Ferguson, set for April 18th in New York, is not at risk of being scrapped even though there are now more than 100 coronavirus cases and a state of emergency declared by Governor Andrew Cuomo.
“So when it comes to safety of the athletes and the fans and everything else, no matter where we go or what we do, we’re always concerned with that,” White said. “We’ve been thinking about this for weeks. (UFC) Dr. (Jeffrey) Davidson has been involved. Yeah, I mean I don’t know what else to say other than that.”
“We’re not cancelling the event,” White added.
As of this writing, more than 100,000 global cases of coronavirus have been reported, with over 3,800 deaths. In the United States, there have been at least 575 cases and 22 deaths.