Photo by Damian Gollnisch/picture alliance via Getty Images
For fans and fighters waiting and wondering when they’ll get their first glimpse of ‘Fight Island,’ it looks like it could come before the month is out.
It’s not clear if the entire ‘Fight Island’ concept is even necessary at this point—as the US government has now declared that athletes are essential workers, and the acting Secretary of Homeland Security as authorized the entry of foreign athletes back into the US to compete again. However, it’s absolutely clear that the UFC is pushing ahead with their plan anyway.
“Let me tell you about ‘Fight Island,’” UFC president Dana White told Eddie Hearn and Tony Bellew in an interview for their Talk the Talk podcast (transcript via MMA Fighting). “‘Fight Island’ is so f-cking expensive and so f-cking crazy and almost impossible to pull off. When you’re talking about planes and flying people from other [places] and the restrictions.
“You have to quarantine people and all these things that we’re going through, it’s f-cking insane to be even trying to do this. But I promise you, we will do it and we will pull it off.”
From the first moment the idea was announced, fighters have expressed their desire to compete in the UFC’s own spin on an Enter the Dragon kumite. And while some fans have been skeptical that the whole thing wasn’t just a PR hoax, it’s hard to argue that the whole plan hasn’t prompted a lot of interest. Hell, it even got the UFC a segment on Last Week Tonight.
However just when and where this isolating effort in pugilistic pandemic protocols will take place has remained largely up in the air. White has said in the past that he planned to live on the island and hold events for the month of July. Speaking to Hearn & Bellew, White backed up that idea, telling them that “the first fight on ‘Fight Island’ is probably around June 27.”
That’s the same date as the UFC’s currently planned fight night card headlined by a lightweight bout between Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker. The two men were originally set to headline the UFC’s San Diego Fight Night card on May 16th, before the pandemic put a major crimp in the UFC’s fight booking plans over the spring and summer.
We still don’t know the exact location of the UFC’s off-shore brawling platform, however, other bouts scheduled for that date include a women’s bantamweight fight between Aspen Ladd & Sara McMann, and a heavyweight bout between Maurice Greene & Gian Villante. Stay tuned to Bloody Elbow for more Fight Island booking news and event details as the month of July approaches.