UFC president Dana White is still doing all he can to make sure UFC 249 goes ahead.
Amid the coronavirus pandemic, the UFC has had to cancel its upcoming three events in the United States. UFC 249 — headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Tony Ferguson — will still go ahead, however, as White scrambles to find a new location with New York out of the question now.
He has already told fans and media members not to doubt him as he looks to pull off what currently looks to be impossible.
“(I’m) on the phone all day every day trying to figure out how to get this thing off,” White told CNN. “… yes, that fight is on and I’m going to figure it out.”
“… Yeah, we’re going to do it [even without fans]. I’m going to get this thing done.”
Although fans won’t complain about getting to see Nurmagomedov vs. Ferguson in these turbulent times, many have criticized White for still looking to go ahead with events. Others have also gone as far as saying the UFC head honcho doesn’t care about the fighters or his employees.
To that, White responded:
“Listen, we need to fight this thing,” he said. “Let’s work through this thing – that’s what we do every week at the UFC. For anybody that says I’m not concerned with health and safety and all this other stuff, then you don’t know me. And I always take care of my people, whether it’s my fighters or my employees … health and safety is something that I worry about every single week. Not (just) since the coronavirus popped up. I mean, it’s what we do.
“… You can accuse me of whatever you want … You know what I did? I told all my people — if any of them or their family members get sick, or have any problems, you call me, and I will get you taken care of.”
White initially played down the threat of the coronavirus but seems to understand the severity of it now. That said, although he has “never seen anything like this in my lifetime”, the show must go on eventually.
“This is nothing new for us, we’ve been through some stuff, but this is by far the craziest I’ve ever seen,” he added.
Do you think White will be able to pull it off?