The UFC is not forcing anyone to compete during these unprecedented times.
The Las Vegas-based promotion has not staged a show since UFC Brasilia took place on March 14 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. But that’s not voluntarily, of course.
UFC 249 was set to take place this past weekend only for Dana White to postpone it after being told to stand down by the higher-ups at Disney and ESPN. Regardless, he plans on resuming the fight schedule on May 9 with weekly events from thereon out.
And according to MMA manager Brian Butler-Au, only fighters comfortable competing will be fighting should those events go ahead.
“They don’t want to fight, it’s completely understood,” Butler-Au told MMA Fighting. “We’ve been asked to basically put together a list of our athletes that are domestic that are interested in fighting and that’s it. Even if there are fighters who had signed bout agreements and contracts before all of this went down, if they don’t want to fight in this time period, it’s not like anybody’s upset with anybody. It’s completely understood.
“At the same time, I understand why the UFC wants to get things going again. Like [Suckerpunch manager Bryan] Hamper said, the country needs something right now, because everybody’s just stuck. Watching Netflix is getting old. I applaud the UFC for trying to get it going, and I hope they find a safe way to get it going, because a lot of fighters want to do it and a lot of people want to watch it.”
The UFC has faced plenty of criticism for trying to stage shows while just about every other major sports league or MMA promotion has either canceled or postponed their events.
There could be even more roadblocks leading up to May 9 as well. But for Butler-Au — who notably represents strawweight champion Weili Zhang among others — the UFC is simply trying to get things back to normal in the safest and fastest way possible.
“The UFC doesn’t even have the answers right now,” Butler-Au said. “All I know is they’re fighting hard to try to put together shows and get everything back on track as safely and fast as possible. That’s basically it.
“We have to show some patience. For the fighters that want to fight, when the time comes, they will fight. That’s not going to be a problem. For the ones that don’t want to fight, they won’t have to until they feel safe.”
What do you make of the UFC going ahead with resuming its schedule next month?