Photo by Jeff Bottari/Zuffa LLC
Dana White speaks to the media about future plans for “Fight Island” and getting to leave the “safe zone.”
Early this week, UFC president Dana White left the “safe zone” of “Fight Island” to film a show with Hall-of-Famers Matt Serra and Michael Bisping. That caught the attention of reporters, who brought it up during Tuesday’s media scrum.
“We went out and we did some fun things,” White told the media (via MMA Fighting).
“We knew we were doing that when we came. Same protocol. Everybody that we were in contact with and everybody that had anything to do with us was tested multiple times. Realistically, Abu Dhabi is the safest place in the world,” he said.
“Everybody’s healthy,” White added. “It’s all good. Literally, not one negative thing that I could point out. I’ve been talking to people—especially here from Abu Dhabi that were involved in the event—I’ve had meetings since the fight and they’re like, ‘What could we do better next time?’ I’m like, I wish that I could tell you something negative. I wish I could tell you something that didn’t go perfect and that wasn’t perfect. Everything here has been perfect.”
Related: Arabian Fights: How UFC Fight Island became a sales pitch for Abu Dhabi
“When you think about the safety zone that we’re in, from the restaurants to the hotels and the service and everything else, it literally could not be done better than this. If you look at all the other places, California just shut down again, and what’s going on in the states, you couldn’t execute a better event with better facilities, with better food for everybody, and the list just goes on and on. It could not be better.”
With COVID-19 cases rising in the US, certain states may do the same as California did and go back to shutting down. If Nevada follows suit and leaves the APEX facility unavailable for the scheduled events in August, White says he already has a Plan B.
“My backup plan would be ‘Fight Island.’ We might be living here,” he said.
“Anything is possible. If Nevada shuts down and doesn’t allow us to do fights in Nevada, yeah, I mean we spend a lot of time in Abu Dhabi.”
The UFC has three more “Fight Island” events, the next one taking place on Wednesday, July 15. Headlining the card is a featherweight fight between Calvin Kattar and Dan Ige.