Tag: Coronavirus

Conor McGregor Urges Ireland To Go Into ‘True Lockdown’

McGregorConor McGregor continues to call for Ireland to follow all the measures necessary to combat the coronavirus. McGregor only recently sent out a message urging everyone in Ireland to follow social distancing and remain in quarantine. The former two-weight UFC champion did so again on Tuesday with a video message as he called for a […]

McGregor

Conor McGregor continues to call for Ireland to follow all the measures necessary to combat the coronavirus.

McGregor only recently sent out a message urging everyone in Ireland to follow social distancing and remain in quarantine.

The former two-weight UFC champion did so again on Tuesday with a video message as he called for a full lockdown of the nation.

You can watch it below:

“… While we are currently debating a full lockdown, I feel that we must,” McGregor said. “Any time spent debating this is needless time from the clock. I know a good, tough fight when I see one and we have one on our hands now. I want to call on my people, the great people of Ireland — this fight needs us all. We are all in the red corner awaiting the bell. So let’s gather together and ring the bell ourselves including the people of the rest of the world. True lockdown must begin and it must begin now. A lockdown together, a lockdown united. We must close our airports, we must close all non-essential business, we must cut all non-essential travel.

“… We must prepare and deploy all our units to all and any known built-up areas across our country. President [Michael D.] Higgins you must give these great men and women the power to enforce this task if necessary. However, I know that when the true seriousness of this is understood as it is becoming now our great nation will oblige and impeccably do so. It is time for full lockdown and we are ready. Powers that be, I am calling to you all, the fate of our great Ireland depends on it. This is my proposal and I pray that we can make this happen.

“We need to take the same measures of some of the heavier affected countries and we must do it in quicker time. We have the advantage here in that we can see this coming. We can see this coming but if we do not act on our advantage, then we cannot expect different results. We are not adhering to social distancing, at least not to the extent to halt exponential growth. A lockdown would facilitate this. It will reduce transmissions, it will take the pressure off our frontline staff and will allow us to identify all of our cases. These methods are stringent but necessary and have worked in China and Hong Kong. Ireland, we have got this. Not only do we have the formula, we have it ahead of time. Let’s go Ireland, let’s go rest of the world. Lockdown united. Together we stand. God bless us all.”

Given how some are choosing to ignore the suggestions enforced, it’s certainly a good thing to have someone as influential as McGregor call for a lockdown.

What do you make of McGregor’s speech?

Dana White On The Phone ‘All Day Every Day’ Trying To Make UFC 249 Happen

WhiteUFC 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 […]

White

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?

UFC’s Next Three Events Indefinitely Postponed

UFCThe UFC won’t be staging its next three events. As per an email from UFC president Dana White, this weekend’s relocated UFC London event along with the events that were set to take place in Columbus and Portland are now indefinitely postponed. “This weekend’s UFC event, as well as 3/28 and 4/11, have been indefinitely […]

UFC

The UFC won’t be staging its next three events.

As per an email from UFC president Dana White, this weekend’s relocated UFC London event along with the events that were set to take place in Columbus and Portland are now indefinitely postponed.

“This weekend’s UFC event, as well as 3/28 and 4/11, have been indefinitely postponed per an email from Dana White to all UFC employees. #UFC

“Dana has praised the efforts of all employees for working so hard to constantly make it happen everywhere and every time. But, with the current state of affairs, it’s simply impossible.”

It remains to be seen how this affects the most highly-anticipated card of the year in UFC 249. That card was set to be headlined by a lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson and was to take place April 18 in Brooklyn, New York.

Despite most sports leagues around the world suspending their seasons due to the coronavirus outbreak, the UFC seemed adamant in making sure their shows went ahead.

UFC Brasilia took place behind closed doors this past weekend while the promotion was also looking to book fights for this upcoming weekend despite the already-present complications and fight cancelations.

As it stands, it looks like Cage Warriors 113 on Friday might be the last mixed martial arts event for a while.

What do you make of the UFC indefinitely postponing its next three events?

Daniel Cormier, Josh Thomson Clash Over UFC Not Canceling Events

Cormier ThomsonAlthough some fans and fighters like Daniel Cormier are happy the UFC is still running events, many feel it is irresponsible given the current coronavirus pandemic. Sports leagues all around the world have suspended their seasons while Bellator recently postponed their 241 event which was set for this past Friday. They also paid their fighters’ […]

Cormier Thomson

Although some fans and fighters like Daniel Cormier are happy the UFC is still running events, many feel it is irresponsible given the current coronavirus pandemic.

Sports leagues all around the world have suspended their seasons while Bellator recently postponed their 241 event which was set for this past Friday. They also paid their fighters’ full purses provided they made weight.

The UFC, on the other hand, went ahead with UFC Brasilia last night behind closed doors and doesn’t plan on delaying or canceling any of their upcoming events either.

One speculated reason why is that the UFC doesn’t want to pay the fighters their full purses if they’re not competing. And Josh Thomson revealed that a couple of UFC fighters — who were nervous about fighting — asked him if Bellator fighters were paid full purses.

“I’ve had 3 @ufc fighters reach out me asking how much @BellatorMMA paid their fighters when the fight was cancelled. I said , 100% of their purse to everyone who made weight. They all said they’re nervous to fight and wanted to know what fighters in bellator actually got paid.”

Cormier responded by defending the UFC, claiming while it was admirable that Bellator president Scott Coker paid every fighter, all those fighters still wanted to compete.

“Josh, the fighters wanna fight josh. Hats off to Coker and crew yesterday but those fighters wanted to fight. That’s what they do! I see what you’re doing Thomson.”

Thomson responded promptly:

“You’re wrong, every fighter on that card and even the ones that weren’t on that card sent out appreciation to @ScottCoker for what he did for our athletes by paying them their full purses. Athletes need to be protected from themselves sometimes, u should know this more than most.”

It’s interesting to note that both Cormier and Thomson are also teammates at American Kickboxing Academy.

Regardless, what do you think of the UFC still running events? Should they stop?