By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
In the end, even UFC President Dana White couldn’t buck the virus –or top Disney/ESPN execs — to stage a controversial UFC fight event on tribal land in California April 18.
Oh, White tried. But ultimately White said Thursday UFC 249 — scheduled for a tribal venue outside Fresno, California — was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic that has claimed the lives of thousands of Americans after he talked with Disney officials.
White told LVSportsBiz.com Thursday afternoon: “Disney asked me to step down and postpone and I love and respect our partnership so I agreed to do it.”
White also said in a text that infrastructure is being built at a “fight island” to host UFC fight events during the coronavirus pandemic. “Will have that up and running ASAP,” White told LVSportsBiz. ESPN will broadcast UFC fight shows from the fight island, White said.
Here’s the ESPN statement:
White planned to circumvent the California State Athletic Commission and state jurisdiction by staging UFC 249 at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort on tribal land, featuring Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje as the headline match after undefeated lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov was stuck in Russia because of the coronavirus pandemic. The original match was between Nurmagomedov and Ferguson.
But White faced a lot of criticism for gorging ahead with the UFC 249 in the teeth of a pandemic that has prompted federal and local officials to advise residents to stay at home and keep six feet part in social settings and stores. Stay at home is the order of the day across the U.S. to stem the spread of a virus that human beings do not have immunity from.
U.S. Sen. Diane Feinstein, a California Democrat, opposed the event, asking for it to be cancelled:
White said he’s in the fight business and that the fight show must go on. The pandemic eventually caught up with White and Las Vegas-based UFC, too, for UFC 249.
But White will move ahead with UFC fight events for his fight island.
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