UFC president Dana White is determined to “continue on.”
The UFC held its event Saturday in Brasilia, Brazil, without fans in attendance an Ginasio Nilson Nelson. After the event, White remained adamant the UFC schedule would continue despite the rest of the sports world shutting down.
Prior to Monday’s postponements of UFC on ESPN+ 29 (Saturday), UFC on ESPN 8 (March 28), and UFC on ESPN+ 30 (April 11), the UFC was one of the few major sports organizations in the world to continue not call timeout. Since then, things have changed.
In an interview with ESPN’s “SportsCenter” shortly after notifying his employees of the postponements, White said he has no plans to cancel or postpone the upcoming UFC 249 title fight April 18 between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson.
When asked why the UFC is so determined to put on fights in the face of the coronavirus outbreak, White expressed his determination to keep on keeping on.
“This is what we do,” White said. “We put fights on every weekend. The fighters want to fight. The fans want to see it. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the fans and the fighters. These guys all want to continue. We will. Obviously, we’ve had some blowback from the media that covers us, but everybody is going to have their opinions. We’re going to continue on. These three fights are postponed. They will still happen. Khabib vs. Tony is on for the original date. We’re going to keep fighting.”
The UFC doesn’t have a booked event until UFC 249, with UFC on ESPN+ 31 in Lincoln, Neb. scheduled for the following Saturday.
