The UFC’s insistence on plowing forward with its event schedule starting with UFC 249 on April 18 has been the subject of much debate.
Included among those debate topics is who among the announcing crew is willing to show up in the middle of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic and call fights.
Ring announcer Bruce Buffer already has stated he’s willing to do UFC 249, which does not yet have an announced location. Joe Rogan’s status is uncertain: He’s said he’s not doing it, but UFC president Dana White claims otherwise, and Rogan, as of this writing, has yet to clarify.
Then there’s one of the best color commentators in the game, Daniel Cormier. The former UFC heavyweight and light heavyweight champion has become a cageside staple. Will he be involved in events going forward?
While it sounds like he’s not in a rush to board a plane and go call fights on White’s mystery island, there are situations in which he’d be willing to work.
Cormier lives in Northern California. If the UFC puts on shows at a location in which he can drive from his home, be assured of proper COVID-19 testing, call the fights, and go home, then it’s OK to count him in.
“A lot of things have to deal with location, right? If its somewhere close and very accessible, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it,” Cormier told MMA Junkie Radio on Tuesday. “They’re going to be tested; they’re going to test everybody. You gotta understand going to do that UFC show, even if you aren’t showing symptoms of the coronavirus, you should still get tested anyway. So you could be better off than the people sitting home not getting tested. Understand what I’m saying?
“They won’t let you into the UFC event without testing you. So when they test you, you’ll know whether or not you have the coronavirus. And I believe that that makes it as safe as you can hope for.”
Access to COVID-19 testing has been difficult for ordinary Americans. So the way Cormier sees it, if he gets tested at a UFC event and has the peace of mind of knowing whether or not he carries the virus, and that others have been tested and come up negative, then he’s good to continue his fight-calling duties.
“Obviously Dana and the company has access to those tests and test the fighters and test the referees and officials, test the UFC, test everybody,” Cormier said. “So if there’s going to be a safe situation, it’s going to be with those people in that arena, especially if you go from your car into the arena to do the fights, out of the arena and back home. Unless you’re out there doing all kinds of random things, you’re pretty safe to call the fights. If it’s accessible, and I don’t want to get on an airplane and go to an airport right now. But if it’s accessible, and I go there and get tested and get to call the fights and then go home, yeah, why not?”
He later continued, “I mean, the fights have to get going. As a country, I know that we need to be very serious about social distancing and staying at home and really try to stop the spread of this virus. But you just gotta hope, as a person, that life starts to get moving sooner than later. It’s just hard, man. Everything just looks so different. Life looks so different. I find myself saying this almost every day to someone: I can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime. You never could’ve imagined something like this would become part of your daily life. And it has, and you just hope sooner than later we can get back to normalcy.”
