Morning Report: Dana White is not planning on having fans at events for ‘for a very long time’

The past two months, the UFC has been in a tailspin due to the ongoing spread of the coronavirus. Despite their best efforts, the world’s premier fight organization has been forced to postpone a number of events. But on Friday, UFC President Dana White announced an ambitious plan to get the UFC back into action next month, including holding three events in one week.

White’s announcement once again raised eyebrows from those wondering if a global pandemic is the time to be machine-gunning fight cards, but speaking to Yahoo’s Kevin Iole, White maintains that we can’t just sit around forever and wait for this pandemic to pass.

“At some point, we have to figure out, ‘How do we get things back to normal,’ but do it in a really safe way,” White said. “The only way to find out is to get out there and start doing it. We’re going to spend a lot of money. It’s not going to be cheap. It’s going to be expensive. You’re worried about the health and safety of everybody: the fighters, the commission, the referees, my staff that’s going to be there. It’s not cheap. It’s expensive. It’s hard, but somebody’s got to take the first step and get out there. We can’t just stay in houses until next December.”

White has been extremely bullish on continue to host events during the coronavirus pandemic. He spent weeks attempting to keep UFC 249 on the books for April 18, even going so far as to establish ‘Fight Island’ before ultimately being forced to back down when Disney executives reached out to him. Obviously that only delayed White though, who is adamant that health and safety goes hand-in-hand with the UFC and that they have a good bead on things heading into the rescheduled UFC 249 event.

“I care very much about the fighters,” White said. “I care very much about my staff; obviously, my family. We’re going to do everything way up here. we always do. Health and safety is an issue for us for the last 20 years. . . It’s not new for us. This is something we deal with not only on a weekly basis but we take great pride in that we have such a great track record.”

White’s tenure over the UFC does reveal a track record of health and safety measures. When Zuffa acquired the UFC in 2001, White spearheaded the company’s movement toward regulation by state athletic commissions and in 2015, White brought USADA on board with the UFC for a comprehensive anti-doping program. However, the texture of a global pandemic is very different in terms of health and safety, especially as it becomes more clear that the coronavirus pandemic is not going away soon. And that’s why White says he’s not planing on having fans at shows anytime soon either.

“Obviously, the world is going to be different and I’ve been thinking far ahead into the future,” White said. “I don’t expect to have a gate for a very long time. I’ve already thrown that out the window. You have to look at all the different things. People think that I don’t take this seriously because I want to come back so fast and all this other stuff.

“It’s not that I don’t take it seriously. I take it very seriously. I don’t plan on having a gate for a very long time. . . I’m already thinking way ahead of these types of things. All I need to worry about is making sure everybody is safe and that I can put on these events. I don’t need a crowd.”

The point against White remains though: how is the UFC going to effectively control the spread of coronavirus when every other major sports league has admitted they cannot? If all the medical experts in the world are struggling to fight COVID-19, how can Dana White claim he’ll do so? And for that, White had a simple response: the medical experts have controlled it, as best as it can be controlled, but eventually things have to return to normal.

“I think the medical experts have controlled it, as best as you can control it,” White said. “We literally shut down the world. It’s crazy that that’s even an option. We shut down the world and we controlled it as best we can. I just don’t know how long we can keep the world shut down. There’s a lot of things that will start to snowball as you continue to keep people locked up inside their houses with nothing to do and no entertainment and a lot of people who aren’t making money are going to running out of money to buy food and things like this. . . People being out and being productive and people making money is a big deal too. We have to start coming up with ways to work around this and figure out how to get people back to as close to normal as possible.”

Lost time. UFC plans to hold three events in a week, starting with UFC 249 on May 9.

Fight Island. Dana White aiming to have ‘Fight Island’ ready by June.

Screw job. Chael Sonnen warns of potential ‘screw job’ if Conor McGregor is thrown into Khabib-Ferguson plans.

Burnt out. Robert Whittaker breaks silence on UFC 248 withdrawal: ‘I was completely burnt out’.

Compensation. Alexander Hernandez expects the UFC ‘to come through’ with compensation for canceled April 18 event.

Reaction to the UFC’s ambitious May plans.

Portrait: Edmen Shahbazyan.

Free fights.

How good was Frank Mir?

Fighters who were beaten at their own game.

Dana on TMZ.

Severe MMA. Discussing UFC 249, safety during COVID-19, and Conor’s next step.

The beef continues.

Darren Till throwing heat.

Call outs.

Hardo.

THIS.

Throwback.

Francis forgetting about Derrick Lewis fight. Wish the rest of us could.

Anthony Smith (33-14) vs. Glover Teixeira (30-7); UFC Fight Night, May 13.

Ben Rothwell (37-12) vs. Ovince Saint Preux (24-13); UFC Fight Night, May 13.

Alistair Overeem (45-18) vs. Walt Harris (13-7); UFC Fight Night, May 16.

Mackenzie Dern (7-1) vs. Hannah Cifers (10-4); UFC Fight Night, May 23.

Cody Garbrandt (11-3) vs. Raphael Assuncao (27-7); UFC 250, June 6.

Thanks for reading and see y’all tomorrow.

If you find something you’d like to see in the Morning Report, hit up @JedKMeshew on Twitter and let him know about it. Also follow MMAFighting on Instagram, add us on Snapchat at MMA-Fighting, and like us on Facebook.