As the rest of the sports world is shutting everything down amid the COVID-19 outbreak, UFC president Dana White is not concerned.
In fact, he went off on reporters who criticize him for wanting to get back to business.
“Go online and look at some of these people — and this isn’t a knock, this is just a fact — the weakest, wimpiest people on Earth cover the biggest, baddest sport on Earth,” White said during an Instagram live Thursday, via theScore. “What do you expect them to say? What do you think they’re going to say?
“I have over 350 employee who work for me. Multi-billion dollar companies are laying off all their employees right now. We haven’t laid off one person at the UFC. Every fighter that fights for me, will fight three times this year. Our schedule will go on. Everybody’s going to get paid. We will figure this out and we will be the first sport back on and (expletive) that (expletive). Everything will go on.”
The next three cards on the UFC’s schedule between March 21 and April 11 already have been postponed, but White has promised the promotion would return April 18 for Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Tony Ferguson.
“We will get through this,” White said. “We will make it. All my people that are with me, no need to worry. Enjoy your family, spend your time. This is a big vacation until this thing blows over and we will be back on track and we will kick some (expletive) (expletive) like we always do.”
White argued his fighters receive high quality medical care, and they’re itching to get back and compete no matter the consequence to them.
He’s so determined to keep the UFC 249 fight on, he’ll consider holding the event without fans or even hosting it outside the United States.
We’ll see how that goes for him.
