UFC is scheduled to make its return this Saturday with UFC 249 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville.
Not only will it be the promotion’s first fight card since an empty-arena show in Brazil on March 14. It’ll also mark the beginning of a stretch that includes three live events in an eight-day span.
But what about “Fight Island,” the private island Dana White has talked about securing amid the COVID-19 pandemic to potentially host international fight events?
Well, the UFC president still hasn’t revealed the island’s exact location, but he shared a few more details about the concept in a piece published Tuesday on SI.com.
Here’s what White said, per SI’s Greg Bishop:
The infrastructure is being put in now. This place is literally going to be a UFC Fight Island — just like our training facility in Las Vegas, with the UFC Apex next door that can host concerts, comedy, stuff like that. That’s what we’re doing on the island. We’re designing and building it for people to come in and train, with rooms and things like that. The whole island will be laid out just for fighting. … Everybody has this image in their mind of Fight Island, like something out of a video game. It will be a lot more modern than that. There won’t be tiki torches or any of that s—. … We’re gonna use it a lot until the world gets normal again. We’re gonna need it for our international fights — a place where people can fly in and out easily, without needing a bunch of visas and red tape.
In addition to Saturday’s UFC 249 event, the promotion will hold UFC Fight Night events on May 13 and May 16 in Jacksonville. All three will be held without fans in attendance.
It obviously remains to be seen what comes of “Fight Island,” but White said previously it’s something that’s “going to be around for a while,” as we simply don’t know at this point how sports might change forever in wake of the coronavirus outbreak.
