UFC's Dana White is No Hero

by Julian Spivey
Dana White is no hero. The President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is merely a stubborn ass, who’s putting his own self ahead of the health of a country and a world that’s almost completely shutting down over Covid-19 in hopes of trying to stop the spread of the virus that’s already causes hundreds of deaths worldwide and experts fear will get worse before it gets better.
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While the rest of the sports world did the right thing – nay the competent thing – by postponing or cancelling seasons and events over the past weekend White decided to continue with the sports event in Brazil, albeit without spectators.

Taking a step further he’s announced future fights will go on, despite venues cancelling for these fights he’s searching for other places for them to be held. This upcoming weekend’s event was supposed to take place in London but is now attempting to move to an undisclosed venue in America. White had announced fights that couldn’t take place in the scheduled venues would happen at the UFC owned Apex facility in Las Vegas, but those plans were shut down by the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Saturday, March 14 when they suspended all combat sports within the state. White is still on the lookout for other venues. White is especially trying to find a venue for the company’s next major pay-per-view event UFC 249, a lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, which was originally supposed to be held in Brooklyn, N.Y. on April 18.

White told ESPN: “The fight will happen. It will go on. The fans are all freaking out about that, do not worry. Khabib versus Tony will happen.”

The UFC continuing to hold events, even ones without spectators, is a major issue for a nation trying to social distance itself in an attempt to flatten the curve of Covid-19. In fact, of all of the sports to remain active during this time, UFC might just be the absolute worst.

If sports like the NBA, MLB, NASCAR, etc. wanted to continue events without spectators they wouldn’t have the impact of UFC doing so. Most other sports have television contracts that allow events to be seen on either broadcast television networks or basic cable channels that the majority of people in the country have access to. Holding these events would still be unadvisable in the eyes of medical experts, as they’d still be putting the athletes and essential personal in danger and anybody who might come in contact with them later, but it wouldn’t have the danger of UFC.

UFC is a sport in which its major events are held either via pay-per-view or subscriber outlets like ESPN+. It’s a sport in which many of its fans are known to go out to bars or restaurants to view these events. Doing so would obviously be going against a nation attempting to social distance for the betterment of a its overall health. White has to understand that many of his viewers do just that, but he doesn’t seem to care.

Some states like Ohio and Illinois are going as far as shutting down bars and dine-in restaurants in an attempt to eliminate social gatherings. Other states will likely follow in the days to come.

White has said that his sport will continue to compete unless the entire country shuts down. That’s likely to happen and it’s likely to happen because people like White don’t seem to know any better. 

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