Report: California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Disney to shut down UFC 249

In his relentless effort to keep fights going during the coronavirus pandemic, UFC president Dana White settled on tribal land in California as a location. What that meant was the promotion didn’t have to worry about a statewide stay-at-home order from Gov. Gavin Newsom since the venue – Tachi Palace Casino Resort outside of Fresno – is exempt from such orders.

White, in essence, found a way around Newsom. Newsom, it appears, did not take that lightly – and found a way to counter White and the UFC.

On Thursday, White announced that UFC 249 and future scheduled events have been indefinitely suspended. White made it clear that the decision was made not by his own judgment, but at the urging of the promotion’s broadcast partner.

“ESPN has been an amazing partner to us since Day 1, and them asking me to stand down, there’s no way I wouldn’t not do it,” White said.

The question is: Why did ESPN ask White to stand down?

According to The New York Times, it’s because of Newsom. The newspaper, citing three people familiar with the matter, reports that state officials intervened by directly expressing concerns to Disney, the parent company of ESPN. The Times reports that Newsom himself made a call to Disney, whose studio headquarters are in Burbank, and requested that executives stop the UFC’s plan to host consecutive weeks worth of events at Tachi Palace.

The message registered.

“We got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney and the highest level of ESPN,” White said. “One thing that I’ve said since we started our relationship and partnership with ESPN – and it’s been an incredible one, it’s been an amazing partnership. ESPN has been very, very good to us, and the powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event next Saturday.”

So White acquiesced. And now the UFC – like virtually every major sports league on earth for the past month – is shut down indefinitely while COVID-19 continues to spread. As of Thursday night, 1.6 million cases of the virus have been documented worldwide, resulting in almost 96,000 deaths. The U.S. accounts for nearly 470,000 cases and 17,000 deaths.

With those numbers rising in recent weeks, White still remained set on hosting events. UFC 249 lost its original main event after lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov withdrew because of a travel ban in his native Russia, but that didn’t stop White. He found a replacement this week in Justin Gaethje to fight Tony Ferguson for the interim 155-pound title.

After making the cancellation announcement, White remained defiant – and hinted that he had a backup plan to his backup plan.

“Everybody said that I couldn’t do this. I could. I could go next Saturday. And if anything happened in California where I couldn’t, I have another place right now, with an athletic commission and the governor, and everybody is behind it. I can go April 18; let’s make that clear,” White said. “But, I don’t crack to pressure. When people start coming after me – people have been coming after me for 20 years. I’m used to it, and I don’t care. I don’t care what people think. People don’t know what we do here, and they don’t even try to know. …

“You’re going to have people that have these opinions. Some are going to be on this side, some are going to be on that side. I don’t crack to that stuff. But it doesn’t mean that other people won’t crack to it. I don’t. I could still go Saturday. I could go do this event. I’m sure ESPN would let me do it on Fight Pass. But ESPN doesn’t want me to do it. They’re my partners, they’ve been nothing but amazing to me.”