Dana White guarantees ‘insane’ UFC 249 main event, hopes for Vegas return by end of May

Dana White guarantees ‘insane’ UFC 249 main event, hopes for Vegas return by end of May

It’s been a long and winding road to UFC 249, which has seen the event move from Brooklyn to Lemoore, Calif., to Jacksonville, Fla., but after a chaotic month, fight night is finally just around the corner.

During a Friday appearance on ESPN’s “Get Up,” UFC president Dana White admitted he’ll be happy to finally get the event done and move on with the rest of the 2020 schedule after tumultuous weeks of planning and re-planning this weekend’s event amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“I feel good,” White said. “Today’s the weigh-ins. I always get excited for weigh-ins. It’s my second favorite day. I’m excited to get this fight behind me and start next week. We have a fight Wednesday and Saturday, too, of next week, so I’m excited to get the schedule going, get live sports back for people and prove to the world that this can be done safely.”

That final statement has been the bone of contention among critics of White’s decision to move forward with his plan to host UFC 249, which takes place Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla. But he said the organization has been doing all it can to ensure the health and safety of its athletes and those working the event.

“Like I’ve been saying, health and safety is something we worry about every weekend, not just about the coronavirus,” White said. “But obviously no fans, less than half the team that usually works on an event will be working on this event. There has been multiple testing on the athletes. If you look on a lot of their Instagram and social media, they’re getting the thing stuck up their nose and doing the antibody testing – a lot of things we don’t normally do for a fight.”

As for the fights themselves, White says he can’t see them delivering anything but fireworks, especially when Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje clash in the night’s main event.

“Listen, as a promoter, you can never guarantee that a fight is going to be an incredible fight or the best fight you’ve ever seen. I guarantee you the main event is going to be insane,” White said. “Stylistically, the way these two match up and as far as their mentality goes, this fight is going to be one of the best fights of the year. Very tough fight to call who’s going to win. You cannot miss this main event. And the entire card is stacked from the first fight of the night to the main event. This should be an amazing night of fights.”

UFC 249 marks the first of three events in the space of just eight days in Jacksonville, but White said he hopes to bring fights back to the UFC’s hometown of Las Vegas sooner rather than later. On Thursday, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announced a plan to reopen the state beginning Saturday. With the UFC Apex ready to host live shows, White and Co. are just waiting for authorities give the green light.

“We built a $100 million facility next door so we could have fights,” White said. “It makes more sense with what’s going on for us to be doing events at our own arena. It’ll be a lot safer for my own employees, the athletic commission, the fighters. So I hope to have fights there this month.”