UFC Applies With NSAC For Four February Events

The UFC will return to Nevada in February for four more events … if issues with Coronavirus in the state don’t shut combat sports down.

On Saturday January 16th the UFC returns for the first time in 2021 with a morning/afternoon full of fights from Abu Dhabi’s Fight Island, UAE. Officially dubbed “UFC on ABC: Holloway vs. Kattar,” it will continue the Twitter trend of being labeled #UFCFightIsland7. After that we’ll have another early start with “UFC on ESPN: Chiesa vs. Magny,” aka #UFCFightIsland8, and then UFC 257: Poirier vs. McGregor 2 wraps up January’s return to Fight Island.

While the location on everything past that is still officially marked as ‘To Be Determined’ it seems like the UFC’s current hope is to continue jumping back and forth between Abu Dhabi and the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, Nevada as each month goes by. Care of USA Today’s Nolan King, we have word that the UFC has officially filed the Nevada State Athletic Commission paperwork for all of February’s cards.

February 14th will feature UFC 258, while February 6th, 20th, and 27th will be undetermined UFC Fight Nights. Those suffering from MMA withdrawl will be happy to know that’s one weekend off after the McGregor vs. Poirier PPV and then eight straight weeks of UFC cards every Saturday from February 6th to March 27th.

If the Coronavirus doesn’t mess things up.

While the pandemic has taken a backseat in the news over the past couple of days, things continue to get worse numbers wise across the US. Nevada’s neighbor California is looking particularly bad with L.A. County hitting the tipping point where hospitals begin to triage care as beds and ventilators run out.

Nevada is nowhere near as bad, with their ICU currently 73% full and ventilators at 45% usage. Hospitalization numbers are actually down over the past few days, which is good. But a 21% test positivity rate is not. The morgues are already overflowing with bodies, even with all the refrigerated trucks brought in to deal with overflow.

I’m not an epidemiologist and I’m not pretending to be. But the simple math is this: if hospitals run out of beds and ventilators, all of a sudden everyone having a life threatening stroke or injury is at risk of dying because there’s no way to care for them. COVID-19 patients start getting triaged which kicks the death rate way up. It’s only getting uglier in L.A., and once Nevada sees its hospital vacancy start to go that direction, that’s when the really serious lockdown procedures go into place.

Where will Nevada be come February? It’s a question worth wondering as the UFC comes into 2021. Knowing Dana White, we imagine he’s got contingencies in place to keep events going on Fight Island should Nevada decide to pull the plug on sporting events in the state. Let’s hope things don’t get bad enough that he has to pull that trigger.