Dana White lays out future plans for 2020, says he has an island for international fighters
Dana White turned some heads on Monday when he not only announced an interim lightweight title fight, but revealed a full 12-fight card for UFC 249, scheduled for April 18, but has not yet said where the location of the event will be. While the sports world has been halted by the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic, White is looking to press forward with UFC events, possibly every week moving forward.
In an interview with TMZ, White revealed that he has secured a location for UFC 249 and he has the location locked for the next two months so he can hold events, but he also noted that he is working on acquiring a private island which will be primarily for international fighters.
While the UFC has set a 12-fight event for UFC 249, the main event will be an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje who is filling in for champion Khabib Nurmagomedov who is unable to compete due to travel restrictions put in place during the pandemic.
White wouldn’t reveal too much about the island but said that the plan is that fighters won’t know where they’re headed, but they’re planning to for all events to be on schedule starting April 18. On Monday night, White spoke to ESPN and detailed how the UFC will proceed with their events and travel to the events for the immediate future.
“We’re going to get the fighters somewhere, and we’re going to bring them to this location. They won’t know where they’re headed to.”@danawhite explains the logistics of how fighters will be transported to the site of #UFC249, as well as the soon-to-be-secured private island. pic.twitter.com/KMPGZ0qc9Q
— ESPN MMA (@espnmma) April 7, 2020
“So this place where this fight’s going to be on April 18, I have locked up for two months so I’m going to continue to pump fights out. I’ve also secured an island, I’ve got an island. The infrastructure is being built right now, we’re going to do all our international fights on this island. When we do this fight on April 18, international and in the United States, we’re going to start cranking. The UFC will be back up and running, internationally and in the United States. What we’re going to do is, we’re going to bring the fighters somewhere then we’re going to bring them to this location, they won’t know where they’re headed to.”
Once UFC 249 takes place, it appears that Dana White and the UFC are all-in on returning back to their schedule for 2020 and will look to make up for lost time by having events every single week.
In addition to the location notes that White provided both TMZ and ESPN, he told TMZ that commentator Joe Rogan will be calling the action at UFC 249 after Rogan had recently stated that he wouldn’t be there.
