UFC President Dana White has just returned from Abu Dhabi, where ‘Fight Island’ was a success over a period of weeks.
To satisfy public health guidelines, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the Department of Culture and Tourism for Abu Dhabi sealed off the near 10-square-mile (25 km) island.
This included the arena, hotel, training facilities, and dining establishments for around 2,500 athletes, coaches, staff, event personnel, and Yas Island employees.
“It was a success in every way you can measure success,” White told CNN World Sport’s Don Riddell.
“Zero positives on the Island, 12,500 tests, 100 athletes, four title fights … they’re [Abu Dhabi] light years ahead of everybody else in what’s going on with COVID, so it really was the perfect partnership.”
Dana White was criticized within the media for UFC’s swift return to the Octagon.
White exclaimed: “Where are they now!? Why aren’t they writing the stories that they were wrong, and we could do this, and we could pull it off, and it has been safe?”
He added: “I never listen to the media, ever. The media will never determine how I run my business or how I live my life, ever.”
Other major US sports came back. MLS and NBA are using the bubble of Orlando to try and safeguard against COVID-19 cases. MLB didn’t do the same and games were postponed within days of the new season starting across many ballparks around the US.
White shared the advice he would have given numerous commissioners if anyone had called him:
“One thing I can tell everybody: this isn’t going to work outside of a bubble. You’ve got to have the bubble, you have to put people in lockdown, people can’t be sneaking out, people can’t go home. You know, in Abu Dhabi, the people [who worked with UFC]… haven’t seen their families in two months.”
