UFC 249: Dana White insists he is not a Covid-19 ‘rebel’ as he mulls over seven locations

UFC president Dana White insists he is not a “crazy rebel” amid the coronavirus pandemic as he considers seven locations to hold Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson on March 19.

This is a change of tune from White, who was previously adamant that the UFC 249’s lightweight title fight and its entire undercard “will happen on that day” with a “99.9 per cent” set location despite increasing fears and restrictions due to the ongoing Covid-19 situation.

“[There are] Two or three options in the US, three or four options outside of the country. I’m not gonna tell you, everybody is on a need to know basis and nobody needs to know right now,” said White to Yahoo! Sport’s Kevin Iole on Wednesday. White was in his family home following state self-quarantine guidelines.

“Health and safety is something that we deal with every week for the last 20 years ... I’m not acting like some crazy rebel out here with the coronavirus and stuff, I’ve done everything that I’ve been told to do.”

While White insisted that all scheduled events would go ahead only one month ago, the UFC has since been forced to postpone three events and change UFC 249’s original venue in Brooklyn. Increased safety measures in the US have made it difficult to hold events in the country, with or without an audience in the arena.

“When the government said you can only have this amount of people ... when it got to 10, that’s a little tough for me to pull off,” White said.

“We stopped. I’ve been in quarantine in my house since last Sunday. I haven’t left the house, neither has my family ... I’ve followed all the rules but this fight is gonna happen.”

White also reasserted his claim that some of the MMA media is at fault for criticising his organisation’s decision to press ahead with events amid unprecedented times. He had previously called MMA critics the “wimpiest people on Earth”.

“A lot of this hysteria has been driven by the media, and the less the media knows the better off it is ... Everybody who’s with me will get the best medical attention,” said White, adding that he would announce UFC 249’s location later this week.