Dana White says UFC’s critics during coronavirus are ‘weakest, wimpiest people on earth’
- ‘The media can talk as much as they want, they don’t feed families,’ adds UFC president
- ‘Go online and look at some of these people … this isn’t a knock, this is just fact’
The UFC has been determined to fight on amid the worldwide coronavirus outbreak. And Dana White is clearly not happy with people criticising them for it.
After frantically trying to reschedule and relocate events from Columbus, London and Portland to its in-house Las Vegas campus studio, the UFC finally decided this week to postpone its next three shows.
“Here’s the reality: We will be up and running before any other sport will,” White said during an Instagram live session with UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman. “Our sport’s different. We have our own arena next door [the UFC Apex]. So we will fulfil every fight for every fighter this year, and we’ll get this thing done.”
White is determined that UFC 249, featuring the highly anticipated lightweight title match between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, will go ahead “whatever it takes” on April 18 (which is likely to include moving it out of the US). But some in the media had questioned the wisdom of ploughing ahead given most other major global sporting leagues and competitions have indefinitely suspended operations.
White is having none of the criticism, though.
“Think about this: go online and look at some of these people – and this isn’t a knock, this is just a fact – the weakest, wimpiest people on earth cover the biggest, baddest sport on earth,” he said. “What do you expect them to say? What do you think they’re gonna say?