Why I Love the Idea of a UFC Fight Island/UFC 249

HUGE news surrounding UFC 249 currently scheduled for April 18th. We have secured a Main Event! Stepping in for Khabib Nurmagomedov, who is currently stuck in Russia, will be #3 Justin Gaethje as he takes on #1 Tony Ferguson for the Interim Lightweight Title.

The even bigger news surrounds the actually venue/location of the event, which as of April 7th, is still undetermined. Per UFC President Dana White‘s conversation with Brett Okamoto on ESPN, Dana is a “day or two away” from purchasing a private island. Yes, you read that right. The UFC is going to purchase a private island to hold fights. This is some real fight club/Hollywood type of shit. Never in my lifetime did I think a company would purchase an island so that they could crank up operations but that is 2020 in a nutshell. Now there are some real concerns/objections to the UFC moving forward with the fights and here is why I absolutely love it.

1. What about fighter safety?

As we all know, Covid19 is not to be taken lightly. I mean look what it has down to the economy and how it has changed everyday life with no real end or timeline in sight. So obviously avoiding human contact is key and there’s not really a more contact heavy sport than fighting. However, let’s look at it from a common sense standpoint. The UFC can easily test all of the fighters on the card, corner-men, announcers, judges/refs, and essential personnel and still have far less people gathering than any other sport. You have each fighter remain quarantined with their team until they are up to fight. Assuming the UFC tests everyone the way they are saying they will, there should be no concern of the virus being spread among the individuals at the event. Which leads into my next point...

2. Why should fighters get tests when they are hard to come by?

Fair point, and probably the strongest case to make against these fights. Of course this isnt a perfect solution, and it seems that these athletes are getting special treatment. But guess what? Theyre human too.

Everyone whines and cries about fighters salary (i.e. Professional fighters on the lower tier make $10k to show $10k to win) which is absolutely insane for a pro athlete (another debate for another day). Without these tests, they have no opportunity to work. ”A lot of people are out of work, so why does that matter.” Simple. This will be a source of live entertainment that now only have we been missing out on, but the entire world. This gives all the other countries something to look forward to for a change and if you want people to “stay inside” then you better give them a fucking reason to. For the degenerate gambler it gives them sports to bet on, for the casual fan a chance to really understand and become a fan of fighting, and for the hardcore fan like me, something to geek out about and get more material out there. But most of all....

3. OPPORTUNITY.

This is life changing. No one can forget Derrick Lewis “knocking that Russian Mothafucka out” in Donald Trump’s honor and taking his shorts off because his “balls was hot.” Why did that interview blow up? Because he was fighting in the co-main event on the Khabib/Conor card. All it takes is a Forrest Griffin/Stephan Bonnar type of brawl to become a fan-favorite, a funny or strange post-fight interview to blow up on Social Media, or dominant performance to get the fans raving about a title shot. Being that there are no other sports on the UFC will finally have the spotlight, and the fighter have the opportunity to truly change their lives.

Listen, this is by no means a bullet-proof solution as I highlighted above. There are definitely concerns as there should be. Will the fighters be in top physical form? How will this affect the safety of weight cutting? Is it crazy to host an event an event in the midst of so much unknown? And all of those points are valid. But at what point do we stop living our lives? Did we cancel every concert after the Vegas shooting? Did we forbid flying for a year after 9/11? We can't continue to be afraid of the unknown. With that being said, I'm not an advocate of going out and spreading the virus because we want a drink at the bar. But if the UFC and their $4.2 billion in resources can build a bad ass event on a secluded island and follow-up all safety protocols with the virus, I'm all in.