Josh Thomson isn’t a fan of Dana White pushing through with UFC cards in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
UFC 249 is on target for April 18. White says the event will be held inside a venue that the UFC has under wraps for two months. While White hasn’t disclosed the location, it’s been reported that UFC 249 will take place inside the Tachi Palace Casino Resort in California.
Thomson Questions White’s Decision To Push Forward With UFC Events
White has also revealed he is securing a private island for future UFC events. Speaking to Metro, Bellator analyst Josh Thomson said that White will have to deal with any potential consequences if things go south.
“Why are they doing this? Dana likes to be the daredevil,” he told Metro.co.uk. You always think of the worst-case scenario when you’re doing an event. Worst-case scenario here is you fight on an island and half the people get COVID-19. You bring it to the island and people start dying on the island. Another worst case is there’s no real hospital on the island and someone gets seriously hurt and they can’t make it to a hospital in time and a fighter dies.
“Those are the two worst-case scenarios you could think of. Dana has to be ready for those consequences. That would end Dana as the president of the UFC, it would end the promotion and the sport itself would take a huge step backwards. It would be detrimental to the sport. ‘The average person would never support MMA of any kind again because of this recklessness [leading to a worst case scenario].”
UFC 249 will be headlined by an interim lightweight title bout between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje. The card has lost its initial co-main event as Rose Namajunas has been pulled from her scheduled strawweight rematch with Jessica Andrade.
