On the latest Joe Rogan Experience, the host discussed Dana White's plan to hold UFC 249 on April 18, even as the planet is shutting down in response to SARS-CoV-2.
“I don’t know how they’re gonna do that," said Rogan, as transcribed by Jed Meshew for MMA Fighting. "I don’t know if they’re gonna be able to do that in the United States. They’re talking about doing it in a place with less than 10 people, just an open arena - I guess someone’s gonna commentate it. It’s not gonna be me - and they’re gonna be duking it out in an empty place. And they’re gonna try to do that on the 18th.”
“They did [an empty arena show] for the last card in Brazil because it was ordered by the government. The government ordered all large gatherings to break up when they started seeing the corona rising in Brazil so they had to do the Brazil card indoors, no people, weird. But they’re gonna plan Khabib and Tony this way. They’re gonna plan it, so it doesn’t even have to be a big place. They could do it in, like, a film studio. Legitimately, they could set this up in a film studio somewhere.
“We did it when we did Fight for the Troops. Whenever we did it, they just would use an airplane hangar. The troops would be there. The whole audience would be the troops and their uniforms and they would set up this octagon in an airplane hangar. It was pretty powerful. Different. Real different. Different kind of show. But they could do that. They could do that in a studio or just a large warehouse. The UFC could do it. Set up some lights, have some crazy high-speed hookup to the internet, let’s party. Next thing you know, it’s getting uploaded and we’re watching it from here.”
“They could definitely [hold the event]. The UFC has the capability of doing that. The thing is, how are they going to make sure nobody has it? You’re going to have to test everybody. And if someone has it, do you let them fight? What if they have it and they’re like Idris Elba and they have no symptoms but they’ve got the corona? What if Khabib has the corona? Or what if Tony has the corona, does Khabib even fight him?”
“This fight is so cursed! This is how Dana feels. This is why Dana’s trying so hard to make it happen even if there’s only 10 people in the room.”