SHOCKING! UFC Has Spent a Huge Amount of Money on Conducting COVID-19 Tests

When COVID-19 brought the sporting world down to its knees, the UFC was the first to get back up. The mixed martial promotion set the blueprint in terms of how other organizations could resume their operations. However, UFC President Dana White has revealed that the cost in achieving stands at a pretty staggering number.

White, in a conversation with TSN, seemed very positive about how the year 2020 has been for the UFC. He even tagged it as the best year yet in over 26 years of the promotion’s history. None of this would’ve been possible without White’s aggressive attitude towards the global pandemic that halted all major activities around the world, including sports as well.

Regardless, White still went forward while taking the necessary precautions to keep the people associated with the sport safe. Needless to say, the promotion had to spend tons of money on the COVID-19 tests throughout the year.

“We’ve spent $17 million on COVID testing this year. Think about this, 1470 UFC athletes, cornermen, and staff were transported. 1700 commercial flights, 34 charter flights,” Dana White said.

“Everybody keeps talking about how difficult it is for some of these other sports because of the teams and all that stuff, we had 164 athletes from 40 different countries that competed this year,” he added.

White also noted that the promotion had conducted a total of 26,300 tests to date.

Dana White compares the numbers of UFC with that of the NBA

The UFC proved that it was possible to resume sports after creating a bubble-like environment. The NBA ventured along the same lines when it resumed its season in Orlando. The UFC supremo compared the positivity rate of his tests with that of the NBA.

“They were talking about how great it was that the NBA players had an 8.8 percent positivity rate. Ours was 0.8 percent,” White highlighted.

It was due to multiple rounds of testing that the UFC was able to catch positives even at the eleventh hour. While it led to big fights such as Derrick Lewis vs Curtis Blaydes falling out just a day before the event, it also led to the confirmation that the system in place works.

With just two more events left in the year, Dana White will hope that he can leave the ups-and-downs of this year and start afresh in 2021.

Read More: “This is the No.1 Accomplishment of My Career” – Dana White on UFC’s 2020 Run