“You Can’t Come to the Fight” – Dana White Maintains Silence on UFC 249 Venue

Dana White had managed to keep everything about UFC 249 a secret up until he had everything finalised. Despite breaking the news of the entire card he hasn’t revealed its location. However, reports surfaced earlier today that speculated that UFC 249 was going to take place at a casino in tribal land in Central California.

When Dana was asked about the rumours, he didn’t budge at all. The UFC President appeared on ESPN’s Get Up. Host Mike Greenberg was inquisitive about further details regarding the upcoming event.

“Na. It’s not worth it,” Dana interrupted Mike while he was attempting to get into some of the details of UFC 249. “I have jumped through a lot of hoops and I have battled with a lot of different forces leading up to this fight. It’s not just worth talking about it.”

Greenberg pushed further asking Dana that one of the obstacles must have been getting a venue for the fight. Hence, he asked where was he was holding the event.

“We’re gonna be live on ESPN. It doesn’t matter where the fight is going to happen. First of all, no fans can come to the fight. The only place that you can watch the fight in the United States is ESPN. I know several news sources are putting out places where they think it is. ESPN is where it is.”

Mike then brought up the news source which was the New York Times. The news outlet had reported that the event would take place at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort near Lemoore, California. The news came from three officials who knew about the situation. However, Dana still wouldn’t let go of any information from his side.

“ESPN,” was Dana stern response when asked for a comment on the report.

Dana White explains why he is procuring an island

Dana’s newly procured location will help him arrange fights for fighters that are in the States. But that only constitutes of a limited proportion of the fighters on the UFC roster. He wants fighters from around the globe to keep fighting during the outbreak of Coronavirus. That is where his island comes into the picture.

“We’re still working on getting that (island) deal done. We’ll have it done by the end of the week. If I keep putting up fights in the US with US fighters, I’m gonna run out my talent very soon.”

“This is a global sport. We had a lot of fights scheduled internationally. Those will continue. I have an island where, hopefully, we can fly everyone into by mid-May.”

Speculations have been made in the media regarding the island as well. Tyler Perry and Eddie Murphy both have islands to their names. Moreover, both of them are represented by UFC’s parent company, Endeavour. Hence, their islands could potentially be the location that Dana has been talking about.