Dana White details how the Fight Island concept was born and provides timeline for upcoming UFC events
Dana White promised that the UFC will make sure MMA is the first major sport to begin conducting events again during the ongoing pandemic. While he lost the battle when he announced that the organization has decided to postpone all upcoming events, including UFC 249 after receiving a request from their broadcast partners at ESPN, White is looking to win the war with his masterpiece - The Fight Island.
It's been a while since White has revealed his plans of holding fights on a private island somewhere outside the United States and now that construction work is going on in full flow, White remains adamant that Fight Island will happen and that too, very soon and he also confirmed that the UFC will start promoting the fights very soon.
Speaking to ESPN, White revealed that the infrastructure’s being built right now and he will start booking fights once the set up is ready. He said that it will probably take a month's time to get the set up done and after that he can ship the fighters over so that they can start training.
“That’s why I’m telling all my guys not to worry. Cause Fight Island’s going to happen. All the infrastructure’s being built right now and getting put in place. As we get closer to that, then I’ll start figuring out booking fights, getting guys ready plus I can ship guys over there earlier and they can start training over there on the island. So once that’s all in place, you’re looking at a month.”
White also revealed that the incredible and novel concept of Fight Island came while trying to figure out how to run both international and local fights amid travel restrictions in the United States.
“We have to run both, international and local fights. So we got the local fights figured out. How do we run international? So Ari [Emanuel] and I came up with the island. It’s all coming together. It’s all going to happen. I’ll see you in a month.”