Dana White: “Bubble” is Only Way to Hold Events During Pandemic

Not everyone was, or is, on board with the UFC holding cards as the COVID-19 pandemic rages on. But, so far, the promotion’s health and safety protocols seem to be working for the promotion, and Dana White says the “bubble” is a big reason why.

White says you have to have a “bubble”

When COVID-19 started spreading throughout the world and lockdowns started being enacted as a result, White insisted the UFC would find a way to host events.

After being shut down for approximately two months, the UFC started hosting cards again in May, whereby, fighters and their corners are repeatedly tested and quarantined off from the general population as much as possible.

Some fighters and members of their teams have tested positive for the virus. But, no major outbreaks have been associated with any UFC cards so far.

Well, following this past weekend’s UFC card in Vegas, White was asked about why the promotion’s largely been successful so far, in mitigating the virus (quotes via MMA Fighting).

“I knew we would from day one,” White said. “I knew that we’d be able to do this. I knew that we would spend the money and get the right people involved.

I believe in my staff and obviously I believe in the fighters. I knew that we could do this and I knew we would.

There’s a lot of mistakes that these other leagues have made and they could do it right if they wanted to, but I don’t know.”

The NHL and the NBA have begun holding games again, and in those cases, the league’s are doing so with hub cities.

In contrast, however, MLB’s schedule has teams traveling around to each city for games. There have been multiple, positive tests for COVID-19 amongst certain teams, and even games canceled as a result.

“You have to be in the bubble,” White said. “It’s impossible to pull this thing off without a bubble. You have to do it.”

Yup. So far, the evidence seems to indicate that hub cities and “bubbles” for events and games is the way to go.

UFC Vegas 6 line-up

Here is the line-up for the UFC’s next event, which will take place on Saturday at the Apex Facility in Las Vegas.

UFC Vegas 6 Main Card On ESPN+ (9 p.m. ET)

265 lbs.: Derrick Lewis vs. Aleksei Oleinik
185 lbs.: Omari Akhmedov vs. Chris Weidman
185 lbs.: Maki Pitolo vs. Darren Stewart
135 lbs.: Yana Kunitskaya vs. Julija Stoliarenko
155 lbs.: Beneil Dariush vs. Scott Holtzman

UFC Vegas 6 Prelims Card On ESPN+ (6 p.m. ET)

170 lbs.: Tim Means vs. Laureano Staropoli
155 lbs.: Nasrat Haqparast vs. Alex Munoz
185 lbs.: Andrew Sanchez vs. Wellington Turman
145 lbs.: Gavin Tucker vs. Justin Jaynes
145 lbs.: Youssef Zalal vs. Peter Barrett
135 lbs.: Irwin Rivera vs. Ali Qaisi

Line-up via MMA Mania