MMA Fighting - Dana White Announces Trio of Events in Jacksonville Reaction

Episode Date: April 24, 2020

Mike Heck and Jose Youngs react to Dana White announcing three events from May 9 to May 16, beginning with UFC 249.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So download the app today and get $0-dollar delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over-deliver. Service fees exclusions in terms apply. Mike Heck here for MMAfighting.com. And wouldn't you know it, ladies and gentlemen, on this Friday, April 24, 2020, we got some big news. Earlier today, a little after 2 p.m. Eastern time, UFC President Dana White jumped on an Instagram live with ESPN's Brett Akamoto. It announced that UFC 249 on May 9th was definitely a go and that pretty much all the targeted

fights for that event will be happening, including the interim light wage main event. title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gachi, also Henry Sehudo versus Dominic Cruz for the Bannamway title was made official as well. And that's big news, but nothing too surprising based on what we had heard over the last couple of weeks. But that's not all. Not only is the UFC putting on UFC 249 on May 9th, they are falling up with two more events in the same week. So for those looking at your calendars right now, UFC 249 is going to go down in just over two weeks from right now on May 9th. Four days later, Wednesday, May 13th,

they're going to do another event, and then three days after that, another event on Saturday, May 16th. All three of these events are going to take place in Jacksonville, Florida, at the Vistar Veterans Memorial Arena. Earlier this week, reported Florida would be the destination statewide.

Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer was the first to report the venue in Jacksonville. Obviously, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, This is going to be a closed-door event. There's going to be limited media. These are all things that we expected. It is important to note that the UFC has the support of all the important people here. Florida Governor Rod Nassantis, he has signed off on all three of these events.

They're all going to be sanctioned by the Florida State Boxing Commission. The mayor of Jacksonville, Lenny Curry, he is in. And I think one of the big ones that people were talking about, what about ESPN? Where are they going to stand on this? ESPN, they are in as well. In a statement, ESPN said, quote, sports play an important role in people's lives and can bring moments of escape in challenging times. We look forward to bringing UFC to fans again, and that's all going to happen beginning on May 9th.

Dana White also had a lot of other things to say in regards to getting these events ramped up earlier this afternoon. And to join me to fill in these gaps, let's bring in Jose Young's. All right, back with Jose Young. from the A-side live chat on MMAfighting.com. Jose, not a slow newsday at all. Normally, these things happen the day before the A-side. This time it happened in the middle of an A-side live chat. Dana White says, we're not just going to have an event on May 9th.

He dropped the hat trick of events between the 9th and the 16th. So I have to say, of all the things I thought Dana White would tell Brett Alcumoto this afternoon, dropping three cards over a week span, that was not near the top of my list. How about you? the three events doesn't surprise me but the three events in one week is what really caught me off guard if anything i really thought the ufc would try to stretch these out uh maybe they want maybe they're nervous that down the road they won't be able to hold events even like like we talked we've talked about this at nauseam like one day feels like a week during this pandemic so maybe they're trying to

cram in as many events as possible for fear like maybe maybe between what the ninth and the 16th they can fit everything in, but say like the 18th, something else happens and they can no longer hold an event. So they don't, maybe they don't want to plan too far ahead. But yeah, you're not wrong. The three events in seven days really, really caught me off guard. We've done the three events in three days for the big, the big pay-per-views. But, yeah, wasn't, wasn't, was not expecting this, this type of announcement, that's for sure. Yeah, because there's that old cliche, you need to walk before you run. And Dana in the UFC, they're not walking. They're not running. They're in a, in an indie car right now going 700 miles an hour, which was very surprising to me watching that IG

live with Brett Okamoto. But, you know, we talked about this before on the last video we did. The card is really good. And before it seems like, you know, like I think the chances are better. I think that was kind of our reaction that this event on May 9th happens over the April 18th event when these were targeted events and targeted fights. But to see the actual fight posters from the UFC with the matchups and all the faces, like, did those visuals make it?

seem more real? Like, this is really going to happen. It's a step in the right direction, but I feel like I'm so jaded lately that I'm just, we've talked about on the A side. I'm like, I don't believe it's going to happen until I see the fighters in the octagon. I mean, I've been saying that about Habibn Mnormick-Maynov and Tony Ferguson. I'm like, I don't care if it's the day of the fight and they made weight. I'm not, I'm not, Tony Ferguson, still trip on his way to the octagon. So, uh, it's a step in the right direction. But again, we've, we've felt. this was going to happen before. We've seen the teases from ESPN. We've seen the reports. We swam in, what, like two weeks ago, we were going to go. We were all getting ready to go to

Fresno area to Tachi Palace for this, and that fell through. So optimistic, but still jaded and a little guarded that it will happen just because what we've seen these last few weeks. It seems like the hurdles they couldn't get over with the Tachi Palace event. They are pretty much over now heading into this one. But who knows? It's still a long ways away. 15 days is a long time. Things can happen very quickly in this sport in this crazy time in the world.

Yeah, it feels good that we can start thinking about actual fights again. But I want the fighters to get there. I want to hear about the testing. I want to see what's going to go on. Hopefully we can all be there. I know there's probably limited amount of media members will be allowed, but it'll feel good. We were talking a little bit before.

The NFL draft was on, and for one whole day, day it felt like sports were kind of back. People were talking about something other than the pandemic and other than being stuck inside. Like we were talking about the NFL again. I'm sure people feel the same way about fights. I'm sure we'll all feel the same way talking about like, oh, who's going to win?

Sohudo versus Dominic Cruz. Is Dominic Cruz, is it good if he wins? Is it better if Sohudo wins? Like those conversations will, of course, have to pop up. So it's good to feel some sort of normalcy in our line of business. But again, I'm still a little skeptical of these will actually happen. Yeah, because normally at these points we're thinking about what types of matchups might get put together for these cards. And now we could have like six days in a row with events.

We just know what's going to happen. As far as the 249 card, there's one addition to that card, Rinespan versus Sam Albee was announced. And that card is pretty much wrapped and packed at this point. But not much out there for the 13th and the 16th, although we did confirm Oven St. Peru is going to move up to heavyweight to fight Ben Rothwell on the 13th. And it looks like Walt Harris versus Alistair Overeem is a very strong possibility for the 16th. 16th, not 100% yet, but very, very likely. You know the UFC, Jose, is going to try to stack the deck here. So in terms of, and I know we're not promoters or matchmakers here,

but in terms of the formula due to your experience here, do you think we're going to see a lot of guys get opportunities that they may not have gotten if we weren't in a pandemic, like maybe some new signing, some regional guys and gals that were scheduled for contender series, getting an early bump? Like, how do you see the formula for these cards being laid out? It's going to be interesting because we did talk about this on the A side. The fights in Jacksonville, I can't imagine they're going to be able to get a lot of international fights on.

Like fighters to fly in is probably going to be that fight island thing. But I think Casey said, like, we're going to see a lot of Americans versus Americans or like Brazilians versus Brazilians. And even overseas in the UK could a promotion like Cage Wars could UFC fighters like fight out their UFC contracts there. I don't think they're going to be signing any regional talent for a little bit because, because again, who knows, like, we have this week planned, but what happens after that? Like, what if there's flare-ups or what if, like, there's a new, not outside of fighting, what if there's new developments in this coronavirus? Like, we've talked about this worst-case scenario.

Fighters or corners or whatever get the virus and they fight with the virus or they test positive after the fights. Like, it's hard to say what is going to happen until these events actually happen. If everything goes smoothly, then we can talk about it. But it's in this time of the world and what is happening in the world, it's really hard to plan for the future, considering the future is still a little murky too. You mentioned it a little earlier. Dana White was still kind of bullish at times during that conversation with Brad.

One thing that was brought up was, you know, are there any more specifics? and you kind of brought it up when it comes to the health and safety aspect during this crazy time in the world. Like what's the testing going to look like? What specific precautions are the UFC going to take here, et cetera? And Dana said in essence, I don't really need to get into it. But just know we're going to make sure everybody's safe. We're going to go above and beyond and all those other things. And personally, I feel like this is such a gigantic swing and a miss because getting that information out there is going to remove most of the scrutiny, not all of it, but a good chunk of it.

Are you surprised that Dana is still taking the stand? No. After, I mean, it's pretty, pretty obvious what we want here. I'm not surprised. If it was anyone else, I would be surprised. But no, not surprised, Dana is saying, don't worry about it. I don't have to get into specifics because he, it's, to say it's a swing and a miss would be an understanding. This is a, this is one of those ones where he's expecting a fastball.

Someone throws him a 12-6 curveball. He swings and falls down to his knees. This is Mani Machado striking out at the end of the World Series and fall into a knee while the Red Sox celebrate around him. Like, this is, this is, it's not the answer you want. Uh, you want to know some sticks because you know, okay, great, you don't answer it now. When the fights are there and the media is there, are you not going to answer it then? Like, they're going to want to see this. Like, what if the New York Times shows up and they're like, what, like, where are the testing? We want to see the testing. Dana White's like, don't worry about it. New York Times is going to be

like, U.C. President Dana White says, don't worry about testing. There's a red flag. Like, we all understand as media as mdemean media members there when we go to the events we're we're putting all of our effort into finding this whether the people the main outside of our bubble of m m mary is one thing but when the new york times or the l a times or like washing post like these big newspapers that really have a further reach than just the m a bubble are now asking these questions that's what he should probably be a little more wary of like be transparent man like we're at it's being asked now it's not going to be like oh dan o white says don't worry about it then we're not going to worry about it we're going to keep asking like it's our responsibility that's

where we want to go and we want to figure out this situation uh so no it doesn't surprise me that's what he said but it's such it's such it's i don't understand it like i get it but i get i do understand it because it's dana white but like come on man just be transparent look if you don't want to tell us where fight island is i mean i want to see it i don't i'm not going to fight Island. I don't care where Fight Island is. Like, I just want to see what it looks like on television. Like, if you don't want to tell me where, you know, the, the May 23rd event is going to be, he's right. Like, we don't really need to know because we're going to be watching it on ESPN unless we're going to cover it. So, I mean, some people need to know. But these things,

we need to know these things. Like, these are important things. Like, what if we're one of the 10 media members are going to go cover this event? Like, these are questions like my wife, my son, other family members? I'm going to have to answer those questions, right? Like, what if like Alexander Hernandez was on your show, what the heck. He said, he's like, yeah, I think I had the virus and I just kept training. He was ready to fight on like the April card. He was willing to fight a human being from another country who was going to fly in. He was going to fight him. And then that fighter, Islam-Octaw is going to go back to Dagestan or Russia. Not a great time. If he catches the virus and then brings it to another country, like that is worst case scenario. That would be a huge,

that would blow up in the U.S.U's face. if that happened, and they allowed it to happen. So I just be transparent. That's all we're trying to say. Like, we have questions. They're not going to go away. So might as well just answer them. All right.

Let's go on on a bright note here. Let's play a rapid game of buy or sell. True or false. And I know things are kind of unclear and it's a weird time. But true or false, by or sell, the UFC will book a title fight for either May 13th, 16th, or the 23rd. So not the ninth? No, I don't think so. I think they want to stack the deck with that first one.

Again, they want to get all their title fights on that first card because in case it goes awry, they don't want to book these title fights down the road and then have it fall apart. So I'm going to say, no, I don't think any title fights would be outside of that first one. Yeah, I'll sell that too. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

They might come on in the 23rd with like eight title fights, but that's just the way of the world right now. By herself, the UFC is going to be. be back in Vegas sometime in May putting on events. Wow. I hadn't even thought about that. I don't think so. No.

I know the governor was it the mayor of Las Vegas had some interview with Anderson Cooper and was saying all of these things. But like, no, I don't think so. I really don't. I think the backlash was so severe on that that. Maybe not in May, I could see it in June, July, but not in May. I kind of think it's going to happen because Dana, like, he didn't have that defense It's a demeanor throughout that whole interview with Brett, but it was kind of a more relaxed.

We got this in the bag, like a little more overconfident demeanor. But I feel like maybe the end of the day. Dana's keeping secrets from the media, shocking. I know, right? It's like with this whole recap and reaction has been. Lastly, four out of time, by or sell that by June 25th, 2020, we will have seen a UFC event on Fight Islands. Like, by that date, an event will have happened on Fight Island with an Octagon on the beach, as Dana White put it this afternoon?

June 25th? I'll say I'll buy that. I think if anything, we'll have won. He said it'll be ready by June. That's the end of June. Again, Dana, we've said this a million times. If someone's going to pull off of Fight Island, it's going to be Dana White.

He was ready and willing to do the April card before the government came and pulled the rug out. Like if the governor didn't call Disney, that fight card would have happened. He's holding three events in one week. he said he would be ready to go in May. Apparently they're going to be ready to go in May, so I wouldn't put it past him to hold the event on Fight Island.

So, yeah, I bet we see at least a fight night card on Fight Island by June 25th. Yeah, I'm a little bum that he said. We're just going to have the fights until this thing is behind us, and then he's going to retire Fight Island. I think that is a big mistake. I think we need to do this every year, like you said, in the last reaction video we did. Once a year, the anniversary of Fight Islands,

it'll be Fight Island 4, Fight Island 5, and so on and so forth. have it in the bag in case, again, because, like, what if this pandemic is, we're, it's not over. Like, for whatever people say, like, oh, I want to go back to work. Like, it's not over yet. For all we know, we could be having a monthly Fight Island fight card for the rest of the year. We, again, but where is Fight Island? I don't even know where it is yet. So, again, it's, we, we joked on the A side.

Like, this is, this is all hypothetical. That's what the tagline of the episode of the A side was. So, again, it's all hypothetical until we actually see Fight Island. Another wild day in the world that mixed martial arts. Not one, not two, but three events coming our way between May 9th and May 16. It looks like the 23rd is a strong possibility as well, according to UFC President Dana White. So we have got our eyes and our ears out there right now trying to keep you all up to date on everything happening over the next month and change. For Jose Young's, I am Mike Kack.

Thank you for watching and keep it locked to M.AFighting.com for the latest on this crazy sport. We love so much mixed martial arts. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.