UFC 249 Rumors: Dana White Invests Heavily On Safety In Best Card Ever Made

UFC 249 is pushing through and top brass Dana White vows that it will still be an event with the best cards ever had. However, it will also be the safest and they are spending big money to make sure of that.

UFC 249 will be held at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida and will be headlined by the Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje fight. Most will recall that Gaethje was the replacement chosen for Khabib Nurmagomedov who pulled out due to constraints raised by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The UFC event was originally scheduled to take place on April 18. It appeared to be pushing through until ESPN and Disney requested that White pull the plug due to safety concerns raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. Barring any serious issue moving forward, it appears White is determined to go on as planned this time according to White, TMZ reported.

"We're gonna spend what it costs. We have really smart people who've been working on this ... and we're gonna spend whatever it costs to make sure the fighters, their camps, the commission, the referees, our production people, and everybody is safe that's gonna go to this event," White said.

"We're going to do everything and then we're gonna go even another level above that," he added.

Aside from that, White is wasting no time after UFC 249. The report also added that the UFC top brass plans two more events within the week.

Safeguarding UFC personnel and talent has been questioned by most. The issue was raised to another level following reports that a fighter had tested positive for the coronavirus. Lyman Good withdrew from UFC 249 on April 4 due to an undisclosed injury. It turns out that the 34-year-old tested positive for COVID-19 and that he did disclose it to the UFC at that time, ESPN reported.

“As soon as I found out, I let everybody know. It was one of those things where it wasn’t sinking in that it could’ve been that. As fighters, we’re hardwired to train through everything. If we catch a cold or little nagging injuries here or there, we’re trained to just pretty much fight through it,” Goodman said.

Good has fully recovered since then and is already back in the gym. After a week of feeling weak and trouble breathing, the "American Cyborg" underwent new COVID-19 tests which came back negative. He has already been cleared by doctors. He was originally set to face Belal Muhammad in one of the UFC 249 cards.