Three events will take place across eight days at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena
Twelve pairs of competing UFC fighters will undergo stringent daily medical tests for Covid-19 in a sealed off hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, ahead of next Saturday’s event as the mixed martial arts fight league becomes the first sport to return since the pandemic lockdown six weeks ago.
Those tests will extend to team members and all workers on the event in a sealed off hotel with 24-hour credential passes and heightened security to reduce the risk of coronavirus infection this week.
The fight league has announced three events in eight days – May 9, May 13, May 16 – at the same Jacksonville venue, the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Saturday night’s event, numbered UFC 249 and a pay per view event to be aired on BT Sport in the UK and on ESPN in the United States, will showcase a group of the UFC’s most renowned fighters, whose teams have all tested with coronavirus kits at home before travelling to the Florida, with the event taking place behind closed doors.
Staff at the venue will be kept to a minimum, with guidelines to be adhered to by the UFC, the Florida State Athletic Commission, and the rules set out by the broadcasters ESPN. The complexity of the situation given the requirement to optimise safety standards for fighters, their teams and staff working the event throughout the week has seen the UFC issue extra-ordinary guidelines on such things as using workout mats, the sauna, and even ordering food from the hotel.
A letter to the fighters and their managers outlined that “the only people allowed into the hotel with our group will be our designated staff, athletes on the card and their licensed cornermen. Additional guests, such as family, friends, managers, additional training partners, will not be allowed.”
Fighters will have “individual workout rooms” and “a personal sauna”, and all teams will go through “a mandatory medical screening process and tests”, on arrival, which will take place daily, with an obligation to wear “an event week credential that must be worn at all times while on hotel property”.
Dana White, the UFC president, said in early April after being forced to cancel an April 19 event: “Health and safety is a thing we worry about all the time. Not just during the coronavirus. We’re going to go above and beyond and do everything that we can to make sure everybody is safe during the event.”
UFC 249 was initially meant to be headlined by the long-awaited lightweight title fight between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson, but Nurmagomedov is stuck in Russia locked down by an international travel ban, and has been replaced by the all-action brawler Justin Gaethje.