UFC 249: ESPN, Disney Reportedly Canceled Event After Request by California Governor Gavin Newsom

UFC president Dana White finally announced Thursday that UFC 249 would not go on as planned, along with all future events, during the coronavirus pandemic. White planned to stage the event on April 18 until Disney and ESPN suggested it would have been a bad idea. It’s now being reported that California Gov. Gavin Newsom also played a role in the event being canceled since it was set to be stated at Tachi Palace Casino Resort, just outside Fresno, California.

Sources told The New York Post Newsom called Disney chairman Bob Iger and asked ESPN to force White and UFC to pull the plug on the event. ESPN agreed that holding the event now, even without an audience at the casino to watch, “just didn’t feel right,” the sources said. ESPN executives told White they wanted extra time to understand the coronavirus pandemic situation, which has already forced officials to suspend the 2020 Summer Olympics until 2021.

“We’ve been fighting non-stop all day and all night since this pandemic started to put on this event on April 18,” White told ESPN on Thursday. “Today we got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney, and the highest level of ESPN. One thing that I’ve said since we’ve started our relationship with ESPN is that it’s been an incredible one, it’s been an amazing partnership, ESPN has been very good to us. The powers that be there have asked me to stand down and not do this event next Saturday.”

White said the Santa Rosa Rancheria Tachi Tribe, which owns Tachi Palace, “had our back this whole time” and was willing to help UFC stage the event and thanked them for their support. “One other thing I wanna really point out: all of my fighters that are under contract with me: I want them to feel safe, take time with your families and enjoy this time,” White continued. “Don’t worry about the financial part of this, you’re gonna get the fights on your contract and make right with people willing to were willing to step up and fight. I’m gonna take care of as many people as I possibly can. Nobody’s getting laid off at the UFC. We will be the first sport back.”

White’s plan to have UFC fights during the coronavirus pandemic is to build “Fight Island,” a private island where UFC events would be hosted. He has said the fights could include international fighters who could not gain entry into the U.S. On Tuesday, he told TMZ he was “a day or two from securing a private island” for the events.

“This private island that I’m securing, we’re getting the infrastructure put in now,” he said. “So I’m going to start doing the international fights too with international fighters. I won’t be able to get international fighters — all of them — into the U.S., so I have a private island. I’m going to start flying them into the private island and doing the international fights from there.”