Staff Reports
Sporting events reportedly will be back for Floridians who, as the Governor put it, are “starved for content.”
MMAFighting.com reports that UFC 249, an Ultimate Fighting Championship event delayed by coronavirus, is headed to Florida May 9.
The event had been scheduled for California and New York, but plans were scuttled in each location.
UFC head Dana White fought the attempt to cancel the event, reportedly considering a “Fight Island,” a sort of standalone autonomous fighting republic.
Such won’t be necessary in May, when the Sunshine State rolls out the welcome mat for mixed martial artists.
Interstate checkpoints won’t be a problem for the competitors, who will be flying into Jacksonville before being ferried to an “undisclosed location.”
A DeSantis executive order that wrestling company WWE used as a justification for an Orlando taping this month also seemingly applies to UFC.
It deems essential “employees at a professional sports and media production with a national audience — including any athletes, entertainers, production team, executive team, media team and any others necessary to facilitate including services supporting such production — only if the location is closed to the general public.”
Department of Business and Professional Regulation Secretary Halsey Beshears reached out to Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White on Twitter earlier this month to let him know the Sunshine State was willing to accommodate the mixed martial arts league.
“Why go to an island? Florida is your huckleberry. @FloridaDBPR will get your fighters licensed and we will make it work,” Beshears tweeted. “Then remember us when all the cool kids want to date you again, that Florida tried to help out when nobody else would.”
And apparently, that is the case.
DeSantis issued his own endorsement of bringing back sports for a rerun-scarred public last week.
“People are chomping at the bit,” he added. “If you think about it, we have never had a period like this in modern American history where you’ve had so little new content, particularly in the sporting realm. I mean, we are watching reruns from like the early 2000s.”
