“Fight Island” — or UF-Sea as some might call it — could be coming sooner rather than later.
For weeks, UFC president Dana White has been teasing plans to take events to a private island in order to circumvent travel restrictions that have prevented many international fighters from coming into the United States due to the coronavirus pandemic.
In the wake of the pandemic forcing the UFC to largely shut down operations until just the past few weeks, White and UFC co-owner Ari Emanuel devised a plan to build an infrastructure on a private island where events could be held.
Now it appears “Fight Island” might be finally nearing its completion.
“The first fight on ‘Fight Island’ is probably around June 27,” White revealed when speaking to the Talk and Talk podcast.
Now White cautioned that as a tentative date for the launch of “Fight Island” but June 27 is a card that’s currently expected to be headlined by a lightweight fight between former interim champion Dustin Poirier and Dan Hooker.
White had previously teased “Fight Island’ making its debut some time in July with plans to hold several consecutive cards there over a matter of weeks. The UFC president even said he would probably live on the private island for the entire month while events were happening.
As far as the cost involved in building “Fight Island,” White promises it hasn’t been cheap but in the end, he believes it will all be worthwhile.
“Let me tell you about ‘Fight Island.’ ‘Fight Island’ is so f**king expensive and so f**king crazy and almost impossible to pull off,” White said. “When you’re talking about planes and flying people from other [places] and the restrictions.
“You have to quarantine people and all these things that we’re going through, it’s f**king insane to be even trying to do this. But I promise you, we will do it and we will pull it off.”
White says in the long run he believes “Fight Island” will not only allow international athletes to compete but the entire idea will just help build the UFC to become an even bigger brand.
“I believe in doing in doing this, it’s going to help grow the sport immensely,” White said. “It’s going to help financially. In many different ways, it’s going to help build the sport and I just know that we can do it.”