In the End, Dana White Couldn't Overcome Reality to Go Through with UFC 249

Dana White was, well…Dana White.

The UFC czar was defiant, demonstrative and determined to insist—repeatedly—that his renegade combat sports machine was ready to proceed with plans to produce a pay-per-view event next weekend in the semi-arid comfort of Lemoore, California.

But where common-sense counsel from health care professionals, government officials and nearly everyone else beyond the brotherhood had failed, an apparently unflinching directive from an even higher authority—White's deep-pocketed partners at ESPN—didn't.

White, whose company was revising matchups and releasing broadcast information as recently as this week, told ESPN's Brett Okamoto that a Thursday phone call from "powers that be" at the cable conglomerate included a request that the UFC "stand down and not do this event next Saturday" in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic that's wreaked domestic havoc.

A 2019 deal between the UFC and ESPN guaranteed all of White's PPV cards would only be available for purchase on the ESPN+ digital streaming service in the U.S. Fans must subscribe to ESPN+ in order to buy those shows at a slightly discounted rate.

The UFC and ESPN also extended an existing multibillion-dollar pact for two more years, until 2025.

Which means it boils down to a simple reality: When the network's money talked, White's bravado walked.

More than 1.5 million people worldwide have confirmed cases of COVID-19, and the disease has resulted in more than 95,000 deaths. In the United States, the confirmed infection number is nearing 500,000, and the death toll has risen past 15,000.

Competitive sports organizations of all shapes and sizes have skidded to a halt as a result of myriad restrictions and advisories regarding gatherings of more than 10 people.

The 2020 NCAA men's basketball tournament, whose title game had been scheduled for Monday of this week, was canceled for the first time since its inception in 1939, and the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have suspended or, in the latter case, delayed their seasons.

Not surprisingly, White's plans—even prior to Thursday's walk-back—had drawn mixed reviews.

Some, like grizzled boxing promoter Bob Arum, branded him a tone-deaf opportunist and said he ought to ashamed, while others, including ESPN's Max Kellerman, lauded his creativity and willingness to stretch the envelope, even amid unprecedented turmoil.

White, meanwhile, made it clear to Okamoto that the decision to cancel the April 18 show was out of respect for what has been "an amazing partnership" with the network and wasn't at all a concession on his part that the event couldn't have gone on as scheduled.

Clad in a muted sweater and standing in front of an empty octagonal cage, a visibly frustrated White clenched his teeth several times and frequently jammed his hands into his pockets while discussing specifics with Okamoto—making almost zero effort to hide the impression he'd be a good soldier, but not at all a happy one.

"We figure out solutions. ... We pull off things that other people can't," he said.

"Everybody said that I couldn't do this. I can do this. I can go next Saturday. And, if anything ever happened in California where I couldn't, I have another place right now with an athletic commission, and the governor and everybody is behind it.

"I can go April 18, let's make that clear."

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

It's the sort of defiance supporters love and critics loathe, and White anted up, sounding more than a little like a lightning-rod chief executive he admires and claiming a Wednesday New York Times piece cataloging concerns about the card was, wait for it, "all lies."

The story by Kevin Draper said the nearest major hospital to the card's site, the Tachi Palace Casino Resort, was a 40-minute drive away and that no one at the hospital had been contacted by the UFC to let them know an event would be held nearby. The venue is on Native American tribal lands and therefore not under the jurisdiction of either the state or its athletic commission, though the story said location wouldn't necessarily have precluded sanctions. 

The UFC, according to a story source, was merely "renting a tribe" to circumvent authority. 

Baloney, White railed, again insisting the partners were the only ones swayed by bad optics, although it may have been more than that influencing ESPN. The Times also reported that California Governor Gavin Newson personally intervened. 

"People have been coming after me for 20 years. I'm used to it, and I don't care," he said. "... I don't crack to that stuff. That doesn't mean other people won't crack to it. ... ESPN doesn't want me to do it. They're my partners. They've been nothing but amazing to me. ... They want me to not go, then I won't go."

But he won't "not go" without a fight.

In fact, White spent the final gasps of the Okamoto chat reassuring the UFC base that "Fight Island," an as-of-yet-unnamed international locale, is on a fast track toward completion and would presumably provide an end-around apparatus to stage events should quarantine lockdowns persist beyond a few more weeks.

And at whatever point ESPN decides to get back on board, heck, they'll be welcome, too.

Probably not without a grudge, though.

"Whenever my partner gives me the thumbs-up that they're ready to go, I'm ready to go," White said. "... I don't believe that anything can't be done. Everything can be done under any type of circumstances. You just need to figure out how to get it done, and that has always been my mentality. ... We did it. We got it done. This fight can happen.

"It is what it is."

Sand, surf and not an over-officious commissioner in sight. The idyllic hideout for an outlaw pirate.

Anyone know a mediator who needs a tan?