- UFC president plans to fly in international fighters who cannot enter the US, and is 'getting the infrastructure put in now'
- White promises to ensure 'everybody is healthy and safe before, during and after the fights'
UFC president Dana White has revealed he is close to securing a private island for future fights as he continues to circumvent the logistical problems posed by the global Covid-19 crisis.
After confirming he has a location set in the US for UFC 249 on April 18, with Justin Gaethje stepping in to replace Khabib Nurmagomedov against Tony Ferguson, White said the company is "back up and running as of April 18".
"I'm a day or two away from securing a private island," he told TMZ Sports. "We're getting the infrastructure put in now.
"So I'm gonna start doing international fights with international fighters, too, because I won't be able to get them into the US. So I have a private island, I'm gonna start flying them all in."
Lightweight champion Nurmagomedov is stranded in his native Russia, a situation plenty of overseas-based fighters have found themselves in with the US on lockdown.
The situation has seen White rip up the scheduled UFC 249 card to feature only US-based fighters.
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The UFC has already had to postpone three events " originally set for Columbus, London and Portland " after it became impossible to relocate them to the company's on-campus Apex studio in Las Vegas.
"Yeah, island fights " hopefully today if we can get this deal done, we have all our own planes and everything," White said.
"There won't be any fans. Everybody is gonna be pretested and tested and tested and tested. We're gonna make sure 100 per cent healthy athletes, healthy commission people, healthy judges, healthy referees, my production people " that everybody's healthy, everybody's safe, before during and after the fights."
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