Ronaldo Souza and Uriah Hall were scheduled to meet on the preliminary card of UFC 249, but the bout was canned after Souza and two cornermen were diagnosed with the coronavirus.
UFC President Dana White allegedly heard that Souza was around people who may have had the virus, but White says that Souza wasn’t pulled from the card because he didn’t want to do it.
“We waited for the test results,” White told Aaron Bronsteter of TSN (via Shakiel Mahjouri of Bloody Elbow). “Because I didn’t want to. It’s my show. I’ll do what I want to do. I didn’t want to. I wanted to wait for the test to come in.”
Souza, after being pulled from the card, would be forced to self-quarantine for two weeks along with his cornermen.
White still claims that everything worked out fine in the end after running three straight events in Florida.
“This was the best case scenario for us. Florida worked out perfectly but this is the best case scenario. For my people to be here. We gotta pull these two things off successfully — Saturday and then [June] 6th — and then we’re back in business. We’re rolling again. This is what we do. This is what we’ve always done. We figure out solutions to problems. I understand that this thing is real and this thing is serious and people are dying, but I’m not afraid of this. I’m not afraid of it at all. I think we’ve come up with great plans," White said. “Wait till you see what I’m working on for this summer.”
Only one other UFC fighter has tested positive for the coronavirus thus far, with that person being Lyman Good.
