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It pays to have friends in high places. And when you're the president of a mega organization and are friends with arguably the leader of the free world, well problems seem to disappear, one way or another.
The UFC has found a new home for its much anticipated pay-per-view, UFC 249 for the third time. Originally ear-marked for Barclays Center in Brooklyn, then attempted to go down in The Tachi Palace Casino Resort near Leemore, California, and now in the State of Florida.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis originally called for a stay-at-home order to combat the coronavirus. The WWE has their main training facility there. Ron has gotten the financial backings from Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon; both hard line Republicans, as is DeSantis. With Vince McMahon wanting to continue with the operations of his company, you can very easily figure out how and why WWE has been named an essential business. Yes it's sports-entertainment; but you can see that films and TV programs are not "essential".
With Dana White also being a Republican, and after being schooled by Democrats in California and New York, the former was determined more than ever to find a new home for the card, and so it did, in a Republican dominated State. The over aggressive rush to be first has positives, but there are major negatives. Should any staff member or fighter come down with coronavirus, or pass it to someone who passes away, it's major lawsuit time. Not to mention the medical attention being taken away from people in need.
Now before losing one's mind, just looking at the card itself; it's fantastic. From top to bottom every fight on it can make a claim to be a main card fight. So on May 9th, when UFC 250 should have gone down in Brazil; it becomes UFC 249 in Jacksonville Florida. It goes down at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in an empty building. The Florida State Boxing Commission chimed in as well. They stated that they will be regulating the event as long as the new guidelines are followed completely. Then again, we are 16 days away, so who knows what will happen by then.
