Dana White says UFC is working on coronavirus protocols, but that’s too little, too late

Dana White says UFC is improving their protocols on COVID-19, but that’s after they had a positive test at their event this week.

Dana White addressed UFC’s decision to proceed with UFC 249 after fighter Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza tested positive for COVID-19 and was forced to cancel his fight against Uriah Hall. White’s comments rung hollow considering all that had transpired ahead of the event on Saturday in Jacksonville, Fla.

Souza informed UFC on Wednesday that a family member tested positive for the coronavirus, and found out on Friday that he tested positive. During that timespan, he stayed at the host hotel among other fighters.

“This guy was with the people he was with the entire time,” White said during a press conference following the conclusion of Saturday’s event, via MMA Junkie. “We kept him away from people and now we know that he has it. He tested positive. We tested him. We know he has it. Now we can help him, too. Whatever this guy is going to need, we know he’s positive and we can help him and is family. I don’t know what he’s going to need medically.

“That’s the other thing. When we’re testing all of our employees and all of our fighters, we’ll find out who has this thing and we can help them.”

During the socially distant face off, White stood in the middle of the two fighters without gloves or a mask. He then was spotted bumping fists with Souza, who was one of the many fighters that White physically contacted during the day. On that same day, Souza broke social distancing rules in a now-deleted video with fighter Fabricio Werdum. Werdum and a masked Souza stood right next to each other on the video.

“We found out last night,” White said Saturday of Souza’s positive test. “The whole world is weird right now. Everything is weird. This whole event is weird. It’s different. We live in a different world than we did two months ago. The bottom line is the system worked. What you don’t want to do is two days after the fight say, ‘Oh (expletive), ‘Jacare’ tested positive. So it worked. The system worked that we put in place.”

White admitted there was room for improvement in terms of protocol for the coronavirus — but that seems like an understatement. White said they used 1,200 tests on 300 people, and yet these lapses in best practices were clear. The UFC needs to get its act together, if they intend to proceed with their events coming on Wednesday, May 13 and Saturday, May 16.

After those events, White said UFC will “start to catch our stride and really get this thing dialed in and get it figured out.” But if they spread the disease during these next three events, of course, it could be too little, too late to get their process fine-tuned. Their process should have been ready for action last Wednesday for the safety of the fighters, their families and everyone involved in the event. Even White said Saturday that he thought they might get a positive test at UFC 249. If that’s true, they should have been better prepared when they got just that.

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