Donald Trump on Tuesday at his daily coronavirus news conference rattled off an extensive list of leaders across many industries who he said will be tasked with helping restart the U.S. economy.
Included on that list was UFC president Dana White – “the great Dana White,” Trump said – and WWE CEO Vince McMahon, whom Trump also singled out as “great.” White and McMahon are part of leaders of sports leagues like the NFL, NBA, MLB and NHL who will be consulted when the United States starts to reopen a country that has largely been in lockdown for weeks as a response to the global coronavirus pandemic.
Sports league leaders are just one small segment of a much larger list of leaders from companies in industries like technology, health care, hospitality and manufacturing who Trump said will be consulted for ideas on how best to get the economy rolling again.
“In sports – we want to get our sports back, so importantly,” Trump said. “… We have to get our sports back. I’m tired of watching baseball games that are 14 years old. But I haven’t actually had too much time to watch. I would say maybe I watch one batter, and then I get back to work.”
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The UFC held an event March 14 in Brasilia, Brazil, despite much of that city going into lockdown mode days prior. It was held behind closed doors. Its next scheduled event a week later in London initially was moved to Las Vegas, then postponed entirely.
The UFC soon after that postponed two additional U.S. events, but kept UFC 249 for this Saturday on the schedule and was trying to do the show on tribal grounds in California. But this past week, after getting calls he said came from the highest levels at broadcast partner ESPN and Disney, which owns ESPN, White pulled the plug.
Right now, all UFC events – as well as events for its chief rival Bellator and all other MMA promotions – are on hold. But so, too, are the entire seasons for major sports like baseball, basketball, hockey, auto racing and golf. Some experts believe once the country is able to get back to some level of normalcy and sports leagues have the green light to resume, they likely will have to do so behind closed doors with no fans in attendance for the foreseeable future to help prevent a second outbreak of the disease.
As of Tuesday, there were nearly 580,000 reported cases in the U.S. alone and more than 22,000 deaths from the disease. Also Tuesday, Trump announced the U.S. would halt funding to the World Health Organization and cast blame on that organization for the virus’ spread, saying that had the WHO acted more swiftly, the pandemic could have been avoided.
White on Tuesday said the UFC is targeting a May 9 return in an undisclosed location with a fight card featuring many of the fights that were targeted for UFC 249, as well as additional bouts freshly put together.
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