False positive COVID-19 tests caused scares for Dan Ige and Claudia Gadelha in Jacksonville

Both Claudia Gadelha and Dan Ige fought on UFC Fight Night in Jacksonville back on May 16 and both fighters came away with wins respectively. However, both fighters were also recent guests on Sirius XM Fight Nation’s ‘MMA Tonight’ and revealed they endure some COVID-19 scares in their camp.

Before she picked up a win over Angela Hill, Claudia Gadelha said there was a lot of stress during her camp and the first COVID-19 test she received came back inconclusive and she was required to quarantine for 24 hours her first day in Jacksonville.

https://twitter.com/MMAonSiriusXM/status/1265468869063344129

“Something that happened that I want to bring up, I’m crazy obsessive with nutrition and if you stop to look at it, I was so bloated on fight night. I feel like a lot of that has to do with all the stress that I been through the entire camp. Also when I got to Jacksonville, my first test came back inconclusive so I had to quarantine for the first 24 hours in the room by myself. I couldn’t go to my workout room to cut weight for the first 24 hours and I started freaking out, I was up all night thinking I had Coronavirus. The UFC called me and they were like ‘Jacare’s test came back in the same way, so we think you have it’. They actually moved me to another floor by myself and I couldn’t see anybody. They were bringing me food and water, and they brought a sauna to my room but I couldn’t cut weight on the first day, I need to workout.”

Following Gadelha’s appearance on the show, rising featherweight contender Dan Ige dropped his own story about an inconclusive test from his team, revealing his brother-in-law got the same result.

“My brother-in-law, I always put him in my corner, the same thing happened to him, he got a false positive. He was going to stay with me in my room but they isolated him, got him his own room and then here I am for 24 hours freaking out like does he have Coronavirus, do I have Coronavirus? I was just freaking out, he was freaking out, but same thing [as Gadelha] it was a false positive.”

The news of these false positive results will certainly bring questions into the tests being done for fighters prior to them competing inside the Octagon. Only one fighter, Jacare Souza was found to be positive during the UFC’s three events in eight days earlier this month. Souza and two of his coaches tested positive for COVID-19 and his fight against Uriah Hall was removed from the event while Souza and his team were sent home.

During the recent run of events, UFC President Dana White revealed that the promotion will spend a big amount of money on COVID-19 testing to ensure fighter safety. Ahead of this weekend’s event in Las Vegas, MMA Junkie obtained a copy of new COVID-19 protocol that the UFC will be following to ensure fighter safety.

on 5/26/2020