Dana White guarantees excitement in Ferguson vs. Gaethje fight

UFC President Dana White is guaranteeing excitement when Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje step into the cage together in the UFC 249 main event.

Speaking on ESPN’s Get Up! this morning, White claimed that, while he’s generally reluctant to ever promise excitement from a particular matchup, he’s absolutely confident he can do so with respect to Ferguson vs. Gaethje.

“Listen, as a promoter, you can never guarantee that a fight is going to be an incredible fight or the best fight you’ve ever seen. I guarantee you the main event is going to be insane,” White said (transcript via MMA Junkie). “Stylistically, the way these two match up and as far as their mentality goes, this fight is going to be one of the best fights of the year. Very tough fight to call who’s going to win. You cannot miss this main event. And the entire card is stacked from the first fight of the night to the main event. This should be an amazing night of fights.”

As White suggests, UFC 249 is one of the most stacked cards in recent memory, but the event has generated its fair share of controversy. Given that its scheduled in the midst of a global health crisis, skeptics feel the UFC is being irresponsible by promoting this event.

White, however, assures safety is of paramount importance.

“Like I’ve been saying, health and safety is something we worry about every weekend, not just about the coronavirus,” White said. “But obviously no fans, less than half the team that usually works on an event will be working on this event. There has been multiple testing on the athletes. If you look on a lot of their Instagram and social media, they’re getting the thing stuck up their nose and doing the antibody testing – a lot of things we don’t normally do for a fight.”

What do you think of these comments from Dana White?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.com on 5/8/2020.