Dana White pushes Fight Island debut ahead, now targeting June 27

UFC President Dana White says we could be seeing fights on his much-discussed Fight Island as soon as June 27.

White has been battling hard to keep promoting fights during the coronavirus pandemic. While he’s managed to promote a handful of events in Jacksonville, Florida, and at the UFC Apex facility in Las Vegas, those events have been populated by American fighters, and fighters based on US soil.

Thus far, White has been unable to book fights featuring the UFC’s expansive roster of international fighters.

Fight Island is his solution. The UFC President has long teased the existence of a private island where he will promote fights featuring fighters flown in from outside the United States. For the last few weeks, White has pointed to July as the probable launch of his Fight Island series. Now, however, he says it’s likely to kick off on June 27.

“The first fight on ‘Fight Island’ is probably going to be around June 27 – not July,” White said on boxing promoter Eddie Hearn’s “Talk the Talk” podcast (via MMA Junkie).

The details of Fight Island are still nebulous at best. While rumors have been swirling for some time, the location of the island remains a mystery.

Wherever it is, White says it’s been a real challenge to prepare.

“Let me tell you about ‘Fight Island,’” White told Hearn. “‘Fight Island’ is so f**king expensive, and so f**king crazy and almost impossible to pull off. When you’re talking about planes flying people in and you have to quarantine people and all these things that we’re going through – it’s f**king insane to be even trying to do this. But I promise you, we will do it and we will pull it off.

“I believe in doing this, it’s going to help grow the sport immensely,” White added. “It’s going to help financially, and many different ways it’s going to help build the sport – and I just know that we can do it. But let me tell you how hard it is and how crazy this whole thing has been, man. While people were laying in their (expletive) pools enjoying the pandemic, I’ve been over here smoking my executive staff – burning these guys out, man. It’s crazy.”

Do you think Dana White will pull of his Fight Island plan?