Dana White is committed to following through with Sunday’s historic UFC Freedom 250 card at the U.S. White House, come hell or high water. Literally.
For the UFC CEO, the culmination of more than a year of planning and preparation is set to come to fruition this weekend when the UFC stages a polarizing seven-fight card on the South Lawn of the White House grounds in Washington, D.C. In the lead-up to the event, White has faced a myriad of potential hurdles, from everything to the construction of the makeshift structure itself — dubbed the UFC’s “Claw” — to the inherent challenges that arise from running an outdoor event.
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In regards to the latter topic, two specific points of contention have been at the top of White’s mind: The potential for either bugs or bad weather to spoil the festivities.
While the weather reports for the U.S. capital are currently predicting favorable conditions Sunday night around the event’s 8 p.m. ET start time, there remains an outside chance of rain — anywhere from 8% to 25% currently, depending on your forecast of choice. White, however, is determined to press on even in the worst conditions.
Speaking to reporters Tuesday, the UFC boss was asked whether he’s been religiously checking the weather reports for Sunday:
“Not at all. [Craig] Borsari’s all over that — Borsari, my head of production, is like the most OCD guy on the planet and we’re getting [news], we’re going to good on Sunday.
“I mean, if you read the internet the f***ing whole show is getting shut down on Sunday. But I don’t care if it snows, rains, whatever, we’re going — and even lightning. You guys all played sports when you were growing up — whenever there was lightning, you’d sit the lightning out, and then when it was over, you played. That’s what we’ll do. And if there would be lightning, we’d know it days before, and then we would work around it.”
White isn’t the person involved in the event to have the weather on his mind this week.
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Multiple fighters on the card have speculated about the outdoors conditions in the lead-up to the event. Included among them is featherweight contender Steve Garcia, who opens Sunday’s seven-fight lineup with his showdown against Diego Lopes.
Garcia spoke about his past experiences fighting outdoors on “The Ariel Helwani Show”.
“I’ve fought outdoors twice,” Garcia told Uncrowned on Monday’s show. “The first one was at night, so I dealt with the bugs and all that. All the lights in the back had to get shifted forward to the [cage], and we had no light in the back to warm up. So we were blind. Everybody was with their phones, wrapping their hands and hitting pads with the lights from our phones, then we walked to the cage. People didn’t think about that. That was one instance. There are bugs and stuff, and it was at night, so it wasn’t terrible — maybe 75 degrees.
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“The second time was definitely hotter, maybe 85 degrees. … They had to continue to throw ice on the canvas. That’s probably the only thing I was nervous about [for Sunday’s event] — how well the Octagon is covered — because it got so hot that everybody was burning their feet on the canvas. They would just continue to throw tubs and tubs of ice all over the canvas, and have to sweep it up so nobody would slip and fall. It was a little bit of a craziness, if you will. Obviously, being in guard or on your back, you’re burning your back. Definitely not a fun way to fight.”
Considering White’s latest promise, Garcia and Sunday’s other competitors may be well-served keep a close eye on local meteorological reports for this most unique of UFC fight weeks.
