Daniel Cormier Will Call Fights During Pandemic Under Certain Circumstances
Former heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier is willing to call UFC events during the coronavirus pandemic — under the right circumstances.
While every other sports league has either postponed or canceled their events, Dana White has been adamant about resuming the fight schedule starting with UFC 249 on April 18.
The event — currently headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje — has no official disclosed location as of yet, but is expected to take place on tribal land in California.
UFC commentator Joe Rogan previously said he was not calling UFC 249 but those plans have appeared to change, at least according to White. So what about Cormier then?
While “DC” seems hesitant about traveling to a private island, he is willing to call fights taking place in locations which he can drive to. Being a Northern California resident, UFC 249 certainly fits the criteria if it’s indeed taking place at the Tachi Palace Casino Resort near Lemoore.
And with the UFC testing everyone involved for the coronavirus, Cormier sees no reason not to get on with his job:
“A lot of things have to deal with location, right? If its somewhere close and very accessible, I don’t see why you wouldn’t do it,” Cormier told MMA Junkie. “They’re going to be tested; they’re going to test everybody. You gotta understand going to do that UFC show, even if you aren’t showing symptoms of the coronavirus, you should still get tested anyway. So you could be better off than the people sitting home not getting tested. Understand what I’m saying?
“They won’t let you into the UFC event without testing you. So when they test you, you’ll know whether or not you have the coronavirus. And I believe that that makes it as safe as you can hope for.”
Cormier sees nothing wrong with going ahead with events as long as proper protocol is followed. And if his job involves driving to a location, getting tested, calling the fights and then going home, he is all in.
“Obviously Dana and the company has access to those tests and test the fighters and test the referees and officials, test the UFC, test everybody,” Cormier added. “So if there’s going to be a safe situation, it’s going to be with those people in that arena, especially if you go from your car into the arena to do the fights, out of the arena and back home. Unless you’re out there doing all kinds of random things, you’re pretty safe to call the fights. If it’s accessible, and I don’t want to get on an airplane and go to an airport right now. But if it’s accessible, and I go there and get tested and get to call the fights and then go home, yeah, why not?”
“I mean, the fights have to get going. As a country, I know that we need to be very serious about social distancing and staying at home and really try to stop the spread of this virus. But you just gotta hope, as a person, that life starts to get moving sooner than later. It’s just hard, man. Everything just looks so different. Life looks so different. I find myself saying this almost every day to someone: I can’t believe this is happening in my lifetime. You never could’ve imagined something like this would become part of your daily life. And it has, and you just hope sooner than later we can get back to normalcy.”
What do you make of Cormier’s comments?
