As time continues to move on so does the UFC, and as promised, the organization was able to pull off one of the most anticipated events in the history of professional sports. These guys did what no one else thought about doing, deserving a huge pat on the back the way things were handled throughout the course of the journey. COVID-19 was present but didn’t get in the way of what was most important, which was UFC 251 taking place as the debut event on July 11, 2020, for the UFC’s Fight Island grand opening, on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi. Ever since Dana White announced Fight Island, fans and fighters were having there own premonitions on how the place would look. It was somewhat a different dream in everyone’s mind, a fantasy island for some, kind of like a scene in Mortal Kombat. Now that dream in everyone’s mind has become it’s own reality as the entire world was given a tour of the island, and the way the fights are going to be set up. Unfortunately the events will not be taking place on the sand outside like a scene from Street Fighter, however there is an octagon on the beach set up for training, interviews and promos.
UFC 251 took place in an empty arena on Fight Island, built specifically to hold the events, and broadcast all the fights. As far as the fans as well as myself know, things appear to have gone well without any hiccups, aside from a couple fighters testing positive for COVID-19, like Gilbert Burns, 19W 3L, and Pedro Munhoz, 18W 4L 1NC. Burns was replaced by Jorge Masvidal, 35W 14L, which actually made it a better card, and Munhoz left Frankie Edgar, 23W 8L 1DR, without a dance partner. Hopefully the UFC can get Edgar added into another fight card sooner than later, for the fans have been wanting to see his bantamweight debut for quite some time. Aside from all the Corona talk, and all the needed tests accompanied with lengthy self quarantines, the event took place as planned. The show kicked off with a great early prelim card, a more than worthy preliminary, and an outstanding pay-per-view main card. Exciting fights from start to finish, although we all noticed Joe Rogan was not doing the commentary, it wasn’t too upsetting once the fights started. I’ll admit I was still very entertained, even with Michael Bispin and John Anik broadcasting, nothing personal against them it’s just not the Joe Rogan experience.
In any case one could argue MMA fans should be grateful with, or without the Rogan experience given the circumstances, and the measures the UFC took to get a place like this set up. The fact that Fight Island now actually exists, and its debut was hosting 3 title fights on the main card; if one really stops to think about it, that’s pretty freaking insane! Not to mention it is located halfway across the world, but that also shows how far the UFC was willing to go to find a place to put on fights. If Elon Musk had a spot available on Mars, Dana White would be flying fighters back and forth to Mars.
MMA Frequency 