UFC President Dana White won’t be forcing his fighters to get the COVID-19 vaccination.
Lately, we’ve seen sports leagues take extra measures to ensure that athletes are vaccinated. The NFL has implemented a policy where athletes who aren’t vaccinated and cause an outbreak could cause their teams to forfeit games.
This type of policy will not be brought about in the UFC under Dana White’s watch. Here’s what he told Aaron Bronsteter of TSN.
“I would never tell another human being what to do with their body. If you want to get vaccinated, that’s up to you. That’s your choice. You’re never gonna hear me say I’m gonna force people to get vaccinated. Never gonna happen.”
White went on to say that everyone on his roster should have the right to earn paychecks regardless of whether or not they are vaccinated.
“I think a lot of people are doing that. They’re telling you in New York you can’t go into a restaurant or a gym unless you’re vaccinated and can prove it and things like that. Some people are getting fired if they don’t get vaccinated. Yeah, that’s not gonna happen here. You wanna get vaccinated? Get vaccinated. If you don’t, that’s your decision, your body.”
UFC Vegas 33 took a beating in terms of cancelations. The card lost its co-main event due to COVID-19. In fact, there was a 100 percent cancelation rate based on originally-scheduled bouts. The good news for the UFC in this instance is that viewership didn’t appear to suffer. The show averaged 797k viewers, and peaked at 1 million.
