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The controversial mixed martial arts card scheduled for yesterday in Florida was due to go ahead as planned despite the fact that one of the card’s fighters tested positive for COVID-19.
Ronaldo “Jacare” Souza was pulled from the Jacksonville event after he was diagnosed with the virus on Friday. He had arrived in Florida earlier in the week.
Two from the Souza corner team also tested positive for the coronavirus.
“The UFC medical team examined Souza and his two cornerbacks and found that they are currently asymptomatic or do not exhibit the common symptoms of COVID-19,” organizers said in a statement Friday night. “The three men have left the host hotel and will isolate themselves from the facility.”
Middleweight Souza was slated to fight Uriah Hall on the undercard of the televised Ultimate Fighting Championship 249 event, which was to be held without viewers.
Souza attended the weigh-in with a mask and kept a certain distance from Hall, who was also wearing a mask and gloves.
Although Souza, who shows no symptoms, was removed from the event, the other 11 bouts would continue, and authorities said the other 23 fighters on the card had turned negative.
“Brother, I know it sucks,” Hall wrote on Twitter on Friday. “I’m sorry you have to go through this. I’m more than devastated by the missed opportunity.”
The card is the attempt by UFC chief Dana White to get the mixed martial arts series out of the coronavirus quarantine.
White, who also announced cards for May 13-16 in Jacksonville, insisted before Souza tested positive that production would not put anyone at risk.
“Listen, we also have families,” White told CNN Sport. “I have a family. I don’t want to hurt my family. I don’t want to die.”
White’s controversial plans to host a fight card in April on an Indian tribal reservation in California were thwarted.
But he got the green light in Florida to hold spectator-free bouts at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jacksonville, led by an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje.
Both fighters weighed in on Friday at a weigh-in where members of the media and most of the UFC staff kept their distance, those closest to the fighters wore masks and the scale was disinfected.
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis opened the door when he gave “essential services” status to employees of professional sports and media productions with a national audience.
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