Inside UFC's "Bubble" and Fight Island

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 11 June 2020

⏱️ 30 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fight Island. It's happening. UFC President Dana White first brought it up as a live event solution for the pandemic, and everyone's been curious. Where is this island? How will the fights work? This week, White announced that Fight Island debuts on Yas Island in Abu Dhabi this July. ESPN's Ariel Helwani explains just how it's going to work, and why it's worth it. Plus, how UFC got back up and running so much faster than other live sports, and the issues fighters are facing upon returning. Then, Ryan McGee on the significance of NASCAR's new Confederate flag ban. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	I think that the fantasy of Fight Island has, I don't want it to eclipse the reality of Fight Island.
0:07.5	I think people have this idea of Tiki Torches and, you know, me sitting in some huge throne watching the fights.
0:20.7	When UFC President Dana White first brought up the idea of Fight Island, it sounded
0:26.5	like a pipe dream.
0:29.0	But now it's actually happening.
0:32.7	Today, Ariel Helwani tells us how we got here.
0:37.1	And why the island is far from the tropical paradise some envisioned.
0:41.3	Then, he explains why some of the UFC's biggest fighters are starting to push back.
0:48.1	I'm Minakimes. It's Thursday, June 11th.
0:51.5	This is ESPN Daily, presented by Marathon.
0:57.7	Ariel Blythe Thursday, June 11th. This is ESPN Daily, presented by Marathon. Ariel, before we begin, can we agree that if this was called Fight Suburb, people would not be nearly as excited?
1:04.1	Oh, yeah. I mean, Fight Island is one of the all-time great marketing ploys by the UFC.
1:09.4	It sounds fun and sexy, and I can explain why that is.
1:13.1	But I, as a guy who's a proud, you know, suburb resident right now, I'm down with that,
1:19.5	but I don't think the fight fans would be.
1:22.1	Ariel Helwani has covered mixed martial arts for more than a decade and host the podcast,
1:26.8	Ariel Helwani's MMA show.
1:29.0	So let's start with this big announcement.
1:32.1	UFC fans got great news.
1:34.2	What did UFC President Dana White reveal this week?
1:37.2	Okay, so he revealed on first take on Tuesday morning that they will be holding four events
1:43.0	in July, starting with the July 11th show,
	...

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