White gave the statement to Fox News ahead of this past Saturday’s UFC 268 event.
“My fighters can get vaccinated or not,” White said, “I believe as an American, that’s your choice. If you want to get vaccinated, [it’s] your body. This is a free country. You do what you want.”
As the first major professional sports event to return to activity during the pandemics, White says that the UFC’s proactive approach was the best thing they’ve ever done as an organization,
“Going through the pandemic the way that we did — finding solutions to problems instead of hiding — was this the best thing that we’ve ever done… My intention was to take care of my people. Through the pandemic we didn’t lay off one person, we didn’t cut anybody’s salary, everybody got their full bonuses that year, and all my fighters’ contracts were kept.”
UFC 268 was held in Madison Square Garden in front of a sold-out crowd, but required COVID vaccinations from all attendees, per New York law. White said that there will be many other opportunities for unvaccinated fans to attend an event,
“If you’re vaccinated and you want to come to the event, you can come to the event in New York. If you’re not, we’re gonna be putting on 44 events around the country, you can go to one of those shows.”
Closing out the interview, White voiced his disapproval of the government’s ways of handling the pandemic,
“You should know by now, the government is never going to take care of you. Ever. You need to take care of yourself… I wasn’t going to sit around and wait for the government to take care of me or my people.”
