UFC White House show threatened by ‘inclement weather’ as press conference delayed
Severe weather disrupted the UFC’s press conference at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday ahead of its White House show.
It is the one thing that UFC CEO Dana White has said could affect fight night on the South Lawn of the White House this weekend.
White, who has previously been openly against hosting outdoor events, even suggested in the build-up to his promotion’s historic card that bugs could also be an issue around the arena.
On Friday, fans, most of whom had already gathered hours before, were told to delay their arrival at the Lincoln Memorial.
Chants of ‘F*** you Dana’ echoed around the space when those already in attendance were told the press conference had been delayed.
UFC White House press conference delayed
The UFC White House press conference was scheduled to begin at 1.15am GMT on Saturday (8.15pm ET, Friday), until the promotion revealed it had been pushed back 45 minutes.
Members of the media were transported back to the JW Marriott hotel, awaiting confirmation on whether the press conference will still take place at the Lincoln Memorial.
A statement from the UFC read: “Due to inclement weather, UFC White House press conference has moved to 9pm ET.
“We advise all attendees to arrive no earlier than 8.30pm ET. Please check weather conditions before travelling.”
The press conference was then scheduled to begin at 2am GMT (9pm ET), and did so when the sun reappeared in Washington DC.
One surreal image from the delayed press conference captured dark clouds, lightning, and a rainbow.
The UFC’s plan to deal with bad weather
Speaking at the UFC White House media day this week, the promotion’s chief content officer, Craig Borsari, explained how his team plans to address rainy weather.
“We have a few options,” Borsari said.
“One is to stay on air and we do have contingency planning where we can remain and continue to broadcast from a location close by the South Lawn, and if we feel like a weather pattern’s coming in that will pass through and we can resume, we will.
“So we would not leave the broadcast, we would just fill and report from site.
“It’s a bit of an evaluation, so when we’re going through that, we’ll be talking regularly to a meteorologist, who is right now on site giving us updates.
“We’ll figure out what this window looks like? Do we have the ability to resume, or what is the extent of the weather front that’s coming through?”
Borsari added that the UFC will ‘try to push forward’ through light to moderate rain on fight night, provided there’s no lightning in sight.
Current weather forecasts for Washington DC suggest excessive heat with thundery showers and light winds across the weekend.
UFC White House is headlined by an undisputed lightweight title bout between reigning champion Ilia Topuria and American Justin Gaethje.
The co-main event sees Alex Pereira step up to heavyweight for the first time to fight Ciryl Gane for the division’s interim strap, with Tom Aspinall currently out injured.
Gaethje is one of eight Americans on the card, which takes place on Donald Trump’s 80th birthday.
Sean O’Malley, Josh Hokit, Derrick Lewis, Michael Chandler, Bo Nickal, Kyle Daukaus and Steve Garcia make up the rest of the USA representatives.
UFC Schedule
For all the upcoming fights and results this year, check out talkSPORT.com’s UFC schedule.
What's Your Reaction?
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
