UFC Fight Island to use a larger cage; VIP guest may attend the event

Yas Island, affectionately known now as "Fight Island", is in the final preparations for its big debut on July 11th with UFC 251.

Today, UFC announced that they will be using a larger cage. The 30% more space will play a huge role in the card's main event, Kamaru Usman vs Gilbert Burns.

The COO, Lawrence Epstein, also announced that special VIP guests could be in attendance as well. That admittance may be a reason why Abu Dhabi's Yas Island was finally chosen as the location.

With regulations being extremely tight in the United States for indoor events, the same might not be so for the other side of the planet. With so many travel restrictions around the world, the thought of less than 20 extremely wealthy and influential people being allowed to be there could easily have been part of the agreement. It's just a couple of extra dollars for the company that they didn't have at the beginning of the day. After all, the UFC has a safe bubble of 10 miles around the fighters with nobody outside of essential people getting in or getting out.

Since they made their comeback, UFC has had less than six positive tests. They're now starting to add up.

Right after Anderson Dos Santos and one of his coaches tested positive for Covid-19, so did Vinicius Moreira. Now one of Marina Rodriguez's corners did as well; taking her off the card too. All four, by the way, are from Brazil where numbers are skyrocketing.

UFC will not be looking for a new opponent for Carla Esparza due to all the hurdles that must be cleared. There hasn't been a decision yet on Jack Shore or Modestas Bukauskas getting new opponents.

The removal of three fights have diced up the July 15th Fight Night card. As of right now, the card remains with nine fights, headlined by Calvin Katter and Dan Ige while co-main evented by Frankie Edgar and Pedro Munhoz.