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The secret is no longer a secret. UFC 249's location has finally leaked out. It appears that Dana White, and the UFC have skated around the issue of having to deal with a State Athletic Commission by having it on Native American Tribal Land.
That land as found out by digging from the New York Times is 'The Tachi Palace Resort Casino' in Lemoore, California. All of the UFC's April events will be held there as of now, and possibly the ones in May as well. Then they apparently will move to a private island for 2 months that White is in the process of obtaining.
It's actually a location that hosted a lot of local MMA organizations as well as the old home of the WEC. It's not known whether former owners, the Fertitta brothers helped in the negotiations, being casino owners themselves.
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The casino itself like much of California and the US has shut down all non essential businesses. Including the casinos on the Vegas Strip. Thus calls made to confirm with the casino were not returned. Out of all tribal territory, this was the first choice as the others like Mohegan Sun have high standards when it comes to athletics; and ethics for that matter. There was fear in the organization that if the venue was announced there would be pressure to squash the deal. Well; 249 is due to happen April 18 and that's 10 days of pressure that will now mount on them. And that might just come from the Governor's Office as well as State Legislators.
The California Department of Consumer Affairs released the following statement; "the commission echoes the guidance of Governor Gavin Newsom, the Department of Public Health, local health officials, and the recommendations of the ARP regarding the cancellation of all events where people may be at risk of contracting Covid-19 and encourages the industry to do the same".
Holding any event right now plainly spits in the face of the best medical professionals dealing on the front lines with this, common sense and of all human beings. To call it beyond short sighted is the greatest understatement of all time. The ARP went on and said they'd like an indefinite postponement of ALL COMBAT SPORTS events during the pandemic.
Being in California though, it leads to who and how will the card be called. Both Dominick Cruz and Jon Anik have stated they were prepared to go no matter where the event is. Joe Rogan who has cut down his duties since day 1 has said the opposite.
On his own show, Rogan said he wanted no part of it in times like these but it seems like there's been a change of heart as the promotion released a poster recently confirming his presence in commentary for UFC 249. They very well could have all 3 broadcasters in separate sound booths with a monitor.
