Dana White Says UFC Is Looking Into Bringing Events to Texas Due to State Reopening

While speaking at the UFC 259 pre-fight press conference this week (via ESPN), UFC President Dana White commented on Texas Governor Greg Abbott announcing this week that the state would be ending its statewide mask mandate effective March 10, and then the state would fully reopen with no capacity limits. White said the UFC is already looking into bringing a fight card to Houston soon due to the changes.

According to Dana White, the city of Dallas already shot down an event in the city. White also said the UFC is now working on possibly bringing an event to Houston. Texas lifting the COVID-19 restrictions would also lift capacity limits for facilities.

A lift in the restrictions would hypothetically enable the UFC to have a fully packed arena for an event with fans in attendance for the first time in over a year since the pandemic shutdowns started. White stated during the press conference, “I want to go to Texas ASAP. I’ll go in the next two, three weeks. I’m ready to roll. We’ll be first. We’ll open this thing up, we’ll sell it out and be on our way.”

UFC 260 is currently slated for March 27. It was previously scheduled for Las Vegas, Nevada, but White indicated it could move to Texas. Also, UFC 261 next month is also possible for Texas as well.

White added, “I’m ready to go. I’d move this one (UFC 259 on Saturday) if we could. I told everybody when this opened up that I would be first and we would go first. And we will. … If we could do it, we’d do it.”

Many states and cities in the US have had mandatory mask orders and capacity restrictions due to the currently ongoing COVID-19 pandemic since last year.

The UFC did have limited fans in attendance for the three Fight Island events at the Etihad Arena in January, including UFC 257 featuring Conor McGregor vs. Dustin Poirier.