Field Level Media - Professional sports content solutions | FLM

If UFC 249 had been a routine fight night, Francis Ngannou’s fearsome knockout power would have elicited a primal roar from the crowd.

The one-punch prowess demonstrated by the top heavyweight contender from Las Vegas by way of Cameroon is a wonder to behold, and he delivered on his promise once again Saturday when he nearly beheaded Jairzihino Rozenstruik for a knockout victory in just 20 seconds.



But these aren’t ordinary times. UFC 249, the preliminaries of which aired on ESPN and the main card on pay-per-view, was the first major live sporting event in the United States since the dawn of the coronavirus era ground the sporting world to a halt two months ago.

And while, granted, scenes in other sports don’t quite match the visceral nature of a heavyweight beatdown, it provided the most striking demonstration of what sports might look and sound like as the world makes tentative steps to get back up and running.

With no fans in attendance at VyStar Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jacksonville, Fla., Ngannou’s knockout played out to utter silence, giving it more the air of a back-alley mugging than an iconic sports moment.

“There were so many moments where I was like, if there was a crowd here right now, this place would be going nuts,” UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference. “There’s so many things you love about live sports whether you’re home, in a bar, or there live, that energy you get with a group of friends, we had an amazing show, but it was definitely different.”

No doubt, the trappings took some getting used to.

Play-by-play announcer Jon Anik and color commentators Daniel Cormier and Joe Rogan were placed at different tables to maintain social distance. One fighter, Carla Esparza, credited overhearing Cormier’s critiques in the silent arena to make adjustments and eke out a split decision over Michelle Waterson on the undercard.

But once viewers adjusted, it turned into the return of the much-missed rush of fight night.

Consequential results played out, from Ngannou’s knockout of Rozenstruik to bantamweight champion Henry Cejudo’s win over former champ Dominick Cruz and subsequent surprise retirement. By the time Justin Gaethje finished the evening with a magnificent performance in a win over Tony Ferguson, one could be forgiven for forgetting anything was wrong with the world.



Still, the UFC, which also has events slated for Wednesday and Saturday in Jacksonville as it tries to make up for lost time, never could quite escape the specter of COVID-19. On Friday night, a competitor slated for the undercard, Ronaldo Souza, tested positive for the virus, as did two of his cornermen. His bout with Uriah Hall was scratched from the bout, and he was put in isolation.

But this served to demonstrate just how precarious the situation remains as sports try to find their footing. Souza, a Brazilian who bases his training camp in Orlando, drove to Jacksonville with his cornermen and filled out a questionnaire which indicated a relative had been exposed to the virus.

Everyone affiliated with the show, from fighters to cornermen to staff to media, were tested for the virus multiple times during fight week. Souza’s initial COVID-19 test on Wednesday came up negative before he ultimately tested positive on Friday.

In the meantime, Souza was seen in Instagram posts joking around with fellow fighters, and Friday, at the weigh-ins, Souza, who was wearing a mask and rubber gloves, fist-bumped White, who wasn’t wearing a mask or gloves. White proceed to make contact, including handshakes and hugs, with other fighters.

Hopefully, by wearing the mask and gloves, Souza prevented a further outbreak. Given COVID’s gestation period of up to 14 days before symptoms show, we won’t know either way for awhile. The UFC seems to be adapting, and indicated Sunday that fighters on the upcoming Wednesday and Saturday shows who indicate they had contact with someone with COVID will be sent home immediately.



But the episode hammered home this is all a work in progress, and the UFC is a guinea pig for the sports world at large. And that they’re aware the eyes of the sports world at large are on them, for reasons beyond what was admittedly a pretty rollicking night of fights on Saturday.

“The whole world is weird right now, this event is weird, everything is weird,” White said. “We live in a different world than we did two months ago. … The way this week went, we’ll get better. We’ll do better on Wednesday, then we’ll do better Saturday. We’re going to prove by Saturday that professional sports can come back safely.”

–Field Level Media (@FieldLevelMedia)