President Donald Trump hailed the move of Ultimate Fighting Championship's (UFC) president Dana White in restarting its sports entertainment in a White House message Saturday, adding a call to "we want our sports leagues back."
"I want to congratulate Dana White and the UFC," Trump said in the message shown on the ESPN broadcast. "They’re going to have a big match. We love it. We think it's important.
"Get the sports leagues back. Let's play. You do the social distancing and whatever else you have to do, but we need sports. We want our sports back."
Justin Gaethje beat Tony Ferguson in the feature fight in Jacksonville, Florida, on Saturday night in a match closed to the in-arena public spectators. Two more UFC events will be held with only essential staff in attendance.
The UFC worked will disinfect the cage between matches, according to the The Associated Press.
Florida had exempted professional sports from state stay-at-home orders, as long as the events were closed to the public.
White has expressed support for Trump in the past.
"I would never say anything negative about Donald Trump because he was there when other people weren't," White told Hill.TV in 2018.
"Any good thing that happened to me in my career, Donald Trump was the first to pick up the phone and call and say 'congratulations.'"
Among the sports to already announce returns without spectator include a series of NASCAR races later in May and the PGA Tour in mid-June. Both sports have social distancing protocols in place.
Major League Baseball, the NBA, and the NHL thus far remain in full shutdowns. Baseball has tossed around ideas on returning to action this summer, potentially in low-infection areas with social distancing in stadiums.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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