Coronavirus' Impact on MMAThe ordering process for Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-views has changed: UFC 249 is only available on ESPN+ in the U.S.
Ultimate Fighting Championship bantamweight Cody Stamann was one of the many fighters who felt the sting of the promotion’s decision to postpone upcoming events in England, Oregon and Ohio due to the coronavirus pandemic. It was a difficult reality to confront, as he remained hopeful that his UFC on ESPN 8 assignment would stay in place in some form.
“For me, I knew it was inevitable that things were going to change. I knew that [UFC President] Dana White and the UFC were committed to making these fights happen,” Stamann told Sherdog.com. “They weren’t going to stop, 100 percent we were going to fight. I’m a fighter. I don’t give a s--- about the coronavirus. It didn’t scare me. I didn’t care if we fought in front of nine million people, and everyone had coronavirus. I’m a healthy young guy. I’ll be fine in 24 hours. Then the Nevada Athletic Commission stepped in and said, ‘We’re shutting everything down until [April] 25. Then everyone’s hands were tied. There’s nothing they could do. They couldn’t overrule that. I was literally at the UFC [Performance Institute] finishing my second workout of the day and getting meals for my weight cut when someone walked up to me and said, ‘Hey man, I’m really sorry.’ I’m like, ‘Sorry for what?’ ‘Yeah, your fight’s cancelled.’ And I was like, ‘Damn, really?’”
In this exclusive interview, Stamann discusses the fallout of his fight cancellation, his plans to continue to train at home while gyms are closed and his thoughts on some of the new realities brought about by the COVID-19 outbreak.
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