The Coronavirus Chronicles: Campbell McLaren

The ordering process for Ultimate Fighting Championship pay-per-views has changed: UFC 249 is only available on ESPN+ in the U.S.

Combate Americas CEO Campbell McLaren understands the dilemma of trying to promote fight sports in tumultuous times. It gives him a unique perspective on the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s trying to move forward with UFC 249 in the midst of a global pandemic, not only because he helped form and run the organization in its early days, but because he has also had to navigate Combate Americas through the coronavirus outbreak.

“When I was running the UFC, especially UFC 1 through [UFC] 12, [the media said], ‘We’ve got to stop the UFC because somebody’s going to die.’ It sounded a lot like the criticism that [UFC President] Dana White is getting: ‘If you do [UFC] 249, someone will die.’ I’ve heard that before, and it wasn’t right,” McLaren told Sherdog.com. “I’m not saying that we shouldn’t take this coronavirus very seriously. I’m at home. I’ve been at home for two and a half weeks. I was in Mexico City two and a half weeks ago. I was in the headquarters of Televisa, [and] we were actively planning to do live shows from Televisa’s studio in Mexico City. Obviously, no audience but still doing [events]. I flew home two weeks’ ago Friday, and the State Department on Saturday told everybody from around the world to come home. I got in eight hours before that edict went out. I admit, I was actively planning to do events up until two weeks ago. If I had stopped doing UFCs because the media—and to an extent the government—told me to, there wouldn’t be a UFC, so what Dana’s doing is carrying on what I think is the best of the UFC. The show must go on.”

In this exclusive interview with Sherdog, McLaren discussed having to make the decision to postpone all Combate Americas events in March and the financial blow the promotion could take as a result.

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