The UFC 259 pre-fight press conference did a lot to build the intrigue of the three big-time title fights that take place on Saturday.
Arguably one of the biggest revelations to come from that press conference was UFC President Dana White admitting he was eyeing up Texas to take his fights to and hold events with fans in attendance.
Earlier in the week, Texas Governer Greg Abbott lifted the mask mandate for COVID-19 and opened up the state’s venues to host events at 100 capacity.
That news immediately piqued the interest of White, who has been restricted to hosting UFC events in Florida, Abu Dhabi and the UFC APEX in Las Vegas since the pandemic swept the world this time last year.
The UFC have only been able to have some fans present – at a limited capacity – in the promotion’s latest Fight Island run in the United Arab Emirates.
“As soon as the governor of Texas said that, I called,” White said. “Dallas said no. I’m working on Houston, so we’ll see if we can get Houston done. 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 out, we’ll sell out and be on our way.”
White even said he was willing to make the short-notice switch to take events – including UFC 260, which is due later this month – to Texas if he gets the green light. Event announcements from the UFC have been purposefully vague on the venue due to this possibility.
“Could be,” White stated when asked if UFC 260 could relocate. “We’ll see. I’m ready to go. I’d move [UFC 259] if we could. I told everybody; ‘When this opened up, that I would be first, and we would go first.’ And we will.”
