UFC heavyweight claims coronavirus is less of a health risk than fighting as more events get canceled
The UFC has called off more than a half-dozen events amid the coronavirus pandemic, but is still trying to find a way to hold fights, be it on tribal land or a private island.
[ Coronavirus: How the sports world is responding to the pandemic ]
One of the promotion’s fighters doesn’t think that is much of a risk when compared with their day job.
UFC’s Aleksei Oleinik: ‘We risk our health much more during fights’
Speaking with Russian media, UFC heavyweight Aleksei Oleinik downplayed the risks of UFC assembling dozens of people into one area to hold events, saying that COVID-19 wasn’t much more dangerous than stepping into the Octagon with a trained mixed martial artist.
Oleinik, UFC’s No. 12 ranked heavyweight, also noted that he knows two dozen fighters preparing for upcoming events, which could be an indication of more events to come. Or it could be another Tony Ferguson situation.
A translation from Bloody Elbow:
“Now I know two dozen fighters who are preparing for events in the next month and a half. We risk our health much more during fights and sparring than by getting infected with coronavirus.” said Oleinik.
That’s a somewhat interesting point from the Russian. It is also wrong.
For starters, consider that the mortality rate of the coronavirus in the U.S. is currently hovering around five percent with 7.45 deaths per 100,000 people. That rate almost certainly goes down in a sample of younger professional athletes, but it’s still probably a heck of a lot higher than the five known deaths in all U.S. sanctioned MMA fights.
But that’s not really the big thing that Oleinik gets wrong. The real issue of holding UFC events amid a pandemic is that the coronavirus is highly contagious, and broken noses and torn ACLs are not.
When a UFC fighter steps into the Octagon under normal circumstances, that fighter alone assumes the health risks of what comes next. But when a fighter steps into the Octagon during a pandemic — with one UFC fighter having already contracted the virus despite claiming to take precautions — everyone around that fighter also assumes the risk, and everyone around them as well.
There might be some conversation to be had about the risks of spreading the virus and whether they can be mitigated enough that we reach the point where events can be safely held, but it simply isn’t true that a sanctioned UFC fight is more dangerous than getting infected by the virus when you factor in other people.
Oleinik also added that he is still training for a fight against Fabricio Werdum on May 9, and is taking several precautions against infection.
“We work with trainers and sparring partners. The only limitation is the number of workouts. They became fewer for obvious reasons. We can’t work two to three times a day, so we work out three times in two days. You can safely move at any time of the day [in the US], and there are no restrictions on this. It is recommended that you simply be masked in public places, but there are people who go to the shops without them, and no one tells them anything.
“We take care of ourselves, wash and disinfect our hands before and after each training session and after each trip to the store, but we are not over-cautious.”
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