Virtually every sport from the professional ranks to Little League is cancelling or postponing events amid coronavirus concerns, but UFC president and Donald Trump supporter Dana White is going forward with his sport’s next several events on the advice of the President and Vice President Mike Pence.

UFC Fight Night Brazil – headlined by lightweights Kevin Lee and Charles Oliveira — will take place without spectators Saturday night at Nilson Nelson Gymnasium in Brasilia despite the Brazilian government decree this week limiting the size of public events to no more than 100 people.

“Think about our sport, we always go overboard with health and safety. And that’s what we’re gonna do here,” White said Thursday night on ESPN. “I talked to the President and the Vice President of the United States today about this.

“They’re taking this very serious. They’re saying be cautious, be careful, but live your life and stop panicking. Everybody is panicking and instead of panicking we’re actually getting out there and working with doctors and health officials and the government to figure out how we can keep the sport safe and how we can continue to put on events.”

White added that only the fighters and staffers working the event, which will be televised on ESPN, will be inside the venue.

The English Premier League also has suspended play, but next week’s Fight Night 171 in London, featuring the welterweight bout between Tyron Woodley and Leon Edwards, also is “going to proceed as planned,” according to White.

“We’re working closely with the government if there’s any changes over there, but as of right now, that event is moving forward,” he said.

The scheduled March 28 card in Columbus, however, will be moved to UFC’s Apex Arena in Las Vegas due to restrictions on public events put in place Thursday by Ohio governor Mike DeWine because of the coronavirus outbreak. The main event will be a heavyweight bout between Francis Ngannou and Jairzinho Rozenstruik.

“We’re working directly with the Nevada State Athletic Commission and executive director Bob Bennett on implementing a process to screen athletes before they compete,” White said. “One of the things we always do, we’re always looking out for the health and safety of our fans, our athletes, whatever it might be.

“Obviously, this thing going on, we’re going to do the same thing. We’re going to make sure that two healthy athletes are competing, and these guys are good to go. We’ve reached out to most of our fighters. We haven’t reached out to the whole roster yet – we have over 600-something fighters. But these guys are ready to go. They want to fight, they want to compete and we’re going to do everything we can to keep them safe.”