LAS VEGAS — The grin creased Dana White’s face at the mere mention of Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s name. The mayor made national headlines for all the wrong reasons this week when she did an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper urging the city to be opened but without any plan for making it safe.

Her comments in the 20-minute interview sparked outrage nationally and caused Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak to make the rounds on cable television to assure everyone that we’re not crazy here in the Silver State and that things won’t reopen until it is safe to do so.

The UFC president has been anxious to get his sport going for some time and in an interview last month with Yahoo Sports said we couldn’t hide at home in fear of the coronavirus.

On Friday, his company announced that UFC 249 will take play at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Florida, on May 9, with a stacked card headlined by an interim lightweight title fight between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje. The preliminaries will be on both ESPN and streamed on ESPN+, while the main card will be available on ESPN+ Pay-Per-View.

The UFC also said there will be shows in Jacksonville on May 13 and May 16, as well, with a show on May 23 in a location he wouldn’t name. He said that cards primarily featuring non-U.S. fighters will begin in June on his so-called “Fight Island,” in international waters outside the territorial boundaries of the U.S.

He came across vastly more reasonable and nuanced than he did in earlier interviews, when he aggressively vowed to go forward with UFC 249 essentially come hell or high water. On March 7 in Las Vegas after the conclusion of UFC 248, he was asked about the coronavirus. At that point, there were 19 confirmed deaths in the U.S.

“I don’t give a s--- about the coronavirus,” White said then.

But during a nearly half-hour interview Friday with Yahoo Sports, it was a different White who announced, as he promised, that the UFC would be the first major sport to come back from the pandemic. Its last card was in an empty arena on March 14, in Brasilia, Brazil. Since then, six cards have been postponed as the crisis worsened.

UFC president Dana White has vowed to be cautious and comprehensive ahead of UFC 249. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez) More

Like his friend, President Donald Trump, White is no fan of the media, and he refused to answer a number of questions on Friday, including whether there would be testing of all of those who attend the shows in Jacksonville (there will be).

“I care very much about the fighters,” White said in answer to a question whether everyone attending these events would be tested for COVID-19. “I care very much about my staff; obviously, my family. We’re going to do everything way up here.”

He raised his hand above his head. But I noted he specifically wouldn’t say whether he’d do testing, which is when he said he’s not divulging any more information to the media than he feels it needs to.

But his remarks about opening were vastly different in tone and feel from his earlier remarks, when he was like a bull in a china shop saying he was racing forward no matter what.

This time, he noted the seriousness of the situation and vowed to be cautious and comprehensive.

“At some point, we have to figure out, ‘How do we get things back to normal,’ but do it in a really safe way,” White said. “The only way to find out is to get out there and start doing it. We’re going to spend a lot of money. It’s not going to be cheap. It’s going to be expensive. You’re worried about the health and safety of everybody: The health and safety of the fighters, the commission, the referees, my staff that’s going to be there. It’s not cheap. It’s expensive. It’s hard, but somebody’s got to take the first step and get out there.”

Whether he can pull it off successfully is something that history will judge. There are many questions, including whether personal protective equipment is going to be used for this event instead of for medical personnel on the frontlines and first responders who have sacrificed so much to try to save lives.

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