After more than a year of events without live crowds due to the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic, the UFC is ready to make its triumphant return to full crowd events with UFC 261 in Jacksonville, FL this Saturday. While the opportunity to see an event in-person again was enough to quickly sell out the arena, that hasn’t stopped the UFC from pulling out all the stops for the event, as Dana White recently announced a diverse array of activities for those in attendance that rival the Arnold Expo and Fight Week conventions.
“This night is going to be wild,” White said at the event’s pre-fight press conference on Tuesday. “There has simply never been a spread of activities like this before. We’re going to have a full-tongue kissing booth. We’ve got a giant jawbreaker with everyone in attendance getting one free lick at the door and a free UFC 261 T-shirt for the guest who finishes it off. We’ve got the peppermill maze, where fans try to navigate a giant maze in groups of twenty while being pelted with ground pepper. It’s going to be incredible!”
The UFC will also be taking precautions as the country continues to deal with the infectious virus that led to the international shut down, providing complimentary masks that say “I’m a little bitch” for any fans who want to wear them. Even non-fight fans can’t seem to contain their excitement about the card, with Anthony Fauci, the director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, saying that plans for the event sounded “absolutely insane.”