With the UFC and its ownership group finally succumbing, the current Coronavirus pandemic has officially brought the sports world to an absolute halt. League play has been suspended for American sports leagues like the NBA, MLB and the NHL. In Europe, European football leagues, the Premier and Champions League included, will be sitting on the sidelines until further notice. The most devastating blow might well have come when America’s NCAA Men’s and Women’s March Madness basketball tournament was canceled, at a cost of hundreds of millions to local communities where games were to be held.

When news came down this week that White was shutting down the UFC’s next three events due to virus concerns, it left sports fans and bettors with nowhere else to turn. The only thing sports bettors can do now is site back and read online reviews for bookmakers like the one found here at https://apuestas-caballos.com/resena-betamerica/.

For MMA and more specifically UFC fighters, there’s nothing left for them to do but take the fights from the Octagon to the media. According to former MMA fighter and current ESPN analyst Chael Sonnen, this is the perfect time for fighters to call out other fighters and attempt to bring together the fights MMA and UFC fans have been wanting to see. 

In a recent commentary on his YouTube Channel, Sonnen had this to say about how fighters should be using this downtime to strategically position themselves for future fights:

“From an attention-getting standpoint—and we’re in the attention-getting business—this is the time. When there is nothing going on right now. You’ve got to understand, if you’re competing for headlines in the world of sport and sport is put on hold, it has never been easier to get the headline. The media and the fans are very hungry right now for some kind of story to be told. For something to look forward to. I’ve noticed a number of guys who have done callouts this week, and I’ve heard every single one of them because there’s very little else going on.”

It would seem that Sonnen really does have his pulse on the goings-on during this forced virus hiatus. As he pointed on in the interview, there have already been meaningful rumblings about fighters calling each other out. Of particular interest to fans has been Colby Covington calling out Kamaru Usman, and Derrick Lewis calling out Francis Ngannou.

These are two fights that are long overdue and fights that MMA fans are wanting to see. These are also future potential fights where one of the fighters has been seemingly neglecting the opportunity to step into the Octagon against a deserving opponent.

The point to all of this is there’s no point in wasting a valuable opportunity. The fact is the sport of MMA has been shut down and the fighters need to be doing something to advance their career. The fans are listening because nothing else is happening. In the case of Ngannou, his schedule fight against Jairzinho Rozenstruik was one of the bouts that was canceled. While that fight will likely get rescheduled, Lewis is doing the right thing by making noise and throwing his hat into the ring. 

It remains to be seen who else might step forward and bring forward a challenge for a really great fight.