Dana White welcomes full crowd for UFC 261 at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

UFC President Dana White stepped to the podium, saw the fans in front and knew more were to come.

For White, that sight represented one big step toward mission accomplished.

"I've been waiting for this for a long time," he said.

Jacksonville rolled out the red carpet for the fight world Thursday, welcoming fighters, organizers and fans into VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena for a press conference ahead of Saturday night's UFC 261 pay-per-view feature, the nation's first major indoor sporting event with a full crowd since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Come Saturday night, the arena is expected to open to a full-capacity 15,000 for a pay-per-view slugfest on the multibillion-dollar global mixed martial arts circuit.

Flanked by Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry and Gov. Ron DeSantis, White formally opened the fourth UFC stop on the First Coast in a year.

For our subscribers:The UFC is coming back to Jacksonville. Tickets to get in, though, come with a COVID waiver

From March 26:UFC 261 in Jacksonville already a 'full house' sellout at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena

And the fans were there, too: Roaring their support of White; cheering for Miami's Jorge Masvidal; booing his opponent, welterweight champion Kamaru Usman; posing for selfies with former NFL wide receiver Chad (Ochocinco) Johnson; and even chanting "2024!" when DeSantis took the podium.

White had pledged to return after Jacksonville hosted UFC 249 inside an empty arena on May 9, at that time the first major sporting event in the United States since COVID-19 had halted most athletic competition in March. Subsequent fight nights followed on May 13 and May 16.

"Dana promised, 'I'm coming back, I'm coming back and I'm going to bring you a great night of fights,'" Curry said.

DeSantis praised White for "standing his ground" and "holding the line" in his effort to reopen the sport.

"Dana White goes right into the teeth of that [criticism]," DeSantis said.

Saturday's fights — White declared a "full house" during his announcement in March — mark a first since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

Yet the virus, which by Johns Hopkins University's calculation has taken more than half a million American lives since its arrival at the start of 2020, carries on.

The Florida Department of Health added 6,684 more statewide cases, and 84 newly-reported deaths, in Thursday's report, although the fatality count has slowed by a significant rate since the start of winter. More than 5.4 million Floridians in state statistics have now received full vaccinations against COVID-19. The Florida Department of Health reported a statewide positivity rate of 7.75 percent in Thursday's report — comparable to the 7.32 percent for UFC's arrival on May 9, 2020.

A change from more than a year of caution in sports

Saturday's event marks a deviation from more than 13 months of caution and, at times, outright closure for sports. Indoor contests in most American professional and college athletics since that time have capped crowds at no more than 25 percent capacity, and some franchises and conferences have yet to permit spectators at all.

However, the trend toward increasing crowds has picked up speed of late. Major League Baseball's Texas Rangers opened at full capacity in the Dallas area on April 5, drawing 38,238 fans following the relaxation of capacity restrictions in Texas.

Though crowd caps outdoors are rising — the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp this month said it will permit 45 percent attendance for opening day in May — indoor sports since the start of the pandemic have exercised more restrictions, citing Centers for Disease Control guidance.

The CDC recommends that people maintain a distance of 6 feet when possible, and advises that indoor activities carry a greater risk of COVID-19 transmission.

White expressed optimism that Saturday night's protocols, which include mask distribution to all spectators and a health questionnaire prior to entry, will prevent the main event from turning into a super-spreader event.

"We showed in the beginning of the pandemic that this can be done safely and can be done the right way," White said. "Now we're showing that we can do it in closed [indoor] venues."

In all, the card includes 13 fights. ESPN will televise preliminaries from Saturday's bouts, while the main card will appear on pay-per-view starting at 10 p.m.

On the line are three title belts. Valentina Shevchenko and top challenger Jessica Andrade will battle for Shevchenko's women's flyweight title; reigning champion Zhang Weili meets top-ranked contender Rose Namajunas for Zhang's women's strawweight championship, and Usman fights Masvidal in a rematch of Usman's victory from the summer.

Though jeered with vigor at every opportunity, Usman took the fans' response in stride. Compared to months of silence, now even boos seemed golden.

"It's good to have fans back," Usman said.