LOS ANGELES — Getting a venue ready for a large-scale combat sports event is hard enough. Now add in doing it on a week’s notice — during Christmas week.
That’s what staff at The Forum in Inglewood, Calif., is up against right now, as they prepare the arena and all that comes with it for UFC 232 on Saturday.
“There’s a lot of elements that have to come together and have to coordinate in a short amount of time,” Rick Merrill, The Forum’s vice president of operations, told MMA Fighting on Thursday.
The UFC 232 card was initially scheduled for the same day at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, but was uprooted officially Sunday because the Nevada Athletic Commission (NAC) would not license Jon Jones to fight Alexander Gustafsson on that date due to an adverse drug-test finding.