Even before they check in to the hotel, every fighter, coach, cameraman, journalist and UFC employee arriving in Jacksonville, Florida, is immediately directed to a screening station. Their temperatures are taken, and their fingers are pricked for a coronavirus antibody test.
And then comes the part that reduces even the world's most fearsome cage fighters to squirming schoolchildren: a long swab is pushed deep into the back of their nasal cavities.
“That thing in the nose, that was the second time I did it, and it wasn’t good at all,” laughed 6-foot-4, 255-pound Francis Ngannou, who will fight fellow heavyweight title contender Jair Rozenstruik on the main card at UFC 249 on Saturday night.