Paulian Paiva’s head coach, Ronildo Nobre has tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of their planned bout against Zhalgas Zhumagulov at UFC 251.
Nombre and his family contracted the coronavirus in Brazil, but according to reports from Ag Fight and MMA Fighting, the Paiva has tested negative so the fighter has still been cleared to travel to Abu Dhabi for the July 11 event. As of this writing, his scheduled bout is still on, but he will just be traveling with different cornermen.
The UFC has improved their testing protocols for this upcoming string of events in Abu Dhabi, but it’s worth noting that there are still risks involved in cases like this.