Lyman Good was scheduled to meet Belal Muhammad at the original UFC 249 in Brooklyn, but was forced to withdraw from the fight when he became the first UFC fighter to publicly acknowledge he tested positive for COVID-19 from which he has since fully recovered.

At the time, Good was preparing for his bout at Tiger Schulmann gym in Elmwood Park, New Jersey, and his immediate concern was to ensure that he had not infected any of his teammates or any of the people he had interacted with.
 
"My first means of concern was to minimalize any spreading, so as soon as I got the symptoms, I let everybody know and I went and got tested, my priority was to make sure I wasn’t going to spread this thing to anybody else especially my coaches my teammates and anybody I was in contact with,” Good told TSN's Aaron Bronsteter. “There weren’t that many people that I had around me, it was the same group, so just to minimize any spreading as soon as I found out I just stayed home, let everybody know and went and got tested.”
 
One of the people in that small group was Good’s teammate and fellow UFC fighter Shane Burgos, who, after he got over the initial shock, thought it was only a matter of time before the rest of them also tested positive, but that did not happen.
 
"I was like oh (expletive),” Burgos told TSN. “We kept it so small, we really haven’t been training with a big group at all. (Good) had that fight with Belal (Muhammad) on April 18 that was coming up, so we had a small group of guys that were just training specifically for him, so it was the same guys, we just kept circulating the same guys.”
 
"When he got it we were like, we probably all got it too, but none of us got it. I didn’t get tested, but one of my teammates got tested for the antibodies and he didn’t have the antibodies, so that means that we didn’t get it and I haven’t had any symptoms from it, so I assumed that I probably would’ve had it already, but I haven’t.”
 
One of Good’s coaches as well as his girlfriend also tested positive for the virus, but Good told ESPN’s Ariel Helwani that they have both also fully recovered.
 
As for where Good contracted COVID-19, he says with how contagious the disease has been, there is no possible way to tell when and where he might have come in contact with the virus.
 
"I couldn’t tell you, we’re in the middle of a pandemic where this thing is spreading fast and so easily that it’s hard to really figure out how it’s spreading around, but as far as how I got it, I couldn’t really tell you,” said Good. “I tried to keep the same group of people that I was in contact with constant so there wasn’t anybody new, but this thing is hard to contain. You, yourself could do everything right, but it’s hard to know the people that you are around, who they may have been in touch with or where they have been. There is only so much control you can have over the environment and people that you are around.”
 
Before returning to the gym and training, Good took all the precautions he could, including undergoing additional testing to ensure that he was no longer a risk to the people around him.
 
"I wanted to clarify some of the fear that was going on, which it’s much understood why there’s fear,” said Good. “I wanted to make sure that my conscience was clear and to make sure nobody would get it, so as soon as I felt good, I gave myself some time to really recover and then I went to go get tested again, because I wanted it in writing that I as 100 per cent fine, that I was negative and that it wasn’t in my body at all. I wouldn’t have felt right coming out here to train with the guys unless I got that first.”
 
Good has also donated blood so medical professionals can use the antibodies from someone that has recovered in their quest for a cure.
 
Now that he’s healthy, Good is hoping the Muhammad fight can be re-booked, or that he can find another opponent as soon as possible.
 
"I’m pretty set to go, we’re in the middle of talking with the UFC,” said Good. “My management Malki and Abe (Kawa) are reaching out to the UFC to discuss something coming up pretty soon. I’m hoping maybe Belal will take up that fight, but at the end of the day it’s whoever. I’m healed, I’m 100 per cent recovered and I’m ready to go, ready to get back out there.”
 
UFC 249 has been reset and it will now be taking place on May 9 in Jacksonville, Florida. Burgos believes that MMA has a leg up on other sports returning during and after the pandemic.
 
"A big thing for that is that MMA isn’t a team sport, which I think is huge,” said Burgos. “We have to get ready with a team, but in the cage, it’s you, a referee and another fighter. It’s probably the easiest sport to control because you don’t have these 10-person teams or whatever it is in these other sports.”