UFC president Dana White has been working hard to make sure that UFC 249 takes places on April 18 as previously scheduled.
The event was initially scheduled to take place in Brooklyn, New York on April 18. Due to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, all large gatherings were banned in the state of New York.
This turn of events left UFC 249 in jeopardy of being cancelled. UFC’s last event at UFC Brasilia took place earlier this month. It was decided that the event should be converted to a closed-door event, with no fans in attendance. Following UFC Brasilia, the promotion was forced to cancel their next 3 events.
Understandably, the fans were left worried that UFC 249 would also have to be cancelled. The event is headlined by a UFC lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson. Both fighters have been previously booked to fight each other 4 times in the past, with the fight falling through each time due to different reasons.
Now, it seems that the highly anticipated fight between the two men might once again be cancelled. UFC president Dana White has assured fans that the event will go ahead as planned, although it will have to be relocated.
The new location for UFC 249 has not been revealed yet. According to MMA Mania, UFC president Dana White has revealed that he has potential “four or five locations right now”:
“I have four or five locations right now and we’re getting this deal done. And then we’re going to figure out who we can get in, who we can’t, what we can do and we’re going to build a card around it.” White said.
White also stated that he believes things have been blown out of proportion regarding the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus:
“Everybody’s running and hiding,” White said. “I’m one of those guys that would rather get out there and find solutions. How do we figure this out? How do we beat this thing?
“Listen, if you’re somebody that’s a high risk, you should probably stay away and stay quarantined for a while. What happens when flu season comes again next year? What happens then?
“I think that the media has made this thing scary,” he continued. “People are buying all of the toilet paper there is. If you just look at a lot of things that are going on, it’s wacky and totally driven by fear. It’s very weird.”
Khabib Nurmgomedov’s father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov recently stated that he believes UFC 249 could be relocated to Dubai or Abu Dhabi.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 29th March, 2020.
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