Bellator MMA president Scott Coker has released a statement regarding the last-minute cancellation of the Bellator 241 event, which was set to take place last night.
Coker made the announcement on Twitter on Friday afternoon. The cancellation is due to the growing concerns over the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak.
“The health and safety of everyone involved have, and will remain, our top priority as we move forward,” Coker wrote. “After carefully monitoring the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, @BellatorMMA has chosen to postpone this evening’s Bellator 241 event at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
“We would like to apologize to our athletes and fans, as well as our broadcast partner DAZN, but we feel this is the best decision to be made at this time.”
Bellator 241 was headlined by a featherweight title fight featuring the promotion’s champion Patricio “Pitbull” Freire and Pedro Carvalho. This bout was also part of the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix.
Both fighters were very much looking forward to the contest, with Freire recently stating that his motivation is to become the greatest featherweight fighter in MMA history after he wins the Bellator featherweight grand prix. As for Carvalho, he wanted to make a statement with a win over Freire, who he planned to finish inside 3-rounds.
Bellator 241 is one of the many MMA events that have been affected by the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus. It was announced earlier that UFC Brasilia, which takes place tonight, has been converted into a closed-door event. ONE Championship have also announced that many of their future events will now happen as closed-door event until further notice.
This article first appeared on CLOSEDGUARDMEDIA.com on 14th March, 2020.
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