UFC President Dana White has done everything in his power to keep the fights alive as the coronavirus pandemic escalates, but he was finally forced to cancel a string of upcoming events on Monday night.
In an interview with ESPN, White announced that Saturday's UFC on ESPN+ 29 card, as well as the fights planned for March 28th and April 11th have all been postponed. However, White promised fans that the highly anticipated Lightweight title fight between undefeated champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson will still take place on April 18th - it 's just remains to be seen where.
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UFC 249 was originally scheduled to take place a the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, and there's just no way that venue will be open for operation within the next four weeks. Still, White insists that the fight will go on, without a crowd, at some yet to be determined location.
Says White (H/T MMA Fighting):
“We’re postponing the next three events, but Tony Ferguson vs. Khabib [Nurmagomedov], April 18 is still on and that will still happen,” White said on Monday. “We’re going to follow these guidelines to not have more than 10 people in a room and we’re hoping this all clears up by April.”
“This fight’s going to happen,” he said. “No crowd. Whatever it takes. Probably not even going to be in the United States, but this fight’s going to happen.”
“This is what we do,” White said. “We put fights on every weekend. The fighters want to fight. The fans want to see it. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from the fans and the fighters. These guys all want to continue. So we will.”
The Tony-Khabib showdown has been scheduled four different times in the past, none of which came to fruition for a variety of reasons. It looks like the UFC will do everything in their power to make sure it finally happens next month, even if the world is literally ending. Check out Dana White's comments in the video embedded below.