Since UFC president Dana White, stated that the UFC will return on May 9th, fans have been wondering what will the card be called. UFC 250 was originally slated for May 9th. While of course, after a rollercoaster few weeks, UFC 249 was eventually postponed.
It has now been confirmed that the UFC’s return on May 9th, will be called UFC 249. That leaves the second question. Where will it take place? It was believed that the May 9th card would either take place at the UFC APEX in Las Vegas, or on Dana White’s Fight Island.
However, after Florida Governor Ron DeSantis announced that the WWE could continue to put shows behind closed doors at their Performance Center, after labelling it an ‘essential business’, it gave hope that MMA would return in the near future in Florida.
Fighters will reportedly fly into Jacksonville airport. The actual location and venue of the card still remains a secret however.
UFC 249 was originally set to go down at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York and feature Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson. However, after worldwide travel restrictions were put in place as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, UFC 249 needed to find a new location and a new main event, after the UFC lightweight champion found himself stuck in Russia.
After replacing Khabib with Justin Gaethje and finding a new home at The Tachi Palace Casino in Lemoore, California, the card was eventually postponed, after the powers that be at Disney and ESPN (along with California Governor Gavin Newsom) had asked Dana to ‘stand down’.
Ferguson vs Gaethje is still set to headline UFC 249 and Henry Cejudo is expected to defend his bantamweight title against the former champion, Dominick Cruz. Amanda Nunes was also scheduled to defend her featherweight title against Felicia Spencer but the Brazilian has just announced that she needs more time to prepare. They are expected to meet in June instead.
While UFC 249 is set to go ahead. The same doesn’t look like it can be said for UFC Dublin on August 15th. The Irish government has announced that mass gatherings of over 5,000 people will be banned until September 1st.
Is the UFC right to go ahead with UFC 249 on May 9th, during the coronavirus?
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