UFC 249 is officially canceled. I’m upset only because we have to wait that much longer for Khabib and Ferguson to happen. These two were supposed to meet four times before. Last week Khabib withdrew because he wouldn’t be allowed to leave Russia due to COVID-19. Good news came right after, Justin Gaethje agreed to replace Khabib on short notice. UFC 249 was set to happen on April 18th but because of the pandemic and our current reality, the date has been pushed. According to UFC President Dana White in his interview with Brett Okamoto, ESPN was the reason why the fight never happened. Uncle Dana was ready to have the fights take place at Tachi Place, a casino resort on the reserves. IF not for ESPN intervening the fights would’ve happened.
Dana White kept on talking about this magical island that is being built that will be able to host fights in the future. Currently the infrastructure is being built to house fighters and a venue. This is great news, if the pandemic continues. The UFC will be able to make fights happen remotely with limited exposure.
The interesting thing about all this is that we will see Ferguson and Khabib this year, we won’t have the risk of Conor interfering or Ferguson losing to Gaethje. We will see a true title match. Tony Ferguson won the interim title fight on October 7 2017 vs Kevin Lee. Since then he was scheduled three more times to fight Khabib and has beaten Donald Cerrone and Anthony Pettis. GIVE THE MAN HIS TITLE FIGHT!!
My biggest fear is that somehow Conor Mcgregor will weasel his way to a rematch vs Khabib and we’ll have to wait longer. I think the UFC has handled this well and they’ll push for the fight that everyone wants to see.