Dana White’s plans of pulling off UFC 249 on April 18, 2020 sadly came to a screeching halt yesterday. After overcoming numerous obstacles to keep the card hopes alive, the UFC President finally ran into one that couldn’t be overcome. While being asked what is the status of UFC 249 by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, White answered with the following:
“So you know, I told you this whole thing has been a battle since day one. You know we’ve been fighting nonstop all day and all night since this pandemic started to put on this event on April 18th. And today we got a call from the highest level you can go at Disney and the highest level of ESPN. And one thing that I’ve said since we started our relationship and partnership with ESPN that it’s been an incredible one. It’s been an amazing partnership, ESPN has been very very good to us and the powers that be there asked me to stand down and not do this event next Saturday.”
And with that the UFC has followed in line with all the other major sports organizations and has temporarily halted operations during the coronavirus pandemic. Dana White had intended to hold UFC 249 in Lemoore, California at Tachi Palace Casino Resort. Tachi Palace is an Indian casino & resort which is currently closed also due to the coronavirus pandemic. White’s plan was to hold UFC 249 there on tribal land which has it’s own jurisdiction and would’ve bypassed all the red tape involved with trying to hold an event on US soil during the current pandemic. However once California Senator Dianne Feinstein was made aware of the UFC’s plans she quickly objected to them and asked them to reconsider. Then according to The New York Times the Governor of California Gavin Newsome got involved and contacted Disney officials directly asking them not to let the event take place. One thing led to another and ultimately UFC 249 was postponed.
This all may be a blessing in disguise however. UFC 249 was to have been originally headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov vs Tony Ferguson. Justin Gaethje was a late replacement for Khabib once Khabib was stuck in his home country of Dagestan and unable to make it back to the US. That fight could still happen later this year for a 6th time. Dana White has plans of holding fights at an undisclosed island in the near future. He’s the hardest working man in MMA and is driven to put on fight cards. Stay tuned.
Anthony Sotelo for MMAInformed
