After a little bit of confusion, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s upcoming event has a numerical designation – and a potential host.
The May 9 card, which will reportedly be held in Florida, will proceed as UFC 249, according to ESPN. The original UFC 249 card was scheduled for April 18 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. The coronavirus pandemic forced the promotion to attempt to relocate the card to the Tachi Palace Casino Resort in Lemoore, California, but ultimately ESPN and Disney executives requested that UFC president Dana White “stand down” in his plans to proceed with the event.
According to a Tuesday report from MMAFighting.com, the newly-minted UFC 249 will be held at a still-undisclosed location in Florida on May 9. Fighters will initially fly into Jacksonville before being traveling to the venue. Florida has deemed professional sports as essential by government order, which would conceivably make it easier to hold an event in “The Sunshine State” without resistance. White has also stated that the promotion would likely hold events at the UFC Apex “for the foreseeable future,” but it appears unlikely that Nevada will relax social distancing restrictions in time for UFC 249.
Meanwhile, May 9 was originally the date for UFC 250, which was slated for Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. That event, along with cards slated for April 25 (Omaha), May 2 (Oklahoma City) and May 16 (San Diego), were officially canceled by the UFC. However, the May 9 and May 16 events were only canceled at their original location, as the announcement specified that those cards would not “continue as planned” in their respective cities.
Last week, White unveiled a full fight card with the target date of May 9. As it stands now, UFC 249 will be headlined by an interim lightweight championship bout between Tony Ferguson and Justin Gaethje and also features a bantamweight title tilt pitting Henry Cejudo against Dominick Cruz. UFC 249 has already lost one bout, as two-division queen Amanda Nunes recently announced she would not defend her 145-pound belt against Felicia Spencer on May 9 as originally planned.