The infamously renewed UFC 249 fight card is starting to take shape — even if we still don’t know where it’ll be happening.
Despite the fact the April 18 event was been forced out of its original venue in Brooklyn, despite the fact it’s lost one of it’s main event stars in Khabib Nurmagomedov and despite the fact the card’s location has been one of the most intensely kept secrets in MMA, it looks like there will be fights as scheduled.
Earlier today, UFC president Dana White announced Tony Ferguson would fight Justin Gaethje for the UFC interim lightweight in the new main event. It will be joined by the following fights (and more):
Rose Namajunas vs. Jessica Andrade
Francis Ngannou vs. Jair Rozenstruik
Calvin Kattar vs. Jeremy Stephens
Uriah Hall vs. Ronaldo ‘Jacare’ Souza
Greg Hardy vs. Yorgan De Castro
Vincente Luque vs. Niko Price
It’s interesting to note that, according to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto, rather than UFC 249 being a one-off event ahead of an indefinite hiatus, the UFC plan on returning to it’s usual schedule following the card.
Up until now, the UFC has been forced to cancel three events due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Dana White has been adamant for the past few weeks that UFC 249 would not suffer the same fate, and instead would go on. Despite numerous logistical nightmares, the UFC boss has maintained his assuredness his plans wouldn’t be scuppered, and appears to have kept true to his word.
The full UFC 249 card is listed as follows:
THE WHOLE CARD 🤯
See you on ESPN+ PPV. #UFC249 pic.twitter.com/J8jPBENMrs
— UFC (@ufc) April 7, 2020
–
