The highly anticipated (and postponed) UFC 249 didn’t happen on its originally scheduled date of April 18, but now, the company is planning on bringing the event to life on May 9 in Florida.
MMA Fighting has received confirmation from multiple people close to the situation that the fighters slated for the upcoming card will fly into Jacksonville before competing at the location’s event, which is thus far still undisclosed. The promotion has not officially made any new announcements regarding the status of the event.
The reported development is hardly surprising in the wake of Florida governor Ron DeSantis’ announcement that professional sports would be considered “essential” at this point in the coronavirus pandemic. The WWE has already hosted and broadcast an event in the state, and many people correctly believed that the UFC would soon be trying to schedule events there. Dana White initially postponed UFC 249 in California after pressure from leadership at ESPN and Disney, but he’s likely hoping he won’t meet the same resistance by hosting the event weeks after the originally scheduled date in a state where his industry has been deemed “essential” by the government.
As of now, the main event for UFC 249 is still a fight for the interim lightweight title between Tony Ferguson vs. Justin Gaethje, with the co-main event being a bantamweight title fight between current champ Henry Cejudo and Dominick Cruz.
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