UFC President Dana White is eyeing up a lightweight title unification bout between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and interim champion Justin Gaethje on Fight Island in the summer.
Speaking to ESPN, White says he isn’t necessarily expecting the world to return to normal any time soon so would like to host the fights on Fight Island.
“I don’t know if it will be the first one [fight], but it will be on Fight Island, unless miraculously the world comes back together faster than I think it’s gonna,” White said on ESPN 1000 Chicago.
The location of Fight Island has not been revealed yet, but White insists the infrastructure required to host fight events is under construction.
“Hopefully it will be done by mid-June, and I could put on a fight that weekend that it’s done or end of June,” he said.
Gaethje emphatically won his interim UFC lightweight championship against Tony Ferguson behind closed doors at UFC 249 on Saturday night.
The Arizonan replaced Nurmagomedov as Ferguson’s opponent at the event after UFC 249 was originally postponed and the Dagestan native was left stranded in Russia amid the world shutting down in response to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Nurmagomedov is currently observing the holy month of Ramadan and doesn’t compete at this time of the year. It’s unclear as to when he will be prepared to return to the Octagon.
White previously said that Fight Island materialised due to the vast number of non-US-based UFC fighters who are unable to enter the country to fight on events held on U.S. soil – Nurmagomedov being one of them.
