As the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic takes a grip on countries across the world, the UFC has – so far – cancelled three events in London, Columbus and Portland.
UFC President Dana White says all of the bouts affected by those cancellations will be rescheduled once safe to do so.
White is bullish that UFC 249 will go ahead as planned on 18th April but in a yet-to-be-disclosed location behind closed doors. He also believes that once that event is done, the fights will continue to come by as normal.
“All these fights are being rescheduled,” White told Yahoo Sports’ Kevin Iole. “Once we get this Khabib [Nurmagomedov] fight on, we’re rolling. We’re back in business and we’re rolling. And like I told earlier, everybody that’s going to fight is going to fight because they want to, not because they have to.”
The postponed UFC London fight card was set to be headlined by a welterweight tussle between former champion Tyron Woodly and rising British star Leon Edwards.
Meanwhile, Columbus and Portland were to be headlined by two bruising heavyweight encounters; Francis Ngannou vs. Jairzinho Rozenstruik and Alistair Overeem vs. Walt Harris respectively.
As for UFC 249, which set to feature the long-anticipated UFC lightweight title fight between champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and former interim titleholder Tony Ferguson, White told ESPN that we should expect to see a full card competing in April.
“Full card,” White told Brett Okamoto. “We’re going to face some problems, I’m sure.
“There are always problems with every card we put on, and with this situation, you expect there will be more, but we will still find a way to promote these fights. We always f**king do.”
