MMA
UFC 249, not UFC 250, will be on May 9 at unknown location
UFC 250 had been scheduled for May 9 at Ibirapuera Gymnasium in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The UFC officially announced Monday that the show wouldn't be taking place at the venue because the Ibirapuera Gymnasium has been converted into a hospital for COVID-19 patients.
Now, the name of the event has been changed as well.
ESPN.com reported on Tuesday that the show on May 9 will now be titled UFC 249, instead of UFC 250. The location still hasn't been determined.
Initially, UFC 249 was set for April 18 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, with a headliner pitting lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov against Tony Ferguson. However, the COVID-19 pandemic put the event in limbo, and the location was eventually changed to the Tachi Palace Resort casino in Leemore, Calif.
Nurmagomedov had left his training camp to head back to Dagestan to be with his family. Travel restrictions wouldn't allow him to return to the United States, so the UFC booked Ferguson against Justin Gaethje for the interim lightweight title.
It appeared that the show would go on, but it wound up failing to make the finish line when execs at Disney and ESPN, which streams UFC events, told UFC president Dana White to "stand down" and cancel the event.
The new UFC 249 was supposed to be headlined by Ferguson and Gaethje for the interim lightweight title, with Henry Cejudo defending the bantamweight belt against former titleholder Dominick Cruz and two-division titleholder Amanda Nunes putting her women's featherweight title on the line against Felicia Spencer.
On Monday, Nunes told CBS Sports that she wouldn't compete until the coronavirus subsides and she's able to get into the swing of a full training camp.
