Dana White: Khabib vs. Ferguson is happening April 18th

“Khabib/Tony is on!”

“April 18th, it’s happening.”

UFC President Dana White is adamant that UFC 249 scheduled for April 18th is going ahead as planned. Speaking with Kevin Iole , White stated the fight will happen behind closed doors. White was unable to detail where and how the event will take place but explained that the event was a work in progress.

“I do [know where it is], but I’m not ready to tell you yet. I know lots of things. … There’s not going to be any fans there. It’s going to be a closed event.”

“Those are the things we are working on[for UFC 249]. Everytime we put on an event, every weekend, there’s all kinds of problems. There’s always a problem, lots of things happen. We figure it out, that’s what we do. That’s the business that we are in. We’ve been in this business for 20 years, we’re the best at it and we will get this worked out.”

“Believe me: We didn’t just start thinking about safety when the coronavirus popped up. Health and safety, these are things that normal businesses that are out there right now don’t necessarily have to think about on a daily basis. Health and safety is something we’ve been doing long before the coronavirus and we’ll be doing it long after the coronavirus is gone. This is just normal shit for us.”

“This fight will happen, on that date, on PPV, on ESPN+ and the whole world will get to watch.”

UFC 249 was scheduled to take place at the Barclays Arena, Brooklyn, New York. The event was set to be headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov (28-0-0) defending his lightweight title against Tony Ferguson. Rose Namajunas (8-4-0) was set to rematch Jessica Andrade (20-7-0), Jeremy Stephens (28-17-0) vs Calvin Katter (20-4-0) and Jacare Souza (26-8-0) vs Uriah Hall (15-9-0) were other bouts due to take place on that card.